By Paul Nicholson
December 29 – Christmas came twice this year for the legions of Rangers fans who have despaired over the enforced relegation of the Scottish giants from the Scottish Premier League and the club’s on-going ownership battles, not least the situation regarding the corporate marauder from England, Mike Ashley, and his former vice-like grip over the club via his financial power.
By David Owen
December 29 – The famous San Siro stadium in Milan, designated host of this season’s UEFA Champions League final, has been selected along with 10 other venues to stage matches in the 2024 Olympic Games football tournament if Rome succeeds in beating its three rivals.
December 29 – Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs have been given the option of an extra ad space to sell on the their shirts for sponsors logos from the start of next season.
December 23 – The merry-go-round among Europe’s most sought after coaches has taken another decisive step with Bayern Munich confirming that that Pep Guardiola will be succeeded at the end of the season by Carlo Ancelotti.
By Paul Nicholson
December 23 – What came first, greed-driven sports marketing agencies or avaricious sports administrators who jumped at the opportunity to siphon off cash for rights? The answer is probably that the two were always intertwined, but what football needs to avoid at all costs is another ISL or Traffic Sports situation.
By Paul Nicholson
December 22 – As FIFA gathers votes from players, coaches and the media for its annual Ballon D’Or awards ceremony to be held January 16 in Zurich, the CIES Football Observatory has come up with its own list of the best performing big five European league players in 2015 and created, on the basis of stats analysis, the best overall team and best U23 team.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – In the starkest example yet of the European crackdown on Third Party Ownership of players, Dutch top-flight club FC Twente have been banned from European competition for three years by their own federation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – The French president of the international players union FIFpro says the current transfer system encourages third party ownership which he has described as “a monster”.
December 15 – Manchester United and Manchester City players played more times for their countries than any other players at clubs in the Big-5 European leagues, according to research from the CIES Football Observatory.
By Andrew Warshaw in Amsterdam
December 15 – The head of the international players’ union FIFpro says football is facing its “worst ever crisis” because of the imbalance between rich and poor and has urged his members to stick together to safeguard the sport.
December 14 – UEFA president Michel Platini may have long been opposed to goal-line technology but his organisation now realises it can no longer resist its implementation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – UEFA’s top brass have given Michel Platini as much time as possible to try and clear his name to run for FIFA president – but could have a new chief in place themselves at the start of May if he is banned from the game.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – One of the most bizarre cases of alleged foul play has led to Real Madrid’s French striker Karim Benzema being suspended by his national team until an investigation into a blackmail case involving a sex tape has been resolved.
By Paul Nicholson
December 10 – Benchmark Sport’s latest report looks at the UEFA Champions league and the spread of representation of nations and clubs. The findings are that the competition has been increasingly – and perhaps worryingly – centralised around the big leagues and the big clubs.
By Mark Baber
December 9 – The latest monthly report produced by the CIES looks at the issue of birth date bias finding that “players born in the first months of the year are strongly over-represented” in 30 top divisions in Europe – the exception being England where the bias is towards the period September- December as the age classes are based on September 1 rather than January 1.