By David Owen
February 9 – FIFA is moving closer to taking action on overly aggressive play by goalkeepers. The organisation’s Medical Committee this week decided to send what chairman Michel D’Hooghe describes as a “strong” letter on the issue to colleagues on the Referees’ Committee.
February 8 – Russia’s Sports Ministry is suing companies building World Cup stadiums for 2.9 billion rubles ($50.8 million) over delays in constructions schedules.
February 8 – Manchester City has signed a new multi-year regional partnership with online trading broker AvaTrade who will become the club’s Official Online Trading Partner for China, Asia and Latin America.
By Mark Baber
February 8 – Football in Ghana, including the Ghana Premier League, First Division and the Ordinary Congress of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has been put on hold as Accra Great Olympics, one of the teams relegated at the end of last season, won an injunction on Monday delaying kick off of the new season until their appeal against relegation is heard.
February 8 – The 2022 World Cup venue designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid will be finished by the end of 2018, according to those responsible for the project.
February 8 – Coca-Cola has announced that its eCOPA Coca-Cola tournament will be an official EA Sports FIFA 18 Global Series qualifier event as part of ‘The Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2018’ that will be played in August.
February 8 – How are the mighty fallen. As a former president of Barcelona and a key figure in the European Clubs Association, Sandro Rosell was used to the high life. Not any longer.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 7 – FIFA’s obsessive attempt to ensure the 2026 World Cup bid process is fair and clean has blown up in its face following the revelation that Morocco was gagged from making a presentation to its own African region last week.
February 7 – Italy’s Serie A has accepted Spanish’s MediaPro offer for rights to broadcast matches for the 2018-21 seasons at just above €1.05 billion.
By Paul Nicholson
February 7 – The fledgling third tier professional division of US football – USL Division III has named FC Tucson as the second fanchise, following the announcement last week of South Georgia Tormenta FC as the first founder member of the league scheduled to kick off in 2019.
February 6 – PepsiCo have renewed their sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League for a second three-year cycle taking them from the start of the 2018/19 until 2021. The deal also includes sponsorship of the UEFA Super Cup in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 6 – Pressure is mounting on Spanish authorities to sort out the aftermath of veteran powerbroker Angel Villar’s demise after yet another intervention by FIFA.
February 6 – It’s been a source of debate for years and years. Should English football copy much of Continental Europe and introduce a Winter break? So far the idea has been resisted both for commercial and traditional reasons, but now the Premier League has revealed it is looking at ways of going down that road.
By Mark Baber
February 6 – The General Sports Authority (GSA), Saudi Football Federation and the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding by which STC will have the sole rights for transmission of local football matches and the matches of Saudi national team.
February 6 – Crystal Palace’s resurgence from bottom of the league to mid-table competitiveness may have slowed in recent weeks, but the clubs’ fans still manage to find more seats to fill at Selhurst Park than the ground’s official capacity. Roy Hodgson is clearly working some kind of magic with fans in south-east London that deserted him in his last job with England.