By Paul Nicholson
May 11 – The Berlusconi family, owners of Italy’s AC Milan, have opened exclusive talks for the sale of a majority stake in the club to a group of Chinese investors.
May 10 – Romania’s interior ministry has suspended the licence of a private ambulance company that transported Dinamo Bucharest and Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng to hospital after he collapsed during a match last Friday and died shortly afterwards.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – European football is looking for a new leader after Michel Platini announced he was stepping down as UEFA president, albeit under protest, after losing his fight to clear his name for breaching FIFA’s ethics rules.
By Matt Scott
May 9 – The Greek Football Cup final scheduled for Saturday was postponed by the government amid safety fears for the match.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9 – Football’s world players’ union FIFPro has raised concern about the level of first-aid treatment for footballers in Romania following the tragic death of Dinamo Bucharest and Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng on Friday.
May 6 – He’s only been there since October but Jurgen Klopp and his improving Liverpool team are 90 minutes away – barring extra time and penalties – from playing Champions League football next season.
By Matt Scott
May 5 – Glasgow Rangers escaped being stripped of historic league titles by the Scottish Football Association on false pretences, a report by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) has alleged.
May 5 – European and Portuguese police claim to have put a stop to a mainly Russian criminal gang laundering money through football in Portugal.
As Europe’s blazered football leaders filed out of Budapest following one of the shortest UEFA congresses on record, how many of them were examining their consciences?
May 4 – Portuguese police have carried out searches at several clubs, including Lisbon rivals Benfica and Sporting, as part of ‘Operation Matryoshka Dolls’, an investigation into suspected money laundering with possible links to Russian crime.
By Paul Nicholson
May 4 – On the day that FIFA president Gianni Infantino addressed his former UEFA colleagues in Budapest with a plea for them to forgo their $5 million grants from FIFA for the greater good of developing world football, KPMG’s Football Benchmark team (also based in Budapest) produced an analysis of how UEFA has distributed its substantial wealth from its two major competitions (Champions League and Europa League) over the past three seasons.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – Kosovo finally won its long battle for footballing recognition today when it became the 55th member of UEFA and, like Gibraltar, could now be fast-tracked into the 2018 World Cup qualifying programme.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – UEFA finally acknowledged today it is preparing for life after Michel Platini by tabling an emergency meeting of its executive committee later this month with a view to choosing an election date in case its French president loses his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the outcome of which will be announced within a week.
May 3 – The CIES Football Observatory has released more details of its ranking of the best players in the Big 5 European leagues for this season. Dortmund’s Mats Hummels leads the list of best centrebacks while Atlético Madrid’s Filipe Luís tops the full back table.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 2 – European football looks set to be without an elected leader until September if banned UEFA boss Michel Platini fails to clear his name over alleged ethics violations.