By Mark Baber
September 18- Palestine, Iraq, South and North Korea and Indonesia men’s teams have all won both their opening matches at the Asian Games guaranteeing places in the round of 16 (bar a miracle in Iraq’s case) and, organisers hope, ensuring better ticket sales.
By David Owen
September 17 – Sony Corporation, the Japanese consumer electronics group that is one of six FIFA top-tier sponsors, has announced that it will pay no dividend for its current financial year, for the first time since its shares were listed in 1958, the year of Brazil’s first World Cup victory.
By Mark Baber
September 12 – China has finished top of the Asian Games medal table every year since 1990, and in the last edition in Guangzhou picked up 199 gold medals – three times as many as runners up South Korea, but Asia’s most populous country remains a rank outsider in the football.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 11 – Three months after discovering that he will lose his position as Asia’s FIFA vice-president, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan has come out fighting by announcing that he will stand for election as a member of FIFA’s executive committee next year.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The men’s and women’s Indian national teams for the Asian Games have finally been given the go-ahead to participate in the tournament, bringing to an end a nail-biting few days as Indian officials decided which sports would be cut from India’s contingent.
September 9 – India’s national men’s and women’s football teams, preparing for the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, are stranded in a training camp in Shanghai, with the chances of them getting to the tournament diminishing by the hour as the Indian government dilly-dallies.
By Mark Baber
September 8 – Myanmar won the third edition of the Peace Cup, defeating hosts Philippines with a 3-2 win in the final on Saturday, whilst Palestine, whose participation is a victory in itself, defeated Chinese Taipei 7-3 to take the bronze medal.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 3 – Although he is mainly known in football politics for being Asia’s FIFA vice-president and one of the game’s renowned modernists, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein is also head of Jordanian football and in an attempt to boost his country’s profile has turned to one of England’s most familiar faces to be its next national coach.
By Mark Baber
August 28 – The inaugural edition of Australia’s FFA Cup has run into controversy as Football Federation Australia insist that no live streaming of games is allowed, even though only two games in the Round of 16 will be broadcast live on Fox Sports.
August 27 – Cricket-crazy India may be one of the great untapped football markets but the vast country could be at risk of losing government funding before they head to next month’s Asian Games following the recent demoralising defeat to arch-rivals Pakistan.
August 25 – Marcello Lippi, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach now in charge of China’s Guangzhou Evergrande, has been suspended for one game for confronting the referee during an AFC Champions League match.
By Mark Baber
August 21 – Melbourne Knights have referred the Australian Football Federation’s (FFA) National Club Identity Policy to the Australian Human Rights commission after they were prevented from displaying three of their four kit sponsors for an FFA Cup match against Olympic FC.
August 21 – Despite the ongoing military crisis in Gaza, Palestinian football has managed to achieve its highest ever world ranking by surging to 85th.
By Mark Baber
August 20 – The All India Football Federation (AIFF) have announced that Jammu and Kashmir will host the Federation Cup in August 2015, whilst the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) announced the names of the international players who will be playing in the new league.
By Mark Baber
August 18 – India defeated Pakistan 1-0 on Sunday in the first match between the two Asian neighbours for nine years. All sporting ties between India and Pakistan were suspended following the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, with little contact since then other than a one-day cricket series in 2012.