By Samindra Kunti
August 4 – The KNVB, the Dutch FA, is implementing a structural reform of its domestic club football. From the 2016/17 season onwards professional and amateur football in the Netherlands will be integrated through a mandatory system of promotion and relegation.
By Mark Baber
August 3 – The victory of Paris St Germain in the Trophee des Champions has been greeted by predictable headlines regarding the club’s dominance of French soccer, but statistical analysis shows that behind Arsenal’s victory over Chelsea on Sunday lies an historically significant stranglehold on the Community Shield by a small group of England’s top clubs.
Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur will meet in the first semi-finals of the Audi Cup in the Allianz Arena tomorrow, with a place in the final of the competition on Wednesday up for grabs. They will be followed by Bayern Munich vs AC Milan. Both matches can be viewed free on Insideworldfootball – note some countries are geo-restricted so check your local broadcast schedules. The link to the Real vs Spurs match is http://bit.ly/1KLQoQ2,
By Samindra Kunti
August 3 – Ronaldinho Gaucho marked his winning return to Brazilian football at the weekend with an assist against Gremio. He has a contract with Fluminense until December 2016, but did the Rio club just sign him for marketing reasons?
By Alexander Krassimirov
August 3 – There were more scenes of players being attacked by fans in Bulgaria at the weekend at a pre-season friendly between CSKA Sofia and Ironi Ashdod FC from Israel. Enraged CSKA Sofia Ultras stormed on to the pitch in Sofia on Sunday evening and charged at the Israeli players. The fans were angered by a series of hard fouls against CSKA players.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, chairman of the 2018 World Cup Organising Committee and a FIFA executive committee member, looks set to cement his power base even further by becoming head of his country’s football federation after his only rival for the position, Igor Lebedev, withdrew from next month’s election.
August 3 – A domestic English spat that has gained widespread publicity continues to rumble on. Attempts to change the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers appeared to have been buried for good last month when the English Football Association’s council rejected the name change application for a second time.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – Paraguay has offered to be one of the five official nominees for UEFA boss Michel Platini’s bid for the FIFA presidency, the country’s federation said in a letter sent to FIFA.
By David Owen in Kuala Lumpur
August 3 – Sepp Blatter, FIFA President at least for another six months, has ceased to be a member of world sport’s most powerful club.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – The name of Tokyo Sexwale is being whispered as a potential candidate for the FIFA presidency with business leaders and politicians apparently encouraging the South African businessman to consider running for football’s top job and bring about the global change the organisation needs.
July 31 – A Europa league qualifier between FK Kukesi of Albania and Legia Warsaw was abandoned Thursday when a Legia player was struck by a stone thrown from the crowd.
The Insideworldfootball LIVE MATCH CHANNEL continues this weekend with the start of the EAFF East Asian Cup tournament from Wuhan, China. We have every match from both men’s and women’s competitions live. Japan, South Korea, China and North Korea are the qualified teams in both finals competitions. The women kick off Saturday August 1 with North Korea against World Cup finalists Japan, followed by China vs South Korea (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/watch-live-football/eaff-womens). The men kick off the following day with North Korea vs Japan and China vs South Korea (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/watch-live-football).
By Mark Baber
July 31 – A Council of Appeals ruled Thursday that 85 out of a possible 158 original defendants should go on trial for a variety of offences related to the match-fixing scandal of 2010-11, including membership of a criminal organisation, bribery, manipulation of results and illegal betting.