By David Gold
April 14 – Japan could be set to reverse its decision to withdraw from the Copa America after the country’s J-League backed the national team’s trip to compete in the tournament this summer.
By David Gold
April 14 – Giant killers Tanzania will have to repeat their stunning heroics against Cameroon in the last round of African qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Football tournament if they are to keep their hopes alive of playing in London next year, after being drawn against Nigeria.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 14 – Mohamed Bin Hammam’s quest to topple Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency has received its first significant boost with the relevation that a majority of African countries would vote for the Qatari underdog.
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By David Gold
April 13 – The Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro has been given the green light for a new roof as part of its renovation ahead of the Brazil 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio de JaneiroOlympic Games.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 13 – Tottenham Hotspur have taken the first step in their efforts to secure a judicial review to overturn the decision to hand the £537 million ($836 million) Olympic Stadium to Premier League rivals West Ham United after next year’s Games.
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By Andrew Warshaw
April 13 – Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov is refusing to sell his stake in Arsenal, seemingly determined to stop majority owner Stan Kroenke from gaining any further control of the Premier League club.
By David Gold
April 13 – David Beckham, in the final year of his contract with Los Angeles Galaxy, has said that it is possible he could remain in Major League Soccer (MLS) after the end of the season.
By David Gold
April 13 – FIFPro, the worldwide footballers’ union, has said that footballers in Eastern Europe need to be better protected from the risks of violence, racism and match fixing.
By David Gold
April 13 – The Never Again Association, in cooperation with Football Against Prejudices, has released a report documenting the scale of racist and discriminatory behavior in Poland and Ukraine, the host countries for the 2012 European Championships, in the last 18 months.
By David Owen
April 12 – Spain’s La Liga is more popular in the fast-developing Middle East and North African sports region than the English Premier League, new research suggests.
By David Gold
April 11 – Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medalists Cameroon will not be competing at London 2012 after crashing out of the African Confederation’s first round of preliminary qualifiers.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 12 – FIFA has appointed a temporary independent committee to try and solve the Presidential impasse faced by Bosnia-Herzogovina, suspended from the international arena since early April.
By David Gold
April 12 – Grzegorz Lato (pictured), President of the Polish Football Association, is to set to earn a bonus of €1 million (£891,000/$1.4 million) if he is still in his post after the 2012 European Championships.
The link might not be immediately apparent.
But this week’s move by US businessman Stan Kroenke to take his stake in Arsenal, the underachieving English Premier League football club, to 63 percent while agreeing a mandatory offer for the rest of the shares could turn out to be good news for Russia’s underachieving Olympic athletes.
Why? Because Arsenal minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov may sooner or later be in line to receive a very large cheque.
By David Gold
April 12 – The influential Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) has issued a statement insisting that it wants to remain a part of the club’s ownership structure and will not be selling shares acquired through the Arsenal fanshare scheme to American Stan Kroenke, who mounted a takeover of the club this week.