July 18 – Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage has called the quarterfinal against Spain the biggest managerial challenge of her career yet.
By David Owen
January 27 – Roman Abramovic’s Chelsea look set to be the latest beneficiaries of the tide of Chinese money washing into European football. The likely transfer of Brazilian midfielder Ramires to Jiangsu Suning, a Chinese Super League club based in Nanjing, the former capital city, should provide a handy boost to the London side’s profits in 2015-16.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – European parliamentarians have accused FIFA’s presidential candidates of scoring a spectacular own goal after four of them declined to take part in Wednesday’s planned televised debate in Brussels which ultimately collapsed.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – In what can only be described as a state of utter confusion, a planned debate on the future of FIFA, which had already descended into farce, was watered down still further today just hours before it was due to take place.
By Mark Baber
January 27 – Alejandro Dominguez of Paraguay was elected unopposed as president of CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football, after Wilmar Valdez of Uruguay withdrew his candidacy.
January 27 – The 2022 World Cup should be handed directly to the United States if Qatar is stripped of hosting the tournament, according to FIFA presidential outsider Jerome Champagne.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – In an unusual case that once again highlights the sensitivity surrounding Qatar winning the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, officials of the Gulf state are suing former FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger for referring to them as a “cancerous growth on world football” .
January 27 – FIFA has confirmed as a formality the names of the five candidates battling for the presidency of football’s world governing body at the election on February 26.
January 27 – Doyen Sports, one of the main companies cited as practising Third Party Ownership (TPO), which is banned by FIFA and UEFA, has attempted to justify its conduct by rejecting that it in any way owns players and insisting it uses an alternative model of TPI (third party investment) that ensures financial transparency.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – All hopes of bringing the FIFA presidential candidates round the same table ahead of the February 26 election to replace Sepp Blatter have been quashed once and for all when the BBC conceded defeat in attempting to stage a televised debate 10 days before the ballot.
By Paul Nicholson
January 27 – The Premier League’s bumper €2.4 billion per season deal that kicks in with the 2016 season start has been well documented. Other leagues have looked on in envy and anticipation of good things to come in their home markets. Football Benchmark has looked at the macro-economies of the European countries to see if the English deal is justifiably much bigger than their European counterparts.
January 27 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur whose stadium redevelopment is central to the economic regeneration of the area around its White Hart Lane stadium, has launched a training scheme for unemployed people funded by a grant from the StubHub Foundation.
By Paul Nicholson
January 27 – Five of the Premier League home teams recorded stadiums over 99% full for Round 23. West Ham again topped the table with just 39 seats unfilled. At the top five games there were less than 1,100 seats left unfilled.
‘Oh shut up, silly woman,’ said the reptile with a grin
‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.’
From The Snake by Al Wilson
My social media threads at the start of this week were full of the sarcastic indignation that is part of the medium’s stock-in-trade.
By Paul Nicholson
January 26 – CONCACAF has released details of its proposed reform measures to its member federations, at the centre of which would be the replacement of the executive committee with a CONCACAF Council.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – Amid confusion, contradictions and hints of buck-passing and election games, a planned televised debate involving three of the five FIFA presidential candidates has been scrapped after two of them withdrew with just 48 hours’ notice.