By Mark Baber
July 19 – UEFA has taken the decision to keep teams from Russia and Ukraine apart in European competition but are allowing the Ukrainian teams to play home games despite fears over the security situation in the country.
July 18 – An Australian court has sanctioned a third British footballer for his part in a match-fixing racket that rigged games in the semi-professional league in the state of Victoria.
July 18 – World champions Germany as expected top the latest FIFA world rankings but England have slumped to their lowest position – 20th – for 18 years.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 18 – German Formula One driver Nico Rosberg has been forced to ditch plans to wear a specially designed helmet in celebration of his country’s World Cup triumph after FIFA said an image of the trophy would breach intellectual property rights.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 18 – The increasingly dangerous military conflict in the Middle East has had an immediate impact on football with UEFA barring Israeli teams from playing European matches at home while the fighting between Israel and Hamas continues.
July 18 – Costa Rican fans living in the US will have the opportunity to see their World Cup heroes back in competitive action this September when the Copa Centroamericana kicks off in Washington with the Los Ticos taking on Nicaragua in the opening match.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 18 – FIFA looks set to lift its suspension on Nigeria imposed because of government interference in the affairs of the country’s national federation.
By Mark Baber
July 18 – 12BET, the sports betting brand, have confirmed a new two-year sponsorship of Hull City Tigers. The sponsorship is the largest in the club’s history, following a successful season in the Premier League and an FA Cup run that saw the club make it all the way to the final, though not to lift the trophy.
July 18 – City Football Group (CFG) – the company that owns Manchester City FC, Manchester City Women’s FC, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, and a stake in Yokohama F·Marinos – has unveiled its first sponsor partner across all its football holdings.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
July 17 – Legia Warsaw has extended its sponsorship with PepsiCo by a further three years. Under the deal, the company’s Gatorade brand will become the official sponsor of the Polish club’s Football Academy youth project.
By Mark Baber
July 17 – Real Madrid tops the annual Forbes list of the world’s most valuable sports teams, for the second year in a row, with Barcelona and Manchester United swapping places from last year in second and third place respectively.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 17 – Barcelona have announced that Luis Suarez is now “100 percent” their player even though they cannot officially unveil the £75 million striker because of his FIFA ban for biting at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 17 – Sierra Leone is the latest country to be hit by a serious match-fixing scandal after national team captain Ibrahim Kargbo (pictured) was suspended along with 14 other players and officials. The country’s sports ministry and the Sierra Leone Football Association said the 15 are alleged to have tried to fix the outcome of a 0-0 draw against South Africa in a second round qualifier for the 2010 African Nations Cup.
July 17 – Keylor Navas, whose sensational performances in goal for World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica earned him worldwide plaudits, has had a stadium named after him back home.
July 17 – CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb says the expansion of the Soccerex sports business conference to his region will help create unity among the individual federations.