By Andrew Warshaw
April 20 – Australia’s national women’s team coach Hesterine de Reus has been sacked less than a month before the country’s defence of the AFC Women’s’ Asian Cup. Football Federation Australia announced the decision following an internal review into the Dutch woman’s methods.
April 20 – Asian football’s flagship tournament, the Asian Cup, is being expanded in 2019 from 16 to 24 teams, abandoning the lower-level Challenge Cup in the process.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 17 – The festering divisions that have characterised Asian football in recent months have exploded into open warfare between the Continent’s two most prominent officials.
By Mark Baber
April 14 – The Indian Super League (ISL) franchises were announced on Sunday and the winning bids include leading celebrities of Indian film and cricket, much to the delight of promoters IMG Reliance. Even cricket legend and indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar (pictured) got in on the act. Local media and football officials have described the move variously as a big leap forward for Indian football, or marking its doom.
April 14 – Asian football has been rocked by yet another match-fixing scandal, this time involving 11 players of the high-flying Vissai Ninh Binh club.
By Mark Baber
April 11 – The ongoing saga of the much-hyped Indian Super League (ISL) begins a new chapter on Sunday as the eight franchises for the new tournament will be unveiled. The organisers including IMG-Reliance, marketing partners of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), are seeking to revolutionise football’s fortunes in the cricket-mad country, whilst the existing Indian clubs are looking on in trepidation, with calls for FIFA to intervene.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 11 – A fresh development has emerged in the race for political power within Asian football with the news that Japan’s Tashima Kohzo, Vice President and Executive General Secretary of the Japanese FA, has officially announced he is to seek a seat on the FIFA Executive Committee at regional elections next year.
April 9 – Alleged Singaporean match fixer Eric Ding Si Yang, accused of bribing three Lebanese match officials a year ago in return for rigging games, has chosen not to testify at his long-running corruption trial.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 7 – The head of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising team says his country is “committed to positive change” despite the latest outpouring of adverse publicity over the treatment of migrant workers. Hassan Al-Thawadi admits he is “hurt” by the barrage of negative reporting, much of it emanating from the British media, and insists the World Cup will act as a catalyst for doing away with some of Qatar’s antiquated laws.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 24 – The head of Asian football has been rebuffed in his attempts within FIFA to gain additional powers of office against the wishes of his members.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 18 – The man who has been running Asian football for just under a year faces a revolt from within his own Confederation amid accusations of trying to increase his power base by unconstitutionally changing the statutes.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – The head of the Asian Football Confederation says western criticism of Qatar as World Cup hosts is being overplayed and, in some cases, has “crossed the line.”
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi’s controversial re-election as head of Thailand’s FA (FAT) is being taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Last October after months of in-fighting about election rules, Makudi defeated former national team manager Virach Chanpanich 42-28 in a secret ballot.
March 7 – A Vietnam international defender has been handed what is reported to be record 28-game ban for an horrendous tackle that broke the leg of an opponent in a domestic league match.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong barber-turned-businessman who appeared to have amassed a fortune when he moved into English football by buying Birmingham City, has been jailed for six years for money laundering.