Football

The Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) top-tier club competition has entered into a partnership with the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) as part of an effort to help protect Russian football from threats to the safety, security and integrity of the game ahead of the country’s hosting of the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with world football’s governing body Fifa regarding the implementation of the legacy fund for the South American country’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup.

The Moroccan government has maintained its stance over the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to leave the Confederation of African Football (CAF) with the prospect of either accepting the request to postpone the tournament or finding a new host nation.

Spanish Liga football club Atletico Madrid’s ongoing stadium development project has suffered another delay after construction partners reportedly halted work at the site.

The European Club Association (ECA) has hit back at claims by Fifa that it is closing in on a decision to reschedule Qatar’s 2022 World Cup to become a winter tournament.

Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC ) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has ruled out shifting the 2022 winter Olympics to accommodate the Fifa World Cup as plans emerged for two new stadiums for Qatar’s football showpiece.

Uefa president Michel Platini has confirmed that football’s European governing body is prepared to shift the Champions League club competition’s semi-finals and final to June in 2022 if the Fifa World Cup of the same year in Qatar is scheduled to take place in the winter.

Chilean Football Association (ANFP) president Sergio Jadue has stated the country is keen to host the 2030 Fifa World Cup, while Uruguayan counterpart Wilmar Valdez has touted the prospect of a joint bid involving his country, Chile and Argentina.

MLS (Major League Soccer) is undergoing an image makeover in an attempt to unite their fast-growing competition.  

Fifa has said that it remains committed to alternative dates of January/February or November/December 2022 for the shifting of Qatar’s World Cup, leaving the prospect of the event clashing with the winter Olympic Games still in play.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed it will not change the dates of its 2015 Africa Cup of Nations tournament despite the outbreak of Ebola across the continent and has called on host nation Morocco to make a final decision about staging the event by November 8.

The English Premier League looks set for another bumper increase when it sells its domestic broadcast rights next year. But what strategies are currently being discussed to try and replicate that kind of increase in the other big four European football leagues? Frank Dunne, Editor of TV Sports Markets, asked the decision-makers in Spanish, French, German and Dutch football at last month’s SPORTELMonaco.

World football’s governing body used the 2014 FIFA World Cup as a testing ground for three broadcast innovations that, in the long-term, could transform the way fans watch sport’s biggest event. Owen Evans reports.

Los Angeles’ new Major League Soccer franchise will be owned by a consortium led by entrepreneur Henry Nguyen, film producer Peter Guber and ESPN analyst Tom Penn, and is set to make its debut in a soccer-specific stadium in 2017, the league has announced.

Singapore has retained its co-hosting rights to the Asean Football Federation’s 2014 AFF Championship national team tournament after concerned organisers were placated regarding fears over the standard of the pitch at the new National Stadium.