ManU Manager José Mourinho faces "another FA investigation" after being sent off at halftime during his side's goalless draw with Burnley at Old Trafford. Referee Mark Clattenburg dismissed Mourinho for a halftime "bust-up, apparently triggered" by the official's refusal to give ManU a penalty for John Flanagan's challenge on Matteo Darmian. Mourinho declined TV and press interviews after the match but his assistant, Rui Faria, "appeared to mock Clattenburg" when he said, "I think the referee did fantastic work. I won't say more than this" (London TELEGRAPH, 10/29).
A-League side Central Coast Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp will "bring up the possibility of having a fifth and sixth official at A-League games" in the wake of the Mariners' "controversial draw" with Western Sydney on Saturday night. The Mariners "were fairly subdued publicly after the game about match officials missing a blatant handball." However, Mielekamp revealed on Sunday that he would "take up the matter" with A-League Head Greg O’Rourke when they meet in Sydney. Mielekamp: "We have had issues in our first four games. The first time, you think, 'OK that’s 50-50,’ the second time you are saying, ‘Gee, we aren’t having any luck,' the third time we are really upset and the fourth one well you are thinking something is not quite working right with the system" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/31).
Asian elections for three additional seats on the new FIFA Council will be held at the end of February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after the extraordinary congress in Goa "was postponed last month, the continent's governing body said on Saturday." Delegates to September's Asian Football Confederation extraordinary congress "voted down the agenda of the meeting in a row over the disqualification of a Qatari candidate" (REUTERS, 10/29).
Saudi Arabia said that it has "thwarted a plan" to bomb a football match in the western city of Jeddah. Militants had plotted to "car-bomb a World Cup 2018 qualifying game between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in October, it says." Officials said that eight suspects have been arrested from two "terrorist cells" (BBC, 10/30).
