July 4 – With just three days to go before the final of the 2025 Gold Cup in the NRG Stadium in Houston, Concacaf is reporting that there are less than 4,000 tickets left for the 72,200 capacity stadium that will host Mexico and the USA.
England 0 France 2
July 5 – With two quick-fire first-half goals, France stunned England 2-1 in Group D’s blockbuster in Zurich as the Lionesses became the first defending champions to lose their opening match at the European championship.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – An unusual and unsavoury row has broken out in the Canadian province of Quebec with the region’s football federation pledging to uphold its ban on young Sikh players wearing turbans and warning that those who don’t obey the rules can “play in their backyards”.
June 5 – Andros Townsend, one of the most promising young wingers in English football, has been banned from the game for four months, three of them suspended, and fined £18,000 after breaching betting regulations.
Since Sepp Blatter’s intriguing statement, at the last Asian Football Confederation (AFC) elective congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that 2015, the year he promised to bid adieu to the FIFA presidency, will mark the “last term, not of office, but of the reform [of football governance],” the cat has, without question, been set amongst the speculating pigeons.
Surely the 77-year-old, who will be on the cusp of becoming an octogenarian, by world football’s next elective congress,
June 4 – Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr’s management company, NR Sports, has agreed an image rights deal with the newly established Doyen Group until 2017 following the player’s move from Santos to Barcelona.
June 4 – South Africa, host of the 2010 World Cup and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, have seemingly got the bug for hosting big football events.
By Mark Baber
June 4 – Manchester United shares are getting positive recommendations from stock tippers with the club generating increased revenue from television and merchandising and having reduced interest payments on its longer term debts. This is despite an expected loss of $1.50 per share for the quarter.
June 4 – When the official draw for September’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Tahiti 2013 is streamed lived tomorrow on FIFA.com, the Pacific islanders will take another significant step in the world of international football, putting hosting credentials alongside a growing list of playing achievements.
June 4 – Libya will stage its first competitive home international in over two years on Friday amid boosted security measures. Despite still being embroiled in violence following the 2011 uprising, the country had its ban lifted by FIFA in April and will play the Democratic Republic of Congo in a World Cup qualifier in the capital Tripoli.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
June 4 – One year after becoming CONCACAF president amid the most turbulent period in its history, Jeffrey Webb says the confederation has already started to clean up its act and regain confidence after being brought to its knees by scandal and in-fighting.
June 3 – France’s FC Nantes and Ismael Bangoura will have to pay Dubai’s Al Nasr Sports Club €4.5 million after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected their appeal and upheld a FIFA sanction from November of last year.
June 3 – Dubai’s Emirates Airline expects to be signing its next big football sponsorship with a club outside Europe, according to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the airline’s chairman and chief executive.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Mauritius
June 3 – Mark Pieth, the Swiss governance advisor whose strongly-worded intervention at last week’s FIFA congress put a spanner in the works of Sepp Blatter’s reform measures, has taken another swipe at the FIFA president, this time accusing both him and UEFA boss Michel Platini of jointly “hijacking” the entire process in Mauritius for political gain.
June 3 – Optus, Australia’s second biggest telecommunications company, has made a strategic decision to withdraw from major sports sponsorships and will not be renewing sponsorship and digital content rights deals with Football Federation Australia (FFA).
By Mark Baber
June 3 – Leading English women’s team Doncaster Belles are appealing the decision to place them in FA Women’s Super League 2 (FA WSL 2) from next season, amidst a growing storm of protest over the allocation of licences in the FA Women’s Super League.
