France 1 Germany 1 (5-6 pens)
July 19 – Germany recovered from a 13th-minute red card to knockout France on penalties following a 1-1 draw and set up a blockbuster semi-final against Spain.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – No sooner had he announced in his native Jordan that he was having a second crack at the FIFA presidency than Prince Ali bin al-Hussein flew into London for his first post-declaration function and urged FIFA members to vote with their hearts next time and not give in to the fear factor.
By Paul Nicholson
August 11 – There is a parallel sports world taking place to that of the traditional football world. It is a world that has more active participants than football has registered players, generates billions of dollars and is now filling stadiums full of fans to watch its players.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon is back on the offensive over his claim that his own Asian confederation is guilty of “electoral fraud” in the race to succeed Sepp Blatter, this time all but accusing FIFA, which has refused to support his allegations, of a cover-up.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The Israel Football Association (IFA) announced on Wednesday that “all professional league and youth league games will take place as planned this weekend,” after Israel’s Attorney-General issued a ruling that the 1951 law mandating permission from the Ministry of Economy in order to work on the Sabbath need not be applied.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
September 10 – The man charged with overseeing FIFA’s reform process has released details of a thorough and radical blueprint designed to overhaul the organisation’s powers of responsibility and bring an end to the atmosphere of mistrust and the stench of corruption that has plagued world football’s governing body.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 10 – FIFA is at a “watershed” moment when it comes to the credibility of the organisation according to Domenico Scala, the official overseeing the reform process whose comprehensive eight-point plan for widespread change in the post-Sepp Blatter era was made public today.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Gigi Becali, the controversial owner of Romanian football club Steaua Bucharest, is reportedly planning to leave the troubled side and purchase a new club competing in the country’s top tier Liga 1.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The failure of Barcelona to comprehend that they are in any way at fault for flouting the FIFA regulations designed to stop the exploitation and trafficking of children in football is once again apparent, even as the club, faced with the real possibility of a new transfer ban, decide to treat the issue as of “extremely high priority,” according to reports in the Spanish press.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 10 – The leader of the Bulgarian political party ‘Movement 21’ Tatyana Doncheva announced on TV that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Delyan Peevski, member of the parliamentary group of the liberal ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), are the real owners of top league club Levski through front men. According to her, Levski is most obvious example of political dependence in Bulgarian football.
By Paul Nicholson in Berlin
September 10 – 95% of Manchester United fans never make it to Old Trafford. virtual reality (VR) technology is now at a tipping point that will mean that they will never need to.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – As part of the Chinese group’s expansion into the Czech market, CEFC has signed a deal to acquire a 59.97% stake in Slavia Prague. The group says it is also working towards becoming a sponsor of the Czech national team.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – Little over three months after being defeated by Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, the young reformer who won’t give in, put himself back in the firing line today as he officially announced he will stand again next February saying he wanted to finish where he left off.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Major League Soccer chief Don Garber has issued a hard-hitting response to the provocative suggestion by FIFA’s new reform guru that football is not a serious sport in the United States, accusing the former International Olympic Committee director-general of treating his country with disdain.
September 9 – The head of the European Club Association (ECA) has urged football’s world players’ union FIFPro not to carry out its threat to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its bid to rip up the existing transfer system.
By Mark Baber
September 9 – Adidas is extending its partnership with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) until 2026. Under the terms of the partnership, which had originally been scheduled to run until 2018, the German group will continue to supply kits and apparel to all RFEF teams, including the Spanish national football team.