By Andrew Warshaw
February 13 – When Manchester United drafted in Louis van Gaal as manager after their embarrassing seventh-place Premier League finish last May, there was one over-riding priority: to get back into the Champions League.
February 13 – Liverpool have added to their sponsorship roster with the announcement of NIVEA MEN as the Club’s Official Men’s Grooming Partner, the club’s first sponsor in this category.
By David Owen
February 12 – FIFA has completed deals selling media rights for the 2026 World Cup in the key United States and Canadian markets. The deals give exclusive broadcast rights to FIFA competitions between 2023 and 2026 in the US to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo, and in Canada to CTV/TSN.
By Paul Nicholson
12 February – Arsenal top the Premier League table of official club Twitter followers with Chelsea close behind. But when it comes to clubs who are working hardest on the their social media, Manchester City top the league in terms of most tweets made, while Manchester United – who trumpet more than 640 million fans worldwide – come rock bottom of the ranking in 20th place, just below Stoke City.
By David Owen
February 12 – FIFA and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organising Committee are at odds over whether the Amazonian city of Manaus would make a suitable venue for next year’s Olympic football tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
February 12 – As many as 1% of sports events could be the subject of betting-related match-fixing, according to leading sports betting monitoring services firm Sportradar. That most likely includes football, the figure could be higher.
By Jamie Styles
February 12 – Scotland could see an unlikely winner of January’s Goal of the Month competition, with a young Celtic fan with Down’s Syndrome among the nominees.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 12 – Moroccan football authorities have come out fighting by refusing to accept the sanctions imposed on them by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for pulling out of hosting the recent Africa Cup of Nations.
February 12 – Paris St Germain and Sao Paulo will head into the Al Kass International Cup semi-finals to face Arsenal and AC Milan this Friday. Real Madrid crashed out losing by a goal to the Brazilians while the stylish defending champions Aspire International from Qatar were knocked out in a return to form by the French.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 12 – As FIFA prepares to formally approve plans to switch the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter to avoid the searing June-July Gulf heat, the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) has denounced football’s world governing body for selfishness over the effect such a decision would have on the winter sports schedule.
By Mark Baber
Februaty 12 – The £260 million redevelopment of the Santiago Bernabéu has been brought to a halt by the High Court of Madrid. The plans had included new hotel facilities, a shopping centre and a redesign of the exterior which had met a mixed response when architects images were revealed at the end of January.
February 12 – While English top-flight football basks in the affluence of its new record-breaking television deal, in Spain, another of the so-called ‘big five’ European leagues, the situation could not be more different with clubs desperate to adopt a similar collective bargaining deal – and prepared to stop playing to make it happen.
February 12 – English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore (pictured) has come under attack from politicians for declaring that he had no problem with clubs paying administrative staff low wages in contrast with the huge salaries paid to players.
By David Owen
February 12 – Women footballers are preparing to take centre-stage at the World Cup in Canada this Summer, but a new report shows they remain on the margins of the sport’s power game.
By Paul Nicholson
February 12 – Ray Whelan, the British director accused of selling VIP World Cup tickets at inflated prices in Brazil, has had all charges against him dropped by the Brazilian justice authorities. While the prosecutor has 15 days to appeal against the decision, it is not expected that there will be a challenge.