July 18 – Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage has called the quarterfinal against Spain the biggest managerial challenge of her career yet.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – Just as Sepp Blatter refused to resign in the wake of the criminal proceedings opened against him, so his would-be successor Michel Platini sought to keep alive his election hopes and reputation by protesting his innocence to UEFA’s entire membership over receiving a suspected SFr2 million unlawful payment from his one-time mentor.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – A bullish Sepp Blatter has decided to dig in his heels and stand his ground despite the criminal investigation into his activities.
He tried every way he could, for months on end, to distance himself from the ignominy and disgrace that that has snared so many of his former colleagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein has been quick to seize on Michel Platini’s alleged implication in the ongoing corruption crisis by once again reiterating the need for a fresh start at world football’s governing body.
By Mark Baber
September 28 – Arsenal have announced a new partnership with the Ethiopian Dashen Brewery in a deal described by Dashen’s CEO as a win for Arsenal, for the brewery and for Ethiopia.
By Samindra Kunti
September 28 – France’s Professional Football League (LFP) has extended its partnership with production company HBS (Host Broadcast Services) for a further four years.
By Paul Nicholson
September 28 – The struggle that Barcelona’s star players have with paying their taxes has continued with Neymar being the latest to fall foul of the authorities with a Brazilian judge freezing 188.8m reais ($47.6 million) of his assets in a tax evasion case.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – Michel Platini’s dreams of taking over at FIFA face being dealt a hammer blow as a result of the already-infamous 2 million Swiss franc payment he received for unexplained work undertaken on behalf of Sepp Blatter.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 28 – Disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner has won more time in his bid to avoid being extradited to the United States on corruption charges.
Friday’s shenanigans at FIFA prompted a number of sporting sages to prophesy the demise of Sepp Blatter well before the February 26 Congress that is supposed to elect a new FIFA President. I wonder though if the big loser might not turn out to be Michel Platini.
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – Almost lost in the stunning news that the Swiss attorney general was opening a criminal investigation into FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was the release of information following the two-day FIFA executive committee meeting that “deliberated on a number of forward-looking measures to improve governance as part of the reform process.”
By Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – In the most dramatic development to date in the entire FIFA corruption scandal, Swiss investigators today announced that they had opened criminal proceedings against Sepp Blatter on “suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation”.
By Mark Baber
September 25 – The extent of the fall-out for football from the Volkswagen emissions scandal has been the subject of speculation with analysis focusing on the extent of VW’s involvement in football, the depth of the crisis facing the company, the identities of the company’s top management and the role of football sponsorship in VW’s marketing mix.
By Paul Nicholson
September 25 – The weekly Twitter growth table saw a number of changes in ranking this week as Chelsea dropped to fourth behind Liverpool who took third slot. Manchester United continue to dominate weekly growth with one tweet this week being retweeted 14,000 times- that is 1,500 more retweets than Manchester City – in fifth place in the table – gained in new followers.
Simply writing that Antonio Conte, coach of Italian national team, risks a process, it could have a wrong meaning. It would be easy to blame this on a wrong formation, or a federation not happy with the results, or public opinion not satisfied with the way the team is playing its football. However, it is none of these. We are talking about a real legal process, as the coach of Italy in early July was indicted by prosecutors in Cremona,