October 20 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has ordered Myanmar to play its next competitive game behind closed doors, suspended for two years, and has fined the national federation $24,000 as a result of a pitch invasion following last week’s 1-0 AFC under-19 Championship quarter-final win over the United Arab Emirates in Yangon.
October 20 – UEFA president Michel Platini, not averse to coming up with fresh ideas for enhancing the game – some of which have their critics as well as their supporters – has thrown out another proposal: white cards to mean sinbins for players who harass referees to protest decisions.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 20 – The troubled African Cup of Nations has received a further blow with the news that South Africa, which has already stepped in twice to rescue the tournament in recent years, may not be willing to do so again.
By David Owen
October 19 – The French Professional Football League (LFP) intends to set up a commercial support department to spread best practice among the country’s leading clubs. Mathieu Ficot, the LFP’s chief commercial officer, made the disclosure in an interview with INSIDEworldfootball.
Has Europe given up on FIFA? The question is raised by what seems to have been a particularly productive month for Michel Platini, President of UEFA, the European football body.
By David Owen
October 18 – UEFA President Michel Platini will go to Rome next week to discuss the body’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative with European Union (EU) sports ministers.
By David Owen
October 17 – The new Stade Vélodrome, complete with undulating white roof, has been inaugurated in front of the new French Sports Minister in the southern French city of Marseille.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 17 – Pandurii Targu Jiu has announced plans to invest about €15 million to expand and modernise its stadium. The Romanian club is aiming to launch the project in 2015, and carry out the construction over the following 18 months.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – The race in Asia for a place at FIFA’s top table has been stepped up with the announcement that Malaysian FA president Prince Abdullah Shah will contest next year’s election for a position on FIFA’s executive committee.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Once again a new venue looks like being needed for the African Cup of Nations after next year’s hosts Morocco reportedly pulled out because of fears over the Ebola virus.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Albanian football authorities have hit back powerfully at Serb accusations that they were responsible for the politically-fuelled melee that caused this week’s Euro 2016 qualifier between the Balkan rivals in Belgrade to be abandoned after descending into chaos.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Michel Platini, who has openly admitted he voted for Qatar to stage the 2022 World Cup, says he would have no problem with a revote if proof emerged, as a result of FIFA ethics committee investigator Michael Garcia’s report into possible corruption, that there was any wrongdoing during the bid process.
By Paul Nicholson
October 17 – The fight against match-fixing took the next, and ground breaking, steps in El Salvador this week with meetings to discuss a roadmap that will make match manipulation a crime under the country’s laws. The talks in El Salvador are intended to become a blueprint for discussion with government and agencies region-wide.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – According to a BBC study of 207 clubs, the average price of the cheapest tickets across English football has risen at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011 with the average price of the cheapest match-day ticket from the Premier League to League Two now at £21.49, up 4.4% since last year, over treble the 1.2% rate of inflation.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – The first meeting of the new Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, following the disputed but FIFA-supported election of Amaju Pinnick as President, has sacked national team coach Stephen Keshi (pictured) whilst appointing Dilichukwu Onyedinma, who caused international controversy with her campaign to drive lesbians out of Nigerian football, as Deputy Chair of the Committee of Ethics and Fair Play.