By Mark Baber
August 24 – Iranian football fans will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the greats of world football playing this Friday, August 28 as a team of World Stars take on a team of Iranian Stars in a charity match.
August 24 – Former FIFA executive committee Worawi Makudi’s last-ditch attempt to regain some kind of foothold within global or Asian football has failed after he withdrew from the election for the presidency of the 12-member Asean Football Federation (AFF) on the eve of the vote.
By Mark Baber
August 18 – One of the great anomalies in world football – FIFA’s tolerance of state control of football in China – looks to be coming to an end as the Chinese state publicly loosens its grip on the sport in a new reform drive announced on Monday.
By Mark Baber
August 17 – As Indonesia celebrates its Independence Day, the government has intervened to set up two new competitions for lower league clubs, whilst La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti (pictured), the Chairman of the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) which is currently suspended by FIFA, laments that football in his country has not yet gained its independence.
By Mark Baber
August 14 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Football Federation (AFF) has set its sights on the ASEAN region jointly hosting the 2034 World Cup. Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pictured) has told local media that the 10 ASEAN nations who attended the ASEAN ministerial meeting on Sports in Kuala Lumpur have agreed to conduct a feasibility study.
By Mark Baber
August 13 – The second leg of the historic cup final between Al-Ahly, the top team in the West Bank and Gaza’s champion Shejaia is back on after the Gazan team on Wednesday successfully crossed the Eretz border crossing into the West Bank.
By Mark Baber
August 10 – Sunday’s second leg of the historic cup final between Al-Ahly, the top team in the West Bank and Gaza’s champion Shejaia was called off by the Palestinian Football Federation on Friday as Israel denied entry permits to seven of the Gaza party, including four players, whom it demanded be subjected to questioning.
By David Owen
August 8 – Worawi Makudi, the former FIFA Executive Committee member, is to challenge for the Presidency of the Asean Football Federation (AFF), according to local press. Malaysia’s New Sunday Times reported that the 63-year-old President of the Football Association of Thailand would challenge Sultan Ahmad Shah, the incumbent, at elections in Burma this month.
By David Owen
August 6 – 2022 FIFA World Cup host Qatar has acquired another of the trappings of a top sporting nation, with news that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has this week approved the accreditation of the Doha laboratory for anti-doping analysis.
By Mark Baber
August 5 – The Gulf Cup of Nations (also known controversially as the ‘Arabian Gulf Cup’) has been postponed for a year, officially due to the host Kuwait needing time to complete their infrastructural preparations, but perhaps also due to the fact that five of the usual participants have been bombing one of the others since March of this year.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – A symbolic breakthrough in Middle East football relations will take place on Thursday when a Palestinian team from the Gaza Strip will host West Bank opposition for the first time in 15 years after Israel gave permission for the latter to cross its territory.
August 4 – Tan Seet Eng, otherwise known as Dan Tan, the suspected mastermind of football’s global match-fixing scourge, has failed yet again to win his case against detention in his native Singapore.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – Three months after being replaced on FIFA’s executive committee following an 18-year stint, Thai football boss Worawi Makudi has been found guilty of electoral fraud in his homeland and sentenced to a suspended jail term.
By Mark Baber
July 17 – With Iran, the US, Europe and Russia having reached an historic settlement of the nuclear issue the lifting of economic sanctions and the reintegration of the Islamic Republic into the global economy is likely to transform the fortunes of Iranian football, one way or another.
By Mark Baber
July 15 – Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched an investigation into the accounts of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).