By Osasu Obayiuwana in Cairo
July 16 – CAF President Ahmad has told Insideworldfootball that he is prepared to defend, before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the decision of his organisation’s Executive Committee to order a replay of the second leg of the Champions League final between Tunisia’s Esperance and Morocco’s Wydad Athletic Club (WAC).
By Paul Nicholson
July 17 – Hilleran Frederick has won a third term as president of the US Virgin Islands Soccer Association (USVISA) following elections held in St. Croix. The congress also elected a new executive committee. The elections signify a new period of calm after storms that ravaged the islands and their football community.
July 16 – Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, a member of UEFA’s executive committee and one of the most influential figures in world sports administration, is once again back in the news for all the wrong reasons, this time accused of breaching FIFA regulations in the signing of Argentine midfielder Javier Pastore back in 2011.
July 17 – More pressure is mounting on under-fire African football chief Ahmad, this time over an expense bill he is claimed to have taken from his confederation.
July 17 – Clarence Seedorf looks to be on the verge of being dismissed as coach of Cameroon after a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations campaign with the Indomitable Lions ended in the round of 16 against West African rivals Nigeria.
July 17 – UEFA received a mammoth 19.3 million requests for tickets during the opening sales window for Euro 2020 tickets, shattering the previous record of 11m from EURO 2016.
July 15 – Riyad Mahrez’s stunning stoppage-time free kick gave Algeria an unlikely 2-1 win over Nigeria on Sunday and sent his country into their first African Cup of Nations final since 1990 when they won the title for the only time.
July 15 – Major League Soccer and Liga MX will host the final of the inaugural Leagues Cup, the new continental club competition featuring eight teams from North America’s two biggest leagues, in Las Vegas.
July 15 – Cedella Marley, the driving force behind the funding of the Jamaican Reggae Girlz and their journey to the France 2019 World Cup, has said she is prepared to continue with the financing of the girls for the PanAm Games.
July 15 – The Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) has handed a life ban to its former president Tombi A Roko Sidiki after its ethics commission found him guilty of financial misappropriation and a conflict of interest.
By Osasu Obayiuwana in Cairo, Egypt
July 14 – Mustapha Fahmy (pictured), who served as the General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for 28 years, from 1982 until 2010, has launched a blistering attack on current CAF President Ahmad, accusing him of incompetence and destroying the 62-year-old organisation.
By Osasu Obayiuwana in Cairo, Egypt
July 13 – Mohamed El Sherei, sacked as CAF’s Finance Director on July 8, has told Insideworldfootball that CAF President Ahmad instructed him to use the organisation’s funds to pay for the flights and expenses of several CAF executive committee members, important CAF officials and FA Presidents across Africa that attended the Umrah, the “lesser pilgrimage,” in Saudi Arabia in May 2018.
By Osasu Obayiuwana in Cairo, Egypt.
July 11 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF), headquartered in Cairo, is seeking the finalisation of a treaty that gives CAF the official status, with diplomatic rights, of an international sports organisation functioning in the country. CAF has operated in Egypt since 1957, and until 2007 without an official ‘Hosting Agreement’ with the Egyptian government. The 2007 agreement automatically renewed in 2012 for five years but expired in 2017.
By Paul Nicholson
July 11- If any reminder were needed of where the real balance of power lies in football, it was delivered yesterday by UEFA’s announcement of how its expected €3.25 billion of revenue in the 2019/20 season will be distributed.
July 12 – The vice-president of Burundi’s football federation, Aimable Habimana, has reportedly been detained on issues relating to players bonuses in the latest scandal to rock African football.