By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 2 – Racism is not endemic in Russian football and should not stop the country being awarded the 2018 World Cup, the bid’s chief executive Alexei Sorokin claimed today – but was contradicted by Peter Odemwingie, the Nigerian player whose treatment has sparked the latest controversy.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 2 – Milton Keynes’s stadium has the most potential among the 17 short-listed by England 2018 if their campaign is successful, it has been claimed by the MK Dons manager Karl Robinson.
Just as the summer transfer window slammed shut across Europe, so a far more significant development took place in the English Premier League which has split experts down the middle.
The new eligibility rule, restricting top-flight squads to 25 players throughout the season – of whom at least eight have to be home-grown – is regarded as a long-overdue revolution by those in favour and a dangerously backward step by those against.
The reality is probably somewhere in between.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 1 – FIFA’s inspectors, led by Chilean Football Federation President Harold Mayne-Nicholls (pictured), have begun looking at the proposed facilities to be used if Portugal’s joint bid to host the 2018 World Cup is successful.
By Duncan Mackay in Munich
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 1 – Bayern Munich are set to reopen the debate about whether clubs should receive compensation from FIFA and UEFA if its players, like Arjen Robben (pictured), are injured representing their country.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
August 31 – Being chosen to host the 2018 World Cup would cap a perfect year for Spain, the country’s Sports Minister Jamie Lissavetzky admitted today as its joint bid with Portugal rolled out Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo to help give it a boost.
August 31 – AT&T today signed-up as a sponsor of the United States bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.
By David Owen
August 31 – Gross transfer spending by top-flight football clubs across Europe is down sharply from a year ago, as the global economic crisis takes its toll on the finances of the continent’s biggest sport.
August 30 – A delegation of FIFA inspectors, led by Harold Mayne-Nicholls, arrived in Madrid today on the last leg of their European tour of bidders to host the 2018/2022 World Cup.
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August 30 – Details of the cities and venues the FIFA inspection team will visit when they arrive in the United States next week to evaluate the country’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup have been revealed today.
August 30 – UEFA President Michel Platini claims his governing body’s new rules on spending have ended the “total anarchy” that surrounded player transfers.
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August 30 – Qatar National Bank (QNB) has today been named the Official Bank of the Qatar 2022 bid to host the World Cup.
By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
August 30 -Sebastian Coe’s successful long-running battle to ensure that whoever takes over the Olympic Stadium after London 2012 retains the athletics track has been hailed by Lamine Diack, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Just over ten years ago, after a visit to Downing Street of a FIFA delegation not very dissimilar to the one last Monday, Tony Banks, then the Prime Minister’s special envoy to the 2006 World Cup bid, made one of his exuberant comments.
“You know,” he said, “this visit proves that England is the only country that can defeat South Africa for the 2006 World Cup, Germany is out of it. I am now so close to these FIFA members I feel they are joined to the hip to me.”
August 30 – Mohamad Bin Hammam has confirmed he wants to stay on as president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after next year and will not challenge Sepp Blatter for the leadership of FIFA.