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By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – Football’s world governing body has launched a new electronic transfer system in an attempt to weed out corruption and money laundering, stop the trading of under-age players and make clubs totally accountable for all international deals.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – Fierce rivals Brazil and Argentina will meet in a prestige friendly in Qatar in the latest high-profile attempt by the oil-rich Gulf nation to prove it can stage top-class football – despite the region’s notoriously stifling heat.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – South Africa has followed up this year’s World Cup by announcing it intends to bid for the 2015 African Nations Cup.
September 28 – FIFA vice-president, Jack Warner will stand again for re-election as CONCACAF President when voting takes place next year, he has announced.
By Andrew Warshaw in London
September 28 – David Dein (pictured right), one of the key members of England’s 2018 World Cup bid team, has added his name to those who believe it is only a matter of time before the United States withdraw from the running in order to concentrate on the 2022 tournament.
September 28 – Top Japanese footballer Yuki Abe was put on the spot by youngsters when he visited the award-winning ‘Musubi’ project at Loughborough University.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Leningrad,” said the air stewardess as we approached St Petersburg airport. I kid you not.
Whether a deliberate piece of mischief, an innocent mistake or an embarrassing gaffe, she had conveniently overlooked the course of recent history. And a pretty significant period at that.
September 26 – David Beckham’s quest to help England stage the 2018 World Cup reached another important landmark at the FIFA under-17 women’s World Cup in Trinidad where South Korea beat Japan in Saturday’s final.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 25 – Ilhan Mansiz, a member of the Turkish side that finished third at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, has claimed that he wants to compete in figure skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
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Manchester United’s match with Rangers in the Champions League was more than a mere group match where the Scottish manager of the English team, Sir Alex Ferguson, was playing the side that had scorned him in his youth in Glasgow.
It was all our footballing pasts rolled together and it illustrated why Scottish football is at such a low ebb and may go even lower before it recovers, if it ever does.
It is also a salutary lesson on how the balance of power between Scottish and English clubs has changed.
By Andrew Warshaw in Sochi
September 23 – Russian officials are hoping that the choice of Sochi to host the 2014 Winter Olympics will boost their chances of landing the 2018 World Cup as well.
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By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
September 22 – Russian 2018 World Cup bid officials have flown to Cairo in an attempt to woo Africa’s FIFA Executive Committee members as the build-up to the all-important December 2 vote intensifies.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
September 21 – The most important official in Russian sport has launched another passionate defence of his country’s record on racism and urged FIFA not to be influenced by “stereotypes and misconceptions” when it votes on where to stage the 2018 World Cup.
September 21 – British pop star Sting rocked a crowd of nearly 30,000 people in Poznan, central Poland, in a concert that opened the country’s first stadium to be ready for Euro 2012.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 20 – Football legends David Beckham and Ruud Gullit, who were briefly together at Los Angeles Galaxy, are spearheading high-profile attempts this week to ensure that FIFA vice-president Jack Warner votes for their country’s bid to host the World Cup in 2018.