August 8 – After 30 years in charge, Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to sell Serie A giant AC Milan to a group of Chinese investors for €740 million, a price that includes about €220 million of debt.
August 8 – Nineteen members of La Familia, the rightwing faction of Beitar Jerusalem, whose fans are regarded as the most hostile in Israel, have been charged with attempted murder, aggravated sabotage, racist offenses and illegal possession of weapons.
August 5 – Two days after the mass resignations of Turkey’s leading football executives, ostensibly to assist the government investigation into US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who the authorities accuse of being behind the coup that left more than 200 people dead, almost 100 other staff, many of them referees, have now been suspended, boosting the autocratic regime of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
August 5 – UEFA have unveiled their final three nominations for the Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann and Cristiano Ronaldo – all three play for Madrid clubs and had outstanding European Championship performances for their countries this summer.
August 4 – With the European season set to start over the next three weeks across the Big Five markets, a raft of new managers will be looking to bring early success to their new clubs and avoid the mid-season managerial change threat.
August 4 – He’s managed several Belgian internationals at club level and now he’s in charge of the entire national team.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 3 – UEFA presidential candidate Michael van Praag insists he is the right man to ensure unity in European football and offset what he describes as the “forces that want to drive us apart.”
August 3 – Hibernian manager Neil Lennon has been slapped with a five-match European touchline ban by UEFA after he was sent to the stands in the club’s recent Europa League loss to Brondby.
August 2 – He claimed he was forced to work 14 hours a day, often with no meal breaks, fined thousands of Euros if he was late for training by even 30 seconds and spend hours on end standing in the city centre selling newspapers.
August 1 – The failed military coup in Turkey has spilled over into football with the entire governing board of the Turkish FA resigning.
By Paul Nicholson
July 29 – Chinese investors are reportedly circling around a third English Championship club. Leeds United, like Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers that are both under new Chinese ownership, are considered a ‘sleeping giant’ waiting to return to their glory years. Chinese money could provide the boost they need to achieve this.
July 28 – UEFA, midway through its five-year Football and Social Responsibility (FSR) strategic and budgetary cycle, has published its third FSR report reviewing the activities of the 2014/15 season.
July 27 – More than 50 fans of Beitar Jerusalem, the club that contains the most notorious group of hooligans in Israeli football, have been rounded up following a series of police raids.
July 27 – Nottingham Forest, subject of a bid from controversial Greek businessman and Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis, has been hit with a capacity reduction of their City Ground stadium of 20% for safety reasons.
July 27 – Controversial Spanish FA president Angel Maria Villar Llona says he plans to seek re-election at home later this year if he fails in his bid to become UEFA president.