July 18 – Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage has called the quarterfinal against Spain the biggest managerial challenge of her career yet.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, regarded by many as the most credible rival to Sepp Blatter for the presidency of FIFA, today unveiled his vision for the future of football’s world governing body – but declined to name the five federations who have officially endorsed his candidacy.
January 31 – The shadow of Jack Warner and his dealings as president of CONCACAF has made a reappearance in Trinidad where a tribunal has been appointed to investigate his assets and registered interests as part of the integrity checks on the island for public officials.
January 30 – Six European federations have formally endorsed Luis Figo’s bid to become FIFA president, sweeping away any doubts about whether Portugal’s most capped footballer will meet one of the strict criteria for standing.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
January 30 – The deadline for applications has passed. But the political manoeuvrings and strategic mind games have only just begun. Welcome to another tactical FIFA election process.
By Mark Baber
January 30 – Relations between the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Spanish Government Sports Council (CSD) and their respective leaders have taken an dramatic turn for the worse as the Federation requested the head of the CSD be removed from all positions in football and on Thursday warned it was prepared to halt football in the country over “government interference”.
Boring! Only a fantasist would have believed the Bundesliga season would generate a voltage title fight. But experts like Reiner Calmund say the German elite league is never boring, even though the title was virtually secured by Bayern at the halfway point.
January 30 – African football chiefs admit that the system of drawing lots in their major competition must be revised after Mali’s quarterfinal dream in the Africa Cup of Nations was unfairly dashed.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – Australia’s euphoria at reaching the Asian Cup final on home soil is being partly overshadowed by an apparent move by Gulf nations to have them thrown out of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and sent back to Oceania.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 30 – The chief executive officer of Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia, Alexander Todorov (pictured), has revealed that the costs of running the club in 2014 year were almost BGN 15 million (€7.5 million), a high amount by Bulgarian standards.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 30 – The Greek Super League hardened its position on clubs in financial difficulty, dropping Niki Volou from the country’s top league. Rival side OFI Crete has been deducted four matches, and had its upcoming match against Athromitos FC later this week postponed until the club pays off debts owed to two of its former players.
January 30 – The general feeling of malaise spreading through Italian football after a poor World Cup and European club failure has not stopped Serie A giant Juventus driving out its successful digital content strategy.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – David Ginola’s unlikely bid for the FIFA presidency appeared to be on the brink of collapse even though his Team Ginola website insisted they were “still in it and fighting”.
January 29 – Major League Soccer has sold its KICKTV digital-media assets to the online fans’ network Copa90, the League announced today.
January 29 – The Russian Football Union’s (RFU) cash crisis continues with news that Moscow travel agency Akademservice has filed a lawsuit demanding compensation of 23 million rubles ($339,000). The RFU is already struggling to cope with the wage bill of its national team coach Fabio Capello and general manager Oreste Cinquini, who have been unpaid for more than 7 months, and are owed $9.2 million.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has confirmed that he has submitted his bid to run for re-election a few hours before the deadline for nominations – but has not named the federations backing him.