By Osasu Obayiuwana
February 4 – Eight months have passed, since the 2019 CAF Champions League final, the most controversial in the history of African football, took place, as the pairings for the quarter-finals for this year’s edition are about to be made.
February 4 – Neymar is out injured again. So what, you might ask. Except that a rib injury which will keep out of action against Nantes in the French league tonight was made worse by partying at a nightclub to celebrate his 28th birthday.
February 4 – The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has signed up fast food giant McDonald’s in a national team sponsorship that will activate around the AFA’s digital platforms.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
February 3 – The powers and influence of the 23-man executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), to decide the affairs of the organisation and the continental game, are to be whittled down, if it is acceptable to CAF’s General Assembly.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – She came, she saw, but what did she actually manage to conquer? FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura has ended her six-month secondment to clean up the administration of the scandal-plagued African Football Confederation (CAF) but the jury will be out for some time in terms what she achieved.
February 3 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has called an emergency meeting of all its stakeholders – member associations, leagues, clubs and commercial parties – participating in the East Zone of the AFC Champions League to discuss the spread of the coronavirus.
February 3 – Chaos reigned once again in the African Champions League when Sudanese riot police had to take over the centre of the pitch to protect players and officials and control fans during a match between Sudanese team Al Hilal Omdurman and Egypt’s Al Ahly in Group C of the competition at the Al-Jawhara Stadium in Khartoum.
January 31 – Mauritius has followed the lead of South Africa by becoming the second country to pull out of the ongoing Futsal Africa Cup of Nations being staged in Laayoune in the disputed region of Western Sahara.
January 31 – The future of the embattled Irish Football Association (FAI) has been saved after the Irish Government agreed to double its funding and give the federation an interest free loan of €2.5 million annually for the next three years as part of a refinancing arrangement.
January 31 – Brazilian giants Flamengo have taken legal steps against broadcast behemoth TV Globo over the league’s broadcast rights contract. Earlier this season, Flamengo and Globo fell out over a rights deal for Rio de Janeiro’s state championship.
January 31 – Free to work in football again now that his ban from the game is over, Michel Platini says he is a happy man despite never realising his ambition of running FIFA and instead seeing his reputation shattered.
January 30 – The Canadian Premier League (CPL) has green lighted an Ottawa franchise team run by Spanish club Atletico Madrid.
January 30 – Forget the US women superstars, it is Canada’s Christine Sinclair’s name will now be etched into the record books. On Wednesday, the Canadian striker scored twice in a 11-0 win over Saint Kitts and Nevis in Olympic qualifying to become the all-time top scorer in international football, surpassing previous record holder Abby Wambach of the United States.
January 30 – With 12 teams now qualified for the 2021 Gold Cup – the 16th edition of Concacaf’s blue riband national men’s team competition – the draw for the play-offs for the final four spots has been released. The deciders will be via elimination rounds in the March 2020 international window before a final round of play-offs in June 2020.
January 30 – Manchester’s two rival clubs face being sanctioned after tensions ran high between both sets of supporters during their League semi-final second leg tie on Wednesday.