By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 5 – Polish construction company PB Dombud has won the PLN 20.5 million (€5 million) contract to modernise Gornik Zabrze’s stadium. The upgraded and expanded stadium will be increased to a capacity of 31,871 spectators.
November 5 – Israeli football usually makes the news when linked to the Middle East crisis but television pictures flashed around the world of dreadful scenes during the Tel Aviv derby have plunged the domestic game into disgrace.
November 3 – UEFA has imposed partial stadium closure orders on both Romania and Hungary after their ill-tempered Euro 2016 qualifying tie – but the sanctions will not affect away fans.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 3 – RasenBallsport Leipzig has unveiled plans to increase the capacity of its stadium. Under the plan, the German club’s stadium will be increased 55,000 as the club targets promotion to the Bundesliga’s top tier and, ultimately, qualification for European competition, an ambition of its Red Bull owners.
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.