By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Australia’s euphoria at reaching the Asian Cup final on home soil is being partly overshadowed by an apparent move by Gulf nations to have them thrown out of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and sent back to Oceania.
By Mark Baber
January 26 – The sense that the deck might be stacked against Iran in international football received a boost over the weekend as they were knocked out of the Asian Cup by Iraq, after a quarter-final match in which one of their players was sent off in a bizarre decision by the Australian referee, and which featured an Iraqi player who had produced a sample which proved positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine whilst playing for an Iranian club last year.
January 22 – North Korea have withdrawn from a friendly tournament in Thailand next month following the humiliation of their early Asian Cup exit in Australia, according to Thai authorities.
By Mark Baber
January 21 – Claims that members of the ISIS/ISIL group in Iraq have executed 13 teenagers in Mosul for watching the Iraq v Jordan football match have spread via internet publications, the newspapers and social media.
January 20 – Qatar’s disastrous Asian Cup campaign is exactly the opposite of what they expected both in terms of maintaining progress on the field and also in sending out a message to those who oppose the World Cup going to the Gulf state in 2022.
January 16 – The Asian Football Confederation says every effort is being made to avoid match-fixing at the Asian Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 15 – Rocked by embarrassing allegations of negligence at the most prestigious event in its calendar, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has hit back at claims by Jordan that they botched a doping test on striker Ahmad Hayel during the Asian Cup in Australia.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 14 – The Asian Cup has burst into controversy after Jordan lodged a formal protest with organisers claiming a random dope test that went badly wrong resulted in one their players falling seriously ill.
By Mark Baber
January 12 – The 2015 AFC Asian Cup, being held outside Asia for the first time, is well underway with teams from radically different cultures competing on Australian soil in the 16th edition of the world’s second oldest continental competition.
January 12 – Despite at last managing to concentrate on matters on the pitch – a 4-0 win over newcomers Palestine at the Asian Cup – Japan coach Javier Aguirre continues to face questions about his alleged role in a bribery scandal from his time in Spanish football.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 9 – Key Asian football chiefs have staunchly re-iterated their support for FIFA president Sepp Blatter following young pretender Prince Ali’s announcement that he was making a bid for the FIFA throne.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 8 – Just days after he announced that he was taking on Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein has his first opportunity on Friday to gauge how much support he might get from within his own region.
January 6 – An A-League clash between Perth Glory and Adelaide United, which reportedly left a number of players suffering the symptoms of heat stroke, has reignited the debate over the temperatures it should be considered acceptable for matches to be played and whether player welfare is being sacrificed in the interests of television.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 5 – Preparations for this week’s Asian Cup in Australia, the continent’s flagship competition, have been plunged into controversy after a warm-up game between two of the finalists was called off just moments before kickoff.
By Paul Nicholson
January 5 – President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, has repeated his assertion that Qatar’s 2022 World Cup has been the subject of a “racist campaign”. He also questioned the independence of an American investigator to lead the FIFA ethics investigation into the world cup bidding.