By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s chief legal adviser faces allegations of watering down a key report into reform recommendations in order to spare Blatter from potentially damaging criticism.
February 9 – Qatar’s senior team may have disappointed at the recently completed Asian Cup in Australia after their Gulf Cup win, but their U17 players are making a global imprint at the fourth Al Kass International Cup tournament for clubs, currently being played in Doha, Qatar.
Non è bastato il gesto della scorsa settimana – rinunciare allo stage per la Nazionale – per farsi ascoltare dai padroni del calcio italiano. Dopo le decisioni della Lega di Serie A del 6 febbraio, Antonio Conte è sempre di più un uomo solo al comando, dove ormai è doveroso mettere l’accento più sulla parola “solo” che su quella “comando”.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – Ivory Coast’s first Africa Cup of Nations title since 1992 on Sunday failed to mask a series of controversial events that blighted the tournament on and off the pitch.
By David Owen
February 7 – West Ham United, the Premier League football club preparing to move into London’s Olympic Stadium, has agreed a new long-term sponsorship deal with Betway, an online gaming brand. The deal installs Betway as the Hammers’ principal sponsor, with the company logo to appear on the front of the well-known claret and blue team shirts, starting with Sunday’s clash with Manchester United. Betway has also secured naming rights to the Boleyn Ground’s West Stand.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 6 – While the three contenders bidding to unseat FIFA president Sepp Blatter fine-tune their tactics, Jerome Champagne, the first to put his name forward more than a year ago, has strengthened his criticism of Europe for deliberately squeezing him out of the race.
The mountain has given birth to three mice. What started out as a solid promise to “dismantle the FIFA monster”, has taken on the characteristics of playground posturing and classroom semantics.
February 6 – Manchester United has added Mauritius telecom specialist Emtel as its first official partner in the country.
By Mark Baber
February 6 – The desperate financial situation of the Russian Football Union (RFU), which has been unable to pay national team manager Fabio Capello’s salary, looks set to be resolved in the next two days as billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov (pictured) has pledged to grant a loan to the federation to cover the arrears.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 6 – The Romanian Football Federation (FRF) has unveiled its new sponsorship deal with Bergenbier, the country’s leading beer brand, the FRF said in a statement.
By Samindra Kunti
February 6 – Francois De Keersmacker presides over an upwardly mobile Belgian football federation with a national team that will be a Euro2016 challenger. He talked exclusively to Insideworldfootball about his home front challenges, why he backed Michael van Praag, why FIFA are not “a bunch of swindlers” but need to change, and the “stomach-churning” 2018 World up bid.
February 6 – Spain and Portugal have reportedly filed a complaint to the European Commission challenging FIFA’s ban on third party ownership.
February 6 – Russia’s sports minister says no more changes can be made to stadium concepts for the 2018 World Cup in terms of reducing both the number of venues and their capacities.
February 6 – Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has launched a Chinese language website on Chinese internet giant Netease’s web platform. The site went live in the build up to this weekend’s North London derby.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 6 – Fans of host nation Equatorial Guinea brought shame and disgrace on the Africa Cup of Nations as they forced Thursday’s semifinal to be suspended for more than 30 minutes amid scenes described as a “war zone”.