February 5 – The bitter in-fighting over who runs the game in Sierra Leone has burst back into the spotlight after FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura (pictured right with Isha Johansen) with wrote to the country’s sports minister, Ahmed Khanou, warning him not to interfere.
By Samindra Kunti in Casablanca, Morocco
February 5 – In the pouring rain Morocco waltzed to a superb maiden African Nations Championship title, crushing ten-men Nigeria 4-0. Morocco’s Ayoub El Kaabi, CHAN’s top scorer with nine goals, was named player of the tournament.
February 2 – Cameroon has reportedly been given a provisional green light to stage the region’s flagship event, the African Cup of Nations, in 2019.
February 2 – A month before he was due to take part in a key vote to decide the future of video technology, Stewart Regan has stepped down as chief executive of the Scottish Football Association after eight years saying he recognised the “need for change”.
February 2 – Fans of Uruguay’s Nacional club have been condemned as “sick” for taunting Brazilian rivals Chapecoense about the plane crash which killed 71 people including 19 Chapecoense players and staff in November 2016.
February 2 – A French referee who aimed a kick at a Nantes player before sending him off in a high-profile top-flight fixture against Paris St-Germain and was immediately suspended has now been banned for six months, half of which is suspended.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he would never have organised such a convulated pan-European tournament for 2020 and has issued a veiled attack on his predecessor Michel Platini for doing so.
January 31 – Hope Solo, the United States’ World Cup-winning goalkeeper who has thrown her hat into the ring for presidency of the US Soccer Federation, has filed a legal complaint against the USSF for what she claims is a “blatant violation” of a legal code protecting athletes.
By Samindra Kunti
January 31 – Flemish authorities shattered construction plans for Belgium’s ‘Eurostadium’ on Tuesday. In December Brussels was stripped by UEFA of its Euro 2020 hosting rights and replaced by London’s Wembley Stadium after delays in the stadium project.
By Mark Baber
January 30 – The Italian FA (FIGC) were unable to elect a new president on Monday, despite four rounds of voting, underlining the crisis in Italian football which has seen racism tolerated at the highest levels, seen the national team (currently coach-less) eliminated in qualifying for the World Cup and now sees vacancies in the top positions at the FIGC and Serie A.
January 30 – Marc Bartra, Borussia Dortmund’s Spanish defender injured when the team bus was bombed last April, says he is lucky to be alive.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – It’s taken over four years but it’s finally happening. Not rumours, not heightened speculation but from the man himself. David Beckham’s long-awaited team in Miami is up and running.
January 30 – Mexico broke the four-championship winning streak of the US to take their first-ever CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s title at the weekend in Trinidad. A 4-2 penalty shoot out win made it third final lucky for the Mexicans who had lost to the US in 2010and 2014.
January 29 – The respected media lawyer, entrepreneur, father to three children, dedicated husband and a man of vision, Dr Martin Wagner, was brutally slain on Sunday, January 28, 2018 in his home outside Basel, Switzerland.
January 29 – Hosts Morocco and surprise package Sudan progressed to the last four of the African Nations Championship. Nigeria and Libya are the other semi-finalists.