July 18 – Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage has called the quarterfinal against Spain the biggest managerial challenge of her career yet.
January 21 – Beach Soccer fever is building across the CONCACAF region. With a record number of 16 nations heading to El Salvador for the regional championship in March and a Beach Soccer World Cup qualification place at stake, the confederation has unveiled its tournament logo and announced January 27 as the date for the draw.
“Every man lives by exchanging.” Adam Smith
Currency is the blood in the veins of economies. It is the fundamental denominator of all trade. But there are so many veins, arteries and capillaries in the world economy that the circulation of currency is seldom constant, and at times it becomes palsied.
January 21 – The Dutch football association (KNVB) is opening an investigation and calling for a criminal probe into detailed allegations published of alleged fixing of two matches in the top-tier Eredivisie.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 21 – In the first of his ideas for developing football, unlikely FIFA presidential hopeful David Ginola says he would stage the men’s and women’s World Cup at the same time, Olympic-style, if he gets elected on May 29. The women would play after the men’s competition is completed.
January 21 – Bayern Munich have returned from a training camp in the Middle East to face a barrage of criticism over a friendly played in Saudi Arabia, with politicians and fans claiming the club had ignored the issue of human rights in the country.
January 21 – Manchester United has announced Irish casino game maker KamaGames as the club’s first official Social Casino Games partner. KamaGames is a specialist in developing games for mobile and is targeting United’s global fan based, claimed by the club to number 659 million followers.
By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The pressure on the Russian Football Union (RFU) to pay its Italian head coach and team manager, Fabio Capello and Oreste Cinquini, has been mounting with criticism of the RFU coming from inside Russia from sports minister Vitaly Mutko and outside from UEFA president Michel Platini.
January 20 – Qatar’s disastrous Asian Cup campaign is exactly the opposite of what they expected both in terms of maintaining progress on the field and also in sending out a message to those who oppose the World Cup going to the Gulf state in 2022.
By Mark Baber
January 20 – Communist multi-billionaire Wang Jianlin is set to take a 20% stake in La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid, with the agreement being signed on tomorrow, according to media reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein will be conspicuous by his absence when a new pressure group campaigning for greater reform convene at the European Parliament for the first time tomorrow.
January 20 – MATCH Services, FIFA’s accommodation partner for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, has had all charges that it was leveraging “abusive” prices in the hotel market with tickets for matches dismissed by CADE, Brazil’s anti-competition authority.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – Jerome Champagne has finally conceded he is struggling to acquire the necessary backing to stay in the race to become FIFA president and has made a last-ditch appeal for support.
January 20 – The future of Leeds United, a former giant of English football and one of the country’s most iconic clubs, has suffered yet another blow after Italian owner Massimo Cellino lost his appeal against the Football League’s decision to disqualify him.
January 20 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter, in Russia at the weekend for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Cup youth championship in St Petersburg, said that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin who had assured him that the World Cup was not in jeopardy despite the country’s economic difficulties.
Back in the late 1990s as a passionate Tottenham Hotspur fan – which I still am – I was mesmerised watching David Ginola. He may have played at a number of other clubs, both in England and his native France, but it was at Tottenham where his silky skills were wholeheartedly embraced by the fans who elevated him to near-legendary status.