By David Gold
August 19 – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (pictured) has given a staunch defence of the country’s preparations for the 2014 World Cup despite continual delays on stadium renovation and the slow pace of expanding airport capacity.
By Marcus Crawley
August 19 – New figures released today by the national tourism agency revealed that more than 750,000 inbound visitors who came to Britain last year experienced a football game.
By David Gold
August 18 – Construction workers have gone on strike at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana following an explosion during renovation work.
By David Gold
August 17 – UEFA will investigate the sponsorship deal Manchester City signed with Etihad earlier this summer in the first major test of their new financial fair play regulations.
By David Gold
August 17 – The opening match of this season’s FA Cup, between Ascot United of the Hellenic League and Combined Counties League outfit Wembley FC, is to be the first football match ever broadcast live on social networking site Facebook.
By David Gold
August 17 – The Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, which is set to host the final of the 2018 World Cup, is unlikely to be demolished ahead of the competition despite concerns over the cost of renovating the venue.
By David Gold
August 17 – Belize has been cleared to compete in World Cup qualifying after FIFA removed a threat to suspend the country over alleged Government interference in football affairs.
By David Gold
August 17 – Brazilian legend Romario (pictured) has claimed that the 2014 World Cup will only benefit the wealthy, calling ticket prices “absurd”.
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The beginning of the football season always turns to talk of money and how much clubs have spent on the transfer market.
Yet what this misses is the age-old truth that money does not buy sporting success. Spending money can keep the fans happy and raise their expectations for the season, but is no guarantee of silverware at the end of the season.
This is something that Manchester City fans might well discover this season as they finally strive to wrest back some glory from their more famous city rivals.
By David Gold
August 17 – CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer (pictured) has vigorously denied reports circulating that he is being investigated by the FBI.
By David Gold
August 16 – Manchester United are set to publicly float up to £610 million ($1 billlion /€690 million) of the club’s shares on the Singapore Stock Exchange by the end of the year, it was revealed today.
By David Gold
August 16 – An investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia by Italy’s competition authority for its acquisition of the rights to air the 2010 and 2014 World Cups has been extended to include the News Corp subsidiary’s UEFA Champions League rights.
By David Gold
August 16 – A police inquiry has been opened up against Brazilian football chief Ricardo Teixeira, who is suspected of involvement in the embezzling of nine million reales (£2.5 million /€2.8 million) generated from a friendly game between Brazil and Portugal in 2008.
By David Gold
August 15 – The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has confirmed that their league season, which had been postponed due to a match-fixing probe, will begin on September 9, and that no sanctions would be forthcoming for the teams involved.
By David Gold
August 16 – Corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has told FIFA to limit to two terms the length of time their Presidents can serve if they want to reform their image and rebuild trust with the football community.