By Paul Nicholson
January 27 – With Rangers close to running out of cash and being unable to pay wages at the end of the month, the Scottish club has agreed terms for a £10 million loan from companies owned by Mike Ashley, the shareholder a majority of fans are desperate and aggressively campaigning to keep out of the club.
January 27 – UEFA have refused to confirm reports that they are brokering a separate deal for clubs playing in the controversial annexed region of Crimea.
January 27 – Manchester United have signed their first online financial services partner, aimed at exploiting their estimated 659 million fanbase worldwide.
January 27 – Two teams, 770 players, 9 hours, 97 goals and a world record. Arsenal FC broke new boundaries in Indonesia last weekend with the country’s longest non-stop football match ever.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – Michael van Praag, the Dutch football chief who led a much-publicised European rebellion against Sepp Blatter’s leadership of FIFA last summer, emerged today as a surprise late contender to unseat the Swiss veteran at the presidential election in four months’ time.
January 26 – The steps towards a professional league in the Caribbean took another pace forward with the second meeting of the Caribbean Premier League Task Force which reviewed regional stadium infrastructure study with a view to identifying which countries could host league matches.
By Samindra Kunti
January 26 – The Dutch FA, the KNVB, and the Dutch parliament want to tighten the application of the ‘football law’ (Law MBVEO). The proposed amendments are aimed at further reducing violence and incidents at Dutch football grounds.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – David Ginola faces disqualification from his unlikely bid to run for FIFA president for allegedly breaking strict rules over being associated with the betting industry.
By Mark Baber
January 26 – The sense that the deck might be stacked against Iran in international football received a boost over the weekend as they were knocked out of the Asian Cup by Iraq, after a quarter-final match in which one of their players was sent off in a bizarre decision by the Australian referee, and which featured an Iraqi player who had produced a sample which proved positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine whilst playing for an Iranian club last year.
January 26 – A compromise between UEFA and Russian football authorities over the future status of clubs in annexed Crimea could be about to take shape.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – Any doubts about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being staged in winter look to have been swept away, with November-December now the clear favourite in a move that will break with decades of tradition.
January 26 – A row has broken out between former German FA president Theo Zwanziger and Bayern Munich, after a Bayern blog on its official website accused Zwanziger of double standards over his criticism of the club for its friendly against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal.
By Paul Nicholson
January 26 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched his first serious rocket in the race for the leadership of the governing body and his fired it in the direction of Nyon and its grandees at UEFA, and what he sees as their behind the scenes manoeuvring.
January 25 – Just seven months after hosting four World Cup matches, Cuiaba’s Arena Pantanal stadium, is being closed for “emergency repairs”.
January 25 – Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has officially stepped down from his club duties, being replaced by Andrew Umbers until at least April 10 when Cellino’s ban will have been served.