January 16 – Russian cities hosting 2018 World Cup matches should be linked by an €4 billion (£3 billion/$5 billion) integrated high-speed rail network, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 15 – Qatar’s landslide 2022 World Cup bid victory has burst into yet more controversy with two newspapers – one on either side of the Atlantic – questioning how they did it.
By Mike Rowbottom
January 14 – Ed Warner (pictured), chairman of UK Athletics, has explicitly denied the suggestion made this week by those handling Tottenham’s bid to redevelop the 2012 Olympic Stadium that his organisation has refused to engage with them on their plans for an athletics legacy elsewhere.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter appears to be on a collision course with UEFA boss Michel Platini over the possible introduction of goal-line technology.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – The head of Asian football has come out fighting by insisting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will not be switched from summer to winter or be shared with other Gulf nations.
By Duncan Mackay in Lausanne
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
January 13 – Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron should intervene to prevent Tottenham Hotspur being given the Olympic Stadium after London 2012, Alan Pascoe said today.
By Andrew Warshaw in Nyon
January 13 – UEFA President Michel Platini insists goal-line technology will never be introduced – even though football’s lawmakers are giving it further examination.
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O what a tangled web we weave, when we first practise to deceive!
So tangled, in fact, that most attribute the quotation to Shakespeare when actually it was penned by Sir Walter Scott.
I make the point not to boast any great literary leaning but because had sports politics been on the agenda when it was written back in the 19th century then never would it have been more aptly described.
By David Owen
January 13 – Amos Adamu (pictured) is attempting to retain a seat on FIFA’s ruling 24-member Executive Committee for another four years.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – Tottenham Hotspur have admitted they would demolish most of the Olympic Stadium and make it more football friendly if they win the bid to move there after the 2012 London Games.
From Andrew Warshaw in Nyon
January 12 – The controversial decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has taken yet another unexpected twist with UEFA President Michel Platini suggesting it could be expanded to include other Gulf nations.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
January 12 – Sepp Blatter today received backing for his campaign to continue as President of FIFA from an unexpected quarter – Reynald Temarii, one of the two FIFA Executive Committee members banned after they were linked to corruption allegations in the build-up to last month’s World Cup vote.
By Duncan Mackay in Lausanne
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
January 12 – Frankie Fredericks, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athletes’ Commission, today added his voice to the growing chorus for London 2012 to honour its bid promise and retain the running track at the Olympic Stadium after the Games.
It was entirely predictable that Sepp Blatter’s comments on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being played in January raised a howl of protest.
Not only does it seem extraordinary that after the game is over, the rules of the game are changed, but the near-revolution this would cause to the European game is incalculable.
But what has been missed in all this is that Blatter, the most consummate of sports politicians –
By Andrew Warshaw in Nyon
January 11 – UEFA President Michel Platini (pictured) today issued his strongest warning to date that clubs who recklessly overspend risk being heavily sanctioned until and unless they get their houses in order.