By Andrew Warshaw
November 27 – All 12 stadiums will be ready to stage the 2014 World Cup despite continuing concerns over construction delays, according to FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 27 – Emirates Airlines, one of FIFA’s most important sponsors, want to see some kind of improvement in the organisation’s image before putting pen to paper on any further deals.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 27 – Fans hoping to own crisis club Portsmouth will find out whether they have succeeded when matters come to a head in court next month – with the prospect of liquidation if they lose.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 27 – Marco Polo Del Nero, Brazil’s FIFA Executive Committee member, has been interrogated by police investigating financial crimes and extortion – the latest blow to the image of both football’s world governing body and the 2014 World Cup hosts.
By Duncan Mackay
November 26 – A unexploded World War Two bomb has been discovered on the site of a new stadium being built in Moscow for the 2018 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – Egypt’s delayed league season could finally kick off on December 15 with a proposal that the top division be split into two, partly to reduce fan violence.
By Duncan Mackay
November 26 – Fuleco is the name chosen by the Brazilian public for the controversial cartoon armadillo who will be the official mascot of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it was announced today.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – Swiss coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has been suspended for two FIFA World Cup qualifiers for making an offensive gesture at the referee during the home fixture with Norway last month.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – Samson Adamu, son of discredited Nigerian football powerbroker Amos Adamu, has hit back at allegations that he collaborated with the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid team in the build up to the ballot almost two years ago.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 26 – The fallout from former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner’s resignation over last year’s cash-for-votes scandal shows no sign of abating.
By Duncan Mackay
November 26 – Hosting the 2010 World Cup was worth “intangible legacy” to South Africa, despite costing the country more than $3 billion (£2 billion/€2.5 billion), the Government’s final report has concluded.
By Duncan Mackay
November 25 – Poland’s successful co-hosting of the UEFA European Championships earlier this year is likely to have a bigger long-term impact on the economy there than Barcelona reaped from staging the 1992 Olympics and Paralympics, it has been claimed.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – One of the biggest sponsorship contract renewals in football history has been completed with Arsenal signing a new £150 million ($240 million/€185 million) shirt deal with Emirates airline until 2019.
By Duncan Mackay
November 25 – There is a row in Russia over whether Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, which hosted the 1980 Olympics, should be demolished and rebuilt in time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup or saved because of its historic importance.
You don’t know what to expect when you interview Sepp Blatter. For a man who wanted to be on the stage since he was a child, he has always been the sort of showman who likes to surprise his audience. A book of Blatter sayings would be an instant bestseller.
Yet what struck me when I had a long chat with him at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich last week, is that there seems little love lost between him and Michel Platini,