Mexico 1 Honduras 0
July 2 – The question on the lips of pundits and fans at Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, was “would tonight be business as usual or unusual business?” as Mexico and Honduras met for the right to face the United States in the Concacaf Gold Cup Final on Sunday in Houston.
Spain 5 Portugal 0
July 3 – With an imperious display, world champions Spain waltzed past neighbours Portugal at the Wankdorff Stadion in Bern, winning 5-0 to back up their status as tournament favourites.
Former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman’s allegations last week to a UK Parliamentary Committee concerning four FIFA Executive Committee members certainly caught the eye of the media.
And they have already resulted in one of the four – Worawi Makudi of Thailand – claiming he is planning to sue the former UK Foreign Office minister, who also headed England’s unsuccessful bid for the 2018 World Cup until forced to resign a year ago.
By David Gold
May 15 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini have opened a “House of Football” in Serbia, consisting of six fields, a hotel, several gyms and training grounds.
By David Gold
May 15 – Scottish Premier League outfit Heart of Midlothian has agreed a shirt sponsorship deal with Wonga.com, the online short term loans company, replacing Ukio Bankas from the start of next season.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 15 – One of the British MPs who exposed football’s latest corruption scandal has urged FIFA to stage a re-vote if it is proved that 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar bribed two senior officials.
By Duncan Mackay
May 14 – Worawi Makudi, one of the FIFA Executive Committee members who allegedly asked for favours to vote for England to host the World Cup in 2018, claimed today he is planning to sue Lord Triesman, the former leader of the bid.
“Congrats to Mark van Bommel for being first player to win league titles in four different countries (PSV, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AC Milan).”
When I read this on Twitter on Sunday morning, I nearly went straight back to bed.
If there is a player who epitomises the way the Dutch national team has been transformed over the past decade from Europe’s foremost footballing artists to a group of efficient, but soulless functionaries,
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Sepp Blatter has launched his most passionate defence yet of why he should retain the FIFA Presidency by declaring the organisation’s very survival is at stake and risks “disappearing into a black hole”.
By David Gold
May 14 – Sergei Cheban, the executive director of the Russian Premier League, has been confirmed as a speaker for the Inside World Football Moscow Forum.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 13 – FIFA have admitted that the go-between accused of brokering bribes on behalf of Qatar’s successful 2022 World Cup bid worked for the organisation and was responsible to Mohamed Bin Hammam, Sepp Blatter’s challenger for the Presidency.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 13 – Sepp Blatter says he has got the Presidential election in the bag by a landslide despite the serious corruption allegations that have rocked FIFA once again.
Laurent Blanc may have escaped censure from the French Government and the French Football Federation this week, but French football’s reputation is still hanging by a thread following the row which has erupted following revelations by Mediapart that senior football officials in the country wanted to limit the number of African and north African players in their academies.
The French Football Federation report into the revelations cleared Blanc and the organisation reaffirmed their faith in their national team coach,
By Duncan Mackay
May 13 – John Coates (pictured), the President of the Australian Olympic Committee, has today joined calls for FIFA to reform in the wake of latest damaging allegations made about the selection of the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
By Tom Degun
May 12 – Mike Lee, the former communications director of London 2012, has received an official apology from the Culture, Media and Sport’s Select Committee after he was forced to answer a series of non-stop questions on The Sunday Times allegations that the Qatar 2022 bid team paid for votes.
By David Gold
May 13 – The French Football Federation (FFF) has cleared Laurent Blanc after releasing its findings from the investigation it conducted into plans to implement quotas limiting the number of dual-nationality players in the country’s academies.
By David Gold
May 13 – Following Barcelona and Manchester United’s progression into the European Champions League final earlier this month, the Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO) has successfully predicted almost 80 per cent of the knockout games during this season’s competition.