October 31 – In an unprecedented ruling that has stunned Scottish football as well as his English parent club, Celtic’s Bulgarian international winger Aleksandar Tonev has been handed a seven-match ban for racial abuse.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – English football authorities have split public opinion by clamping down hard on former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand and one of the country’s top referees, Mark Clattenburg, for two unrelated misdemeanours.
By David Owen
October 30 – The construction and renovation of the 10 football stadia to be used for Euro 2016 is generating a total of 20,000 jobs in the building and services sector, according to Patrick Kanner, the French Sports Minister.
October 30 – English second-tier club Bolton Wanderers are playing down rumours of a potential takeover by a Thai consortium which would represent the latest foreign incursion into English football.
October 30 – Real Madrid have struck another deal with affluent Gulf investors as they bid maintain their status as the world’s richest club.
October 29 – UEFA has reduced on appeal CSKA Moscow’s stadium ban imposed for serious fan trouble at their Champions League match at Roma – but any further outbreaks over the next five years and UEFA will almost certainly come down even harder on the club.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 29 – Poland’s I Liga, the second tier of the country’s professional football league, is pushing local clubs to upgrade their stadiums with the aim of securing a new broadcasting rights deal. Starting in the 2015/2016 season, the sides will be required to install lighting at their sports facilities to enable evening matches.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 29 – Sepp Blatter has re-iterated his view that boycotting the 2018 World Cup in Russia will serve no legimitate purpose but has revealed for the first time that if they qualify Ukraine will not be placed in the same group as the hosts unless relationships between the two neighbours improve.
By Mark Baber
October 28 – The presence of Hong Kong-based businessman Richard Lee with Silvio and Barbara Berlusconi (pictured) at AC Milan’s 1-1 draw with Fiorentina on Sunday has sparked media speculation of a China link for the Rossoneri.
October 28 – Real Madrid are to appeal against a three-month suspension slapped on former World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane for not having the right coaching qualifications.
October 28 – Barcelona, who fell foul of FIFA’s regulations on the transfer of youth players and were forced to clean up their act, have proof that their system does in fact work following figures from the CIES Football Observatory that show the club leads the way in Europe’s big-5 leagues in numbers of youth players making it through to their first team, as well as providing more players from their system to other big-5 league clubs.
By David Owen
October 28 – UEFA has agreed to chip in an extra €20 million for the 10 Euro 2016 host cities. The financial package will be released in two instalments, the first at once and the second after the competition finishes. The tournament, to be played in France, will be the 15th European Championship and the first to be contested by 24 teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 27 – Here today, gone virtually tomorrow. In less than seven months since taking over the club, Italian entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has turned Leeds United – not so long ago the proudest and most successful club in English football – into a laughing stock by sacking yet another manager almost as soon as he has walked through the door.
By Andrew Warshaw
Ocotber 27 – His ban for biting may be over and last weekend’s Barcelona debut may have been incident-free but the infamy Luis Suarez brought on himself at the World Cup continues to generate widespread fascination.
October 27 – Michel Platini has re-ignited his well-publicised falling-out with FIFA president Sepp Blatter by accusing the veteran Swiss of having stopped serving the cause of football.