Football

NFL American football franchise the Minnesota Vikings have stepped up their efforts to secure a Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion team for their new stadium by agreeing a partnership with the Relevent Sports agency.

Football’s world governing body Fifa voted against introducing age and term limits for its executives at its congress yesterday (Wednesday) as Sepp Blatter hit out at “disrespectful” attempts to curtail his presidency.

The South African Football Association (SAFA) has been ordered to submit a financial report every six months for the next two years by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) as part of a process to arrest the monetary problems that have engulfed the troubled national governing body.

World football’s governing body Fifa has announced a positive annual financial result of $72m (€52.9m) for the 2013 financial year, with revenues increasing to $1.386bn.

Greg Dyke and Michael van Praag, the heads of football’s English and Dutch national associations, spoke out against Sepp Blatter’s leadership of world governing body Fifa as the Swiss faced a tense meeting with delegates of European governing body Uefa yesterday (Tuesday).

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has moved to defend spending on preparations for the 2014 World Cup, while Fifa has denied that it is making major revenues from the football showpiece at the expense of the Brazilian people.

David Beckham’s plans to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Miami have suffered a major setback after the city’s mayor rejected plans to build a downtown waterfront stadium.

Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has strengthened his position after the AFC’s Extraordinary Congress voted to merge the region’s presidency with the Fifa vice-presidency.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has bemoaned what he described as a “storm against Fifa” over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Fifa’s commercial partners have waded into the debate over the governing body’s handling of the bidding process that led to the award of the hosting rights for football’s 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade has been banned from participating in the Uefa Champions League next season, while two Turkish clubs have also been barred from competing in the Europa League.

Singapore businessman Peter Lim, the new owner of Spanish Liga football team Valencia, has struck a deal with national banking conglomerate Bankia to restructure the club’s substantial debts, while La Liga rival Malaga is facing fresh uncertainty over its ownership.

Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has lashed out at the allegations of corruption surrounding the award of the 2022 Fifa World Cup to Qatar by claiming they are evidence of “racist actions” towards the country and Arabs in general.

Eduardo Paes, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, has claimed that organisers of the 2014 Fifa World Cup international football tournament have made a mistake by planning to stage matches in 12 different cities.

Serie A football club Cagliari is set to remain in Italian hands after owner Massimo Cellino announced he had struck a preliminary agreement to sell the team to businessman Tommaso Giulini.

Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company, has struck a deal to acquire 50 per cent of the country’s Guangzhou Evergrande football club.