April 7 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has a busy month unravelling the qualification mess that FIFA’s Club World Cup has become following the late barring of Club León from the competition over multi-club ownership rules.
April 3 – Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti (pictured), who is standing trial for tax evasion in the Spanish capital, told its Provincial Court on Wednesday that he “never thought about committing fraud.”
April 2 – Carlo Ancelotti is widely considered the best club coach in the history of football. As coach of AC Milan, Chelsea, and now Real Madrid, the Italian has won everything, however, he’s now facing potentially one of his biggest battles as he will have to stand trial on charges of defrauding Spain’s Tax Office to the tune of more than €1 million (£836,857).
March 31 – Former Barcelona and Brazil player Daniel Alves has won his appeal against a rape conviction, with a Spanish court overturning the ruling.
March 31 – Former New Zealand international goalkeeper, Jake Gleeson, has been awarded over $20 million by a jury in his medical malpractice lawsuit against the Portland Timbers team doctor, Dr. Richard H. Edelson.
March 26 – Joey Barton has never lived a quiet life and yesterday was found guilty of assaulting his wife.
March 26 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were again acquitted of corruption charges on Tuesday, after Swiss prosecutors appealed a previous ruling that cleared them over a payment of two million Swiss francs in 2011.
March 11 – Seven members of Diego Maradona’s medical team who treated the former Argentine superstar before his death have gone on trial, charged with homicide, in Buenos Aires.
March 10 – Fecafoot boss Samuel Eto’o has scored a victory at the highest court in sport to allow him to run for an executive committee seat at the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
March 7 – Spanish prosecutors are seeking a retrial of the country’s disgraced former FA leader Luis Rubiales, arguing the judge incorrectly kept some evidence from the court and questioning his impartiality.
March 6 – The umbrella body covering Europe’s major leagues says it won’t back down in its legal dispute with FIFA and that it is increasingly confident of its case.
Last October, European Leagues joined forces with FIFPRO, the players’ international union, in filing a complaint to the European Commission over FIFA’s “abuse of dominant position”, specifically the international match calendar.
March 6 – Former UEFA boss Michel Platini was accused of fraud in order to scupper his chances of becoming the head of FIFA, his lawyer claimed at the Frenchman’s corruption trial.
March 6 – Despite losing its recent court battle with the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and Major League Soccer (MLS), the North American Soccer League (NASL) is requesting a new trial.
March 5 – The Swiss public prosecutor in the Sepp Blatter/Michel Platini fraud trial has requested suspended sentences of 20 months for the former FIFA and UEFA chiefs for allegedly cheating FIFA out of CHF2 million.
March 4 – A frail-looking Sepp Blatter told the opening day of his latest fraud trial that he was not guilty of “falsehoods, lies and deception”.