Guatemala 0-1 Panama:
June 20 – Friday night at Q2 Stadium bore no resemblance to the venue that hosted football just 24 hours earlier. The transformation was complete, and the catalyst was simple: unbridled passion provided by the hordes of Guatemala supporters who descended on Austin. Stark contrast to the lack of interest shown by US fans on Thursday.
Like the dog that did not bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the most fascinating aspects of the FIFA crisis is that one group has said nothing: the players.
It is astonishing to consider, given all that has been written about the problems of FIFA, that there is very little about what the players think. Their silence has been stunning.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 10 – Six match officials were banned for life by FIFA today in the latest move to clean up the game and stamp out corruption.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 10 – Six match officials were banned for life by FIFA today in the latest move to clean up the game and stamp out corruption.
By David Gold
August 11 – America’s Major Soccer League (MLS) has agreed a three-year deal with NBC Sports to broadcast 45 live games a season, replacing the existing arrangement with Fox Soccer.
By David Gold
August 10 – Argentina and Uruguay moved a step closer to formalising a joint bid to host the World Cup in 2030 when the two countries’ respective Presidents formed a bilateral commission to promote the prospective bid.
By David Gold
August 9 – Newly promoted Atalanta will start the Serie A season with a six point penalty for their role in the match fixing affair which has rocked Italy, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) confirmed today.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 9 – England’s decision to postpone tomorrow night’s prestige friendly with the Netherlands because of the widespread rioting in London reverberated around the world as Football Association chairman David Bernstein (pictured) admitted he was not able to guarantee the safety of players.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – More than 10 Caribbean officials are reportedly to face possible corruption proceedings tomorrow by FIFA’s Ethics Committee for their role in the bribery scandal that brought down former Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam (pictured).
By David Gold
August 8 – A rift between the Italian league and players in Serie A has widened after all 20 captains of top flight teams signed a letter demanding that a dispute over a new collective player rights deal be resolved before the season starts, as the threat of a players strike increases.
By David Gold
August 7 – Zhemchuzhina Sochi are the latest professional Russian league club to fold as a result of financial difficulties, and will now drop out of the first division.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – Mohamed Bin Hammam, banned for life for his role in the cash-for-votes bribery scandal, has hit out at the length of time it is taking FIFA to explain exactly what he has done wrong.
By David Gold
August 5 – France’s former national team coach Raymond Domenech has agreed a €975,000 (£850,000/$1.4 million) compensation deal with the French Football Federation (FFF), bringing to an end the dispute following his sacking after the disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa last year.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – The war of words between club and country continued today when the head of the European Club Association (ECA), Karl Heinze Rummenigge (pictured), suggested Sepp Blatter was no longer fit to run FIFA.
By David Gold
August 4 – Issa Hayatou, President of the African Football Confederation (CAF), has urged football authorities across the continent to organise charity games in aid of the victims of the famine plaguing the Horn of Africa.
By David Gold
August 4 – When Barack Obama gets around to opening his birthday cards, he will be finding a message of support from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who wrote to the United States President, hailing him as a “visionary leader and unifier”.