By David Owen
August 17 – In six and a half decades, RB Leipzig, who take on one of the Middle East-backed super-clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, in Lisbon on Tuesday night, will be the first team from eastern Germany to appear in a Champions League/European Cup semi-final.
August 17 – Armenian football, which has been so plagued by match-fixing that it abandoned its second tier league, has announced a new sponsorship deal with online bookmaker brand VBET, owned by BetConstruct.
August 17 – The political protests sweeping through Belarus have spilled over into football with CSKA Moscow’s Belarusian striker Ilya Shkurin (pictured) saying he won’t play for his country until President Alexander Lukashenko steps down.
August 17 – Is Lionel Messi about to light up the English Premier League? Rumours are rife that Messi wants to leave Barcelona following last week’s 8-2 Champions league humiliation – and that Manchester City, themselves desperate hunting for exciting new players, could be his destination.
By Paul Nicholson
August 14 – Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge Carol Gobin has ruled against FIFA’s application to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by former TTFA board members over their replacement with a normalisation committee.
August 14 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says sweeping changes will have to be made to Financial Fair Play rules in the wake of Manchester City’s successful appeal against a ban from the Champions League.
August 14 – The world’s oldest domestic knockout competition, England’s FA Cup, is to be radically restructured next season to help ease fixture congestion with all replays scrapped in every round.
August 14 – Major League Soccer’s expansion team in St. Louis will officially be known as St. Louis City Soccer Club. The team has also unveiled its official colours and logo.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 13 – With a couple of minutes left on the clock, one of the great romantic upsets was on the cards. In France, pens were being sharpened in anticipation of pouring scorn on yet another Champions League under-achieving failure by the country’s moneybags superstar team.
August 13 – Brazil’s CBF was forced to modify its medical protocol after positive coronavirus tests rocked the opening weekend of the country’s top flight, but, on Tuesday, four infected players were granted permission to play.
August 13 – Concacaf will hold the draw for its reformatted 2022 World Cup qualifiers next Wednesday (August 19), and has announced the seeded pots for the first round group stages that will see 30 teams in action.
August 13 – Switzerland will allow events, including football matches, to be attended by more than 1,000 people from October 1 provided organisers agree to strict hygiene measures and have authorisation from regional authorities.
August 13 – UEFA has handed Northern Ireland’s Linfield a bye into the first qualifying round of the Champions League after their tie with Kosovan side Drita had to be called off on Tuesday due to positive coronavirus tests.
August 13 – Nice have decided to play their opening match in France’s top league behind closed doors when the new season gets under way despite being allowed to have up to 5,000 fans at the game.
August 12 – Serie A’s Atalanta, who face PSG in the quarter finals of the Champions League tonight, have unveiled Intesa Sanpaolo as a club sponsor and banking partner who lead on the financing of a €40 million stadium redevelopment.