By Andrew Warshaw
July 15 – Intensive behind-the-scenes discussions are expected to take place this weekend as the July 20 deadline for UEFA presidential nominations to succeed Michel Platini approaches.
July 15 – Vincent Labrune, the controversial Olympique Marseille president, will part ways with the club before the start of the 2016/17 Ligue 1 season on August 14 as new money vies to take the reins at the under-performing French colossus.
July 13 – The English Women’s Super League (WSL) is to switch to a winter season and expand to 21 teams by 2017-18. The new league schedule, unlike the men’s game in England, will have a one-month winter break.
July 13 – A household name in English football but little known overseas, Sam Allardyce is emerging as the frontrunner to take over from Roy Hodgson as England manager.
July 12 – The FA Cup, football’s oldest domestic knockout competition, will take place on the Channel Islands for the first time after Guernsey FC were drawn at home in next month’s preliminary round of the competition.
By James Dostoyevsky
July 8 – Angel Maria Villar Llona is a lot of things to a lot of people. He is President of the Spanish Football Association, RFEF. He is the Acting UEFA President. He is the Senior Vice President of UEFA. He is a Vice President of FIFA. He is the Chairman of FIFA’s Legal Committee. He is the Chairman of the FIFA Referees’ Committee. He is the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup.
By Bernd Fisa
July 9 – Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar and captain of his national squad, has invited the widow of the former Italian striker Stefano Borgonovo to attend Sunday’s Final of the European Championship, which will see Portugal go head to head with tournament hosts France.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 7 – Lionel Messi has vowed to appeal and clear his name after being sensationally sentenced to 21 months in prison on three counts of tax fraud. Both Barcelona’s Argentine superstar and his father were handed the same jail term though it is unlikely they will serve time since custodial sentences are regularly suspended in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a term of less than two years.
July 7 – Two Russian players have been punished by their clubs after video evidence showed them partying in Monaco following the national team’s humiliating Euro 2016 exit.
July 6 – The Homeless World Cup kicks off this Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland, with 52 teams and 500 players competing in mens and womens competitions. It concludes July 16.
July 6 – Real Madrid say they will appeal an European Commission ruling that they must reimburse €18.4 million to city authorities because they benefitted from unfair subsidies.
July 6 – The Bundesliga and Premier League will continue to dominate the business of football with their big and modern stadia; France, thanks to new stadia for Euro 2016 are getting better but need to do more, Spain and Italy are off the pace.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – In a ruling that will send alarm bells ringing across the Continent, seven Spanish clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid have been ordered to repay millions of euros of unlawful subsidies after being found guilty of breaking EU state aid rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Fourteen countries have signed a potentially ground-breaking convention between the 47-member Council of Europe and UEFA designed to prevent any repetition of hooliganism at future European Championship finals.
July 4 – Arguably the two most powerful confederations in world football, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and UEFA, have taken steps to improve their collaboration across a range of areas.