February 26 – Blockchain-driven Fan Tokens – football’s version of cryptocurrency – saw AC Milan the latest club to launch with their $ACM Fan Token debuting on Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and raising more than $6 million in new digital revenue in a matter of hours.
February 25 – The German Football League (DFL) is to invite investment bids for a minority stake in its overseas media rights business, according Bloomberg.
February 24 – On Merseyside, Everton are flying high. Following their first derby win in 22 years at Anfield against arch rivals Liverpool, the club’s plans for a 52,000-seat stadium were unanimously approved by the local city council.
February 23 – Kylian Mbappé may still be worth €185 million and Harry Kane alongside Raheem Sterling may still be the world’s second most valuable players at €125 million, but overall the values of players have dropped more than 10% during the pandemic, according to the latest data from KPMG Football Benchmark.
February 23 – Poland’s Legia Warsaw has become the latest football club to join Socios.com’s blockchain-based fan token platform with the launch of the $LEG Fan Token.
February 19 – At the age of just 23, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is the new chairman of English League One club Sunderland – a hugely supported club which in recent years has punched well below its weight – after his takeover was approved by the English Football League.
By Paul Nicholson
February 18 – FIFA has released an international ‘Transfer Market Snapshot’ report that shows the impact of the pandemic on player movement is “even more severe” than it 2020 Global Transfer report.
February 18 – Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas has asked his players to take a pay cut in a bid to mitigate the financial fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic and loss of Ligue 1 TV rights revenue.
February 18 – Serie A’s €1.7 billion private equity deal for a 10% stake in the league’s newly created media business looks to have been scuppered.
February 12 – Robert Platek and his family have become the latest Americans to take ownership of an Italian club, having completed the takeover of Serie A’s Spezia.
By David Owen
February 11 – Accounts have been filed for Chelsea, showing that the West London club appears to have repaid a modest amount of funding to Russian owner Roman Abramovich in 2019-20.
By Paul Nicholson
February 11 – The drop in transfer spending as a result of the global pandemic will not be a one-off occurrence but the start of a correction of the whole transfer business, according the KPMG Football Benchmark researchers.
February 10 – Salary caps for players in England’s League One and League Two, representing the third and fourth tiers of English football, have been scrapped following a decision by an independent arbitration panel – just eight months after they were introduced.
February 10 – Brazilian club Flamengo is seeking a €5.3 million loan to provide working capital for the start of the 2021 season.
February 10 – In a city where the lead striker of one of the world’s biggest clubs collects honours for fighting a campaign to maintain free school meals and fight child hunger, the clubs themselves have gorged on the transfer market at world leading levels.