USA 1 Saudi Arabia 0
June 19 – American comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to say, “I don’t get no respect.” The same could be said for the United States Men’s Soccer Team as barely 10,000 fans showed up for a supporter friendly 8.15 pm kickoff versus Concacaf Gold Cup, Group D opponents, Saudi Arabia in a 1-0 win that again raised more questions than answers.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – FIFA is still undecided over what action to take over Park Jong-Woo, the South Korean footballer who was banned from receiving his Olympic bronze medal for displaying a political message at London 2012.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – A protest against the suspension of the Egyptian domestic league briefly forced Nigerian players who had arrived for an African Champions league game against Al-Ahly to be holed up in their Cairo hotel.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) has banned for life 15 players and officials involved in the country’s long-running match-fixing scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – Jim Boyce, Britain’s FIFA vice-president, has urged UEFA to take the strongest possible action against Serbia as a result of last week’s ugly scenes of racism and provocation in a European under-21 international against England.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – The acting head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Zhang Jilong, has accused his predecessor Mohamed Bin Hammam of “intimidation tactics” designed to derail the investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing by the one-time most powerful man in Asian football.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke is the latest top-ranking official to succumb to the pressures and stresses of the job after contracting a minor infection in Brazil.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – Simone Farina, the Italian footballer turned match-fixing whistle-blower, has at last found a job after being recruited as a community coach at Aston Villa.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – Former England captain John Terry has chosen not to appeal against the four-match ban and £220,000 ($353,000/€271,000) fine imposed on him for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers a year ago – and has apologised for his comments.
By Tom Degun
October 19 – Brazilian marines and paramilitary police have stormed one of Rio’s most notorious and dangerous slums in a bid to clean up the area before the city hosts the FIFA 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
By Tom Degun
October 19 – Manchester United’s chief executive David Gill has been appointed as a vice-chairman of the English Football Association (FA).
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – English Football Association (FA) chairman David Bernstein will be forced to resign from the post in May next year after the FA Council refused to change its statutes that would have allowed him to remain in charge beyond his 70th birthday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Senegal have been disqualified from the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations following the riot that forced last weekend’s home qualifier against Ivory Coast to be abandoned.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Canadian women’s skipper Christine Sinclair says she has no regrets over comments that led to her receiving a four-game suspension from FIFA for displaying “unsporting behaviour towards match officials” after the London 2012 Olympic semi-final.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has written to UEFA President Michel Platini demanding “tough sanctions” against Serbia following allegations of provocation and racial abuse meted out to England players and officials during Tuesday’s (October 16) ill-tempered under-21 international.
By Mike Rowbottom
October 17 – Rio’s doping control laboratory, expected to play a major part in Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has been reinstated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following its partial suspension on January 18.