By Matt Scott
November 4 – FIFA’s decision to take control of the dysfunctional Hellenic Football Federation faces its first major test this Sunday when Olympiacos host Panathinaikos in the biggest Athens derby.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 27 – John Delaney, the colourful and often controversial chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, has quit his additional role as vice‑president at the Olympic Council of Ireland.
October 27 – Bayer Leverkusen head coach Roger Schmidt has been banned and fined for calling an opposing manager “a nutcase” during a Bundesliga game.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 24 – European leagues are seeking membership of UEFA’s executive committee as part of negotiations to stave off a potential fixture free-for-all next season.
October 24 – The English FA is to increase its budget for women’s football to £17.7 million, a 16% increase, as the national governing body seeks to increase primary school (up to age 11) participation by girls in the game from its current 40%.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 21 – The simmering dispute over proposed changes to the Champions League escalated dramatically today when Europe’s major leagues threatened to rip up their working relationship with UEFA next spring unless the governing body meets their demands for the controversial deal to be either scrapped or tweaked.
October 21 – New UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has given the biggest hint yet that a bidding process will be put in place for staging UEFA’s major club finals.
October 19 – As footballing stories go, few are more uplifting. Two years ago, Gambian refugee Ousman Manneh fled his dictator-led country, leaving behind his entire family, to seek asylum in Germany.
October 18 – UEFA’s ‘No to Racism’ campaign is again under way with the backing of star names, top clubs and – for the first time ever – the Women’s Champions League.
October 18 – The English Football Association has been accused of “institutional failure” by a group of parliamentarians for failing to conduct proper due diligence into Sam Allardyce, the England manager who lasted only 67 days and one game in charge following a newspaper sting that led to him stepping down but which he described as entrapment.
October 17 – European leagues unfairly disadvantaged by the controversial revamping of the Champions League could receive special financial aid from UEFA to offset the three-year deal that favours the Continent’s most affluent clubs.
October 14 – After eight match days the French top flight Ligue 1 has attracted almost 5% less spectators than last season. The downward trend is worrying for French football that had hoped to build on the success of Euro 2016 in terms of attendances to club matches.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 14 – Talks about an Atlantic League featuring clubs from Scotland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sweden – first floated over a decade ago – are back on the table, seemingly in response to UEFA’s decision to revamp the Champions League in favour of Europe’s biggest clubs.
October 13 – At the age of 83, Roger Blanpain, one of FIFPro’s founding fathers and its first president, has passed away in Leuven, Belgium.
October 13 – UEFA have rejected Legia Warsaw’s appeal against a Champions League stadium ban meaning the Polish club will have to play Real Madrid behind closed doors on November 2.