Age is just a number, but Lazio’s Minala is 17, judge rules

May 30 – Disagreements concerning over-age players is nothing new but to suggest a player is 25 years older than he actually is is surely unprecedented.
May 30 – Disagreements concerning over-age players is nothing new but to suggest a player is 25 years older than he actually is is surely unprecedented.
By Mark Baber
May 29 – The Legal Affairs Commission of the lower house of the Swiss parliament has proposed a draft law which, if passed by the legislature, will impose stricter rules against money laundering.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – In what is being flagged up as the end of an era, Italy is set to outlaw co-ownership of players from next season, falling into line with the rest of Europe. Italy is the last main footballing nation in Europe under which two teams can effectively share half a particular player’s contract and economic rights.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 29 – The Bulgarian Football Union has signed a new multi-year contract with the Spanish sports appareil firm Joma. The company will kit out all of Bulgaria’s national teams and replaces Italian sportswear brand Kappa, whose contract was terminated terminated by mutual consent.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – Almost two years after the original sanction, former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut has had his life ban reduced to 10 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but his career is still effectively over.
By Ben Nicholson
May 29 – International footballers’ association FIFPro and UEFA and Birkbeck, University of London, have combined to produce a ‘Good Practice Guide’ which will be presented at the closing conference of Don’t Fix it in Slovenia next week.
May 28 – UEFA’s relentless crackdown on match manipulation has seemingly gone one step too far after the organisation itself was sanctioned for wrongly accusing a Croatian referee. But whether Europe’s governing body rules the punishment binding and pays up is a different matter.
By Tom Parsons
May 28 – Adidas has launched its World Cup marketing and social media campaign, and in a breakaway from the traditional approach by brands to social media, the sportswear giant is allowing people to make the decision to be “all in” or “nothing” with Adidas during the world’s biggest football tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – The match-fixing epidemic that has swept through world football has been underlined by UEFA teaming up with Europol to combat organised crime. The European Union’s police agency says it is involved in nine separate investigations linked to match-fixing and will share information with UEFA on suspected rigging and illegal betting within Europe’s 54 national federations.
May 27 – Real Madrid’s Champions League triumph over Atletico Madrid wasn’t their only success of the past few days against Spanish rivals. Off the field, the European Club Association have appointed Real vice-president Pedro Lopez Jimenez as its 2nd vice chairman.
By Mark Baber
May 27 – The alleged flare thrower, who injured APOEL player Kaka (pictured) during the Cypriot league decider between AEL Limassol and Apoel Nicosia, has been released on bail. Meanwhile APOEL supporters will be holding a march this evening to protest the Cyprus Football Federation (CFA) decision to repeat the game on neutral ground without fans.
May 27 – Despite football’s lawmakers insisting scientific aids for referees will never go beyond goal-line technology, FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has indicated he would seek a change in the rules if he succeeds in his unlikely bid to oust Sepp Blatter next year.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 27 – Lech Poznan has extended its sponsorship deal with Polish betting operator STS by a further two years. STS is using its sponsorship to launch the first TV advertising campaign by a betting operator on Polish television.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 26 – The owner of Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia Todor Batkov has hit out at UEFA’s sanctions accusing gas giant Gazprom for failing to deliver on its promised sponsorship. Batkov claims that if the sponsorship had been activated the fine would not have been imposed on the club.
By David Owen
May 26 – Manchester United’s annus horribilis has pushed them down to third place in a listing of the 50 most valuable football club brands drawn up by Brand Finance, the brand valuation and strategy consultancy. United have swapped places with Real Madrid, the newly-crowned European champions, having seen almost $100 million wiped off their brand value since 2013, according to Brand Finance’s assessment.