Iraq to play Olympic and World Cup qualifiers in Qatar

By David Gold
October 2 – The Qatar Football Association has confirmed that it will be hosting Iraq’s home qualifying games for the London 2012 Olympic Games and 2014 World Cup.
July 11 – In search of knockout qualification, Italy and its manager Andrea Soncin have said their side can hurt world champions Spain, who have been in rampant form at Euro 2025.
By David Gold
October 2 – The Qatar Football Association has confirmed that it will be hosting Iraq’s home qualifying games for the London 2012 Olympic Games and 2014 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 2 – Ricardo Teixeira, controversial president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), has been released from hospital following two days of observation after complaining of abdominal pain.
By David Gold
October 1 – Former double world player of the year Ronaldinho is desperate for a gold medal at next year’s London Olympics as Brazil look to claim their first ever men’s football title.
Please just sort it out. Sit round the table, thrash out a deal and stop the squabbling before everyone gets thoroughly fed up with the whole interminable saga.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of Tottenham Hotspur’s refusal to pull out of the race to take over the Olympic Stadium after next summer’s Games, the entrenched positions of all parties has got to an embarrassing and, quite frankly, irritating stage.
How must the International Olympic Committee (IOC) be feeling when,
By David Gold
September 30 – Seven years before games get underway at the first ever World Cup to be held in Russia, Myanmar have become the first country eliminated from the competition after violence erupted during a Brazil 2014 Asian qualifying clash with Oman in July.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – Ricardo Teixeira, controversial president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), has been admitted to hospital with abdominal pain.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – UEFA says it has no power to ban Carlos Tevez for apparently refusing to play for Manchester City in Tuesday’s Champions’ League fixture against Bayern Munich.
By Duncan Mackay
September 29 – Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn today accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of trying to give Tottenham Hotspur “a bung” to try to get them to drop their claim to the Olympic Stadium in the hope of removing the main obstacle to London’s bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships being successful.
By Duncan Mackay
September 29 – Tottenham Hotspur have been given a deadline of until tomorrow to accept an £8.5 million ($13.5 million/€10 million) offer of help from London Mayor Boris Johnson to build a new stadium and drop their complaint over the Olympic Stadium being given to West Ham United or risk it being taken off the table.
English football fans are be capable of much humour, no little inventiveness and a warmth and goodness that can be truly uplifting, but the capacity for some fans to be vile should not be underestimated. Events at some recent matches have once again demonstrated that.
So during their Carling Cup encounter, Manchester United fans were taunted by chants from Leeds fans about the Munich air crash and United fans, in turn, retaliated with chants of Istanbul,
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – UEFA President Michel Platini has urged all European countries to outlaw match fixing as a criminal offence warning it brings fears to the entire continent.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – FC Sion have claimed again that they will soon be reinstated to the Europa League in their legal battle with UEFA.
By David Gold
September 28 – South Africa will host the 2013 African Nations Cup, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed after an Executive Committee meeting in Cairo.
By David Gold
September 28 – Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou (pictured left) has welcomed a delegation from South Sudan to his office in Cairo, as the two-month-old state looks to receive admission into the FIFA family.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – UEFA President Michel Platini claims he has been reassured by the progress made by Ukraine in preparation for next year’s European Championships, being organised jointly with Poland, and that only “some little problems” remain to be sorted out.