By David Owen
January 31 – The market continues to applaud BT’s high-profile push into sports broadcasting, in spite of the impact its strategy is having on costs both in its retail division and at rival Premier League broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.
By Paul Nicholson
January 31 – A new app using crowdsourced insights into betting patterns has been launched for iPads. BETFUZE, a London-based technology driven business, has developed the app as a tool for sports betting.
January 31 – The management-led buyout of English Chamoionship club Leeds United has fallen apart with the incoming consortium Sport Capital, headed by Leeds managing director David Haigh, failing to conclude a deal to buy 75% of the club from Bahrain-based investment bank GFH Capital.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
January 31 – Former Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has been forced to relinquish all his roles within the European Club Association following his decision to quit the Catalan giants. Rosell, who played a key role in promoting the interests of more than 200 clubs, is no longer taking part in any decision making at the ECA and has left a huge gap in ongoing club-versus-country negotiations with FIFA and UEFA.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 31 – In one of the starkest examples of the financial crisis enveloping Spanish football below elite level, the Copa del Rey quarterfinal between Racing Santander and Real Sociedad was abandoned when the Santander players went on strike because of unpaid wages.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 30 – In a bid to increase the club’s following in various parts of Poland, Legia Warsaw has launched a countrywide advertising campaign employing billboards, press and the internet. But the campaign may have backfired after fans of other clubs took insult at the ads appearing in the their cities.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – The Italian football federation has kicked third division club Nocerina out of the division as punishment for their players faking injury.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 30 – Seven Fenerbahce fans were detained following their teams’ Spor Toto Super League game against Konyaspor on 27 January. More than a dozen fans were taken to the police office in the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium after the game. After interviews, police detained seven of the fans, taking them to a nearby police station.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – The English Premier League maybe the most watched televised league globally but German football is still the best attended and continues to set an example when it comes to economic stability and collective responsibility.
By Paul Nicholson
January 29 – The President of the Polish Football Association, Zbigniew Boniek, has joined the Supervisory board of Poland’s Ekstraklasa, the country’s top league.
January 28 – UEFA boss Michel Platini has taken another opportunity to promote his preferred system of additional assistant referees (AARs) to help with contentious calls.
January 28 – Russia and Georgia have agreed to end their footballing stand-off and play each other if paired together in next month’s draw for the Euro 2016 qualifying tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
January 28 – Darlington FC, one of England’s oldest football clubs, is staging a financial comeback, allbeit on a small scale. The club has introduced a ‘crowdfunding’ initiative to raise an initial £50,000 with further targets of £150,000 as the next steps.
By Alexander Krassimirov
January 28 – Dissatisfied with the management of Levski Sofia fans decided to create a supporters’ trust. The association will be named Blue Bulgaria, and its purpose will be to raise funds that will be invested in the club, but only under certain conditions.
January 27 – Sir Alex Ferguson, appointed last week as UEFA’s new coaching ambassador to “teach the teachers”, has denounced the culture of sacking managers at the first sign of crisis.