Canada 2-0 El Salvador
June 24 – Fresh from emerging from a Concacaf-imposed timeout, Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch returned to the technical area at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, knowing any more misbehaviour would send him back to the naughty room. He needn’t have worried as their opponents El Salvador simply imploded in a red mist.
I latched onto a major story on Friday.
This was the day, remember, that Britain turned its back on Europe.
That tensions ratcheted up at the Climate Change summit in Durban.
By David Gold
December 13 – Eight suspects, including the Besiktas coach, Tayfur Havutcu (pictured), and the club executive Serdal Adal, have been released by a Turkish court investigating the match fixing scandal which has rocked the country.
By David Gold
December 12 – Louis van Gaal’s appointment as a director of Dutch champions Ajax has been suspended by a judge temporarily to give the club’s shareholders a chance to vote on the change.
By David Gold
December 12 – Spanish side Valencia have struck a deal with Bankia to allow work to be restarted on their new stadium.
By David Gold
December 10 – Egypt beat Senegal 2-0 in the third-place play-off of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) under-23 tournament in Marrakech to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
By David Gold
December 10 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has expressed its disappointment at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to reprimand its President Issa Hayatou for allegedly accepting payments from FIFA’s former marketing partner ISL.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – South Africa’s World Cup organiser Danny Jordaan dramatically pulled out of the race to lead the sport in Southern Africa leaving Suketu Patel of the Seychelles to be re-elected for a second term.
The wider impact of the investigation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ethics Commission into Joao Havelange, Issa Hayatou, Lamine Diack, three of the most powerful men in world sport, cannot be overestimated.
The treatment of the three men may not appear all that drastic. But there is a message here about the way the IOC is prepared to react to the demands that the administrators of world sport and, in particular, football must become more accountable and transparent.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – Michel Platini has once again emphasised his opposition to goal-line technology despite the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, saying it could be in place by the start of next season – and almost certainly by the 2014 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 9 – FIFA were quick to distance themselves today from African football chief Issa Hayatou’s increasingly insecure position as the fallout continued over the ISL corruption affair.
By Declan Warrington
December 9 – Manchester United and Manchester City face the possibility of being overlooked for Channel 5’s coverage of the Europa League.
By Duncan Mackay in Lausanne
December 8 – Issa Hayatou, the vice-president of FIFA, has been given a reprimand for his involvement in an alleged corruption affair, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge (pictured) revealed here today.
By David Gold
December 8 – Lyon’s stunning 7-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb in their crucial Champions League qualifying game will not be investigated for irregular betting patterns, UEFA has said.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – Wayne Rooney’s (pictured left) chances of playing a major part in England’s Euro 2012 campaign received a major boost today when a UEFA appeals panel reduced his three-match ban.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein is the latest high-profile figure to stress the need to eradicate match fixing.