By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – Despite being well beaten in both legs, Celtic were dramatically given a Champions League lifeline today after Legia Warsaw were kicked out for fielding an ineligible player – the second time in recent years that the Scots have earned a lucky reprieve.
By Paul Nicholson
August 8 – Clubs and leagues could be missing out on up to 30% of the value of their international media sales inventory, according to a leading digital replacement advertising board specialist. New technology is now unlocking added sponsorship real estate as well as opening rightsholders to advertising clients that would previously never have considered the opportunity.
August 8 – Luis Suarez’ appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has begun in Switzerland, the outcome determining whether the Uruguay international will have to serve a four-month ban for infamously biting an opponent at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – US sportswear giant Nike has outpaced its German rival Adidas in supplying kit to Europe’s top five leagues ahead of the 2014/15 season for the first time since 2009-10 according to new statistics supplied by Sports marketing research group Repucom and PR Marketing.
By Ben Nicholson
August 8 – The mid-week MLS All-Star game set another high mark for this summer of US soccer that has seen all records being broken. Bayern Munich were defeated 2-1 in the 19th All-Star game in front 21,733 spectators at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, sponsored by AT&T.
August 7 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the newly merged body running club football in the country, has announced an increase in its broadcast partnerships that are “worth a substantial six-figure sum to be distributed across all 42 clubs.”
By Mark Baber
August 7 – German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach has repeated his comments that his country may withdraw from the bidding to host the latter stages of Euro 2020, being spread across the entire continent, in order to concentrate on staging 2024 on its own.
August 7 – Luis Segura has been confirmed as president of the Argentine FA until October next year following the death of Julio Grondona.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 7 – The decision to use artificial turf for next year’s Women’s World Cup is developing into a major row with some of the world’s leading players now even suggesting the move violates their human rights.
August 7- Indications that Volgograd will retain host status for the Russia 2018 World Cup could not have been stronger with the announcement that the Zenit sports complex in the city will receive 56 million rubles ($1.5 million) for reconstruction enabling it to become one of the training centres for the tournament.
August 7 – England’s leading referee Howard Webb, who took charge of the 2010 World Cup final, has ended his 25-year career on the pitch – and will now scrutinise the performances of his colleagues instead.
August 7 – Nigerian football is being made to take more time to regroup following the removal of its president and the threat by FIFA, subsequently lifted, of suspension. A federation Congress scheduled for later this month which would see elections to the board will likely be pushed back a month.
August 7 – Frenchman Patrice Neveu became the third coaching casualty in quick succession in the wake of last weekend’s African Nations Cup qualifiers after Mauritania lost 1-0 at home to Uganda to go out 3-0 on aggregate.
August 6 – With so much competition at home, another British coach plying his trade overseas to make a name for himself is moving up the international ladder.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 6 – In a major triumph for his employers who have long protested his innocence, Ray Whelan, the British director of FIFA’s World Cup marketing affiliate Match who has been at the centre of a ticket tout investigation in Brazil, has been freed from Rio’s notorious Bangu prison on bail.