By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 13 March 2011 . Manchester City’s Patrick Vieira has today voiced his strong support for France’s bid to stage the 2018 Ryder Cup, saying it represents the legacy option for golf in Europe. Vieira, 34, who won the football World Cup with France in an […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 13 March 2011 . At least two Scottish women’s international footballers are taking legal advice on the possible repercussions of playing for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, sources north of the border say. They cannot legally be prevented from playing, if selected, but are […]

By Nick Harris 8 February 2011 Super Bowl XLV on Sunday evening set an all-time TV viewing record in America as an average audience of 111m people watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, beating the previous record (the 2010 Super Bowl, 106.5m) into second place. But that isn’t the only positive news […]

By Nick Harris 7 January 2011 As Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter said today that he expects the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be staged in winter for the safety of the players, Qatar’s 2022 bid website was unavailable, therefore couldn’t remind the world of the promises Qatar made of cooling technologies to allow a […]

By Nick Harris 19 December 2010 Intelligence officers from MI5 and possibly M16 too are working on secondment on the London 2012 Olympic Games project, contributing to security and anti-terrorist initiatives. Sources say some are ’embedded’ within the Olympic Park in London, working undercover, and more detail can be found in today’s ‘Inside Sport’ column […]

By Nick Harris 7 December 2010 As the Fifa vice-president Jack Warner claims that the world governing body could not have voted for England’s 2018 World Cup bid because of the English media, sportingintelligence publishes an extract from a secret Fifa document (scan at bottom of page) that shows some of his own colleagues believed […]

By Nick Harris 6 December 2010 An anti-homophobia group that campaigns for equality in football has criticised the decision of Fifa’s executive committee to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a nation where homosexuality is a crime that can carry a five-year prison term. That sanction is not theoretical – Qatar has had cases […]

By Pete Wilson 2 December 2010 Russia won the right to stage the 2018 World Cup today after a Fifa Executive Committee vote sent England crashing out in the first round. Qatar then landed the right to host the 2022 event after four rounds of voting, having led every round. The result means Fifa will […]

By Nick Harris in Zurich 2 December 2010 With only Russia still left to make their 2018 World Cup bid presentation, England remain favourites to win the right to host the event, with their odds coming in slightly after a slick presentation here featuring David Beckham, PM David Cameron and Prince William. All the presentations […]

By Nick Harris 18 November 2010 The battle for the right to stage the 2018 World Cup is wide open today as a race already full of twists and turns – with more to come – enters its final fortnight. After an investigation by Fifa’s ethics committee in the wake of reports of corruption by […]