By Andrew Warshaw
October 22 – Bemoaning the fact that Europe’s top 14 clubs pocket around half the revenue on offer from the Champions league, the umbrella organisation for Europe’s major leagues have renewed their call to UEFA to impose greater competitive balance between the haves and have-nots.
October 22 – The proposed £600 million sale of Wembley stadium that would have helped fund the development of grass-roots football in England collapsed because of “old men” who are “living in the past” according to former Football Association chairman Greg Dyke.
October 19 – International Turkish midfielder Arda Turan, on loan from Barcelona, has been fined €370,000 by Istanbul Basaksehir following his part in an alleged nightclub altercation with well-known Turkish pop singer Berkay Sahin.
October 19 – Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain, desperate to finally land the Champions League after years of trying, could face sanctions from UEFA after European football’s governing body announced it was opening an investigation into crowd trouble at the group match against Red Star Belgrade earlier this month.
October 19 – UEFA’s get-tough policy on financial fair play has snared one of Russia’s best-known clubs, with Rubin Kazan banned for a season after they were found to have broken spending rules.
October 18 – The dispute over plans to play a La Liga fixture in the USA in January has taken yet another twist with Real Madrid officially protesting the move by writing to Spain’s football federation.
October 17 – Turkish prosecutors have charged Barcelona midfielder Arda Turan over a brawl with a well-known Turkish pop singer and have called for a jail sentence of 12 years.
October 17 – Has he made a comeback after all? According to the website of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko has regained the RFU presidency despite reports that he had been overlooked because of his alleged role in the recent doping scandal.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Two ex-presidents of the German FA, Wolfgang Niersbach (pictured left) and Theo Zwanziger (pictured right), plus former general secretary Horst Schmidt have won a landmark legal case after a Frankfurt court rejected tax evasion charges against them saying there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
October 16 – The European Parliament is to host a high-level session in Brussels tonight to tackle the growing problem of child trafficking in sport, primarily focusing on football.
October 16 – Any hopes that Vitaly Mutko (pictured), for years one of FIFA’s most influential administrators, might have had of returning to the forefront of Russian football appear to have been dashed, with Alexander Dyukov likely to be appointed as head of the national federation.
October 15 – UEFA is boosting its women’s development funding for member associations by an extra €50,000 annually from 2020.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 15 – UEFA has firmly denied reports that it has banned Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, from televising qualifying games in the disputed occupied territories.
October 15 – Tiny Gibraltar, who spent years trying to get FIFA and UEFA recognition, finally won their first competitive game last Friday – but only after being accidentally mistaken for fellow minnows Liechtenstein.
October 11 – With UEFA’s 55 nations entering their second and third rounds of Nations League fixtures the European governing body has announced a 50% increase in solidarity fees and a similar boost in prize money for group winners.