By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – Football politics moves in unpredictable ways. Not so long ago, then English FA chief Greg Dyke criticised Qatar being awarded the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup as the “worst moment” in FIFA’s history.
By Paul Nicholson
February 14 – The Jersey FA is seeking to become the 56th member of UEFA at the confederation’s Congress in Bratislava, Slovakia, next week. The island nation, part of the British Isles, has increased its lobbying and sharpened its case for inclusion, including making its case to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
February 13 – Just days after a FIFA delegation led by secretary general Fatma Samoura, met with Spanish officials to discuss concerns about government interference in the aftermath of veteran powerbroker Angel Villar’s demise, the Spanish football federation (RFEF) announced it is finally holding elections in April to select Villar’s replacement.
February 13 – La Liga and Serie A are in battle for the services of Javier Tebas, the longstanding and mercurial Spanish league president. The Italian league has made an approach to lure him away from Spain.
February 12 – Portugal claimed their maiden UEFA Futsal Championship title by defeating Spain 3-2 in extra time in Slovenia. In Asia, Iran took the highest honours, beating Japan 4-0.
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.
February 2 – A month before he was due to take part in a key vote to decide the future of video technology, Stewart Regan has stepped down as chief executive of the Scottish Football Association after eight years saying he recognised the “need for change”.
February 2 – A French referee who aimed a kick at a Nantes player before sending him off in a high-profile top-flight fixture against Paris St-Germain and was immediately suspended has now been banned for six months, half of which is suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he would never have organised such a convulated pan-European tournament for 2020 and has issued a veiled attack on his predecessor Michel Platini for doing so.
By Samindra Kunti
January 31 – Flemish authorities shattered construction plans for Belgium’s ‘Eurostadium’ on Tuesday. In December Brussels was stripped by UEFA of its Euro 2020 hosting rights and replaced by London’s Wembley Stadium after delays in the stadium project.
By Mark Baber
January 30 – The Italian FA (FIGC) were unable to elect a new president on Monday, despite four rounds of voting, underlining the crisis in Italian football which has seen racism tolerated at the highest levels, seen the national team (currently coach-less) eliminated in qualifying for the World Cup and now sees vacancies in the top positions at the FIGC and Serie A.
January 30 – Marc Bartra, Borussia Dortmund’s Spanish defender injured when the team bus was bombed last April, says he is lucky to be alive.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 24 – It may look fiendishly unwieldly and complicated on paper but UEFA are convinced that their much-trumpeted Nations League competition, the draw for which was made today, will very quickly catch on and become an integral part of the European football landscape.
January 24 – UEFA is considering imposing a cap on agents’ fees following a meeting of its Professional Football Strategy Group.
January 23 – A ground-breaking agreement between Spanish football and authorities in Saudi Arabia has received a furious rebuke from Spain’s football union which says the arrival of nine Saudi players in La Liga will harm local development and is purely a money-earning exercise.