By Paul Nicholson
March 17 – Mark Rodrigues, the US-based Guyanan football entrepreneur, has pulled out of the race for the CONCACAF presidency leaving just three candidates – Canadian FA president Victor Montagliani, Caribbean Football Union president Gordon Derrick and Bermuda FA president Larry Mussenden.
March 17 – Franz Beckenbauer, under increasing scrutiny over the mysterious SFr10 million payment made during Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid campaign which he led, has asked to be released from his contract as an expert analyst and commentator for Sky Deutchland’s football coverage.
Beckenbauer’s appearance as a Sky expert as part of the broadcaster’s live coverage of Wednesday’s Champions League game between FC Bayern Munich and Juventus was his last indefinitely, the network announced.
March 17 – Under 22 players across Europe’s top 31 leagues are getting more playing than time in terms of percentage of minutes played, but the number of home grown U22 players breaking through in their countries of origin is in decline, according to the latest research by the CIES Football Observatory.
By Mark Baber
March 16 – In a suit brought by a commercial player agency against the German Football Federation (DFB), the Court of Appeal sitting in Frankfurt has struck down various provisions of the governing bodies regulations on player agents.
By Mark Baber
Togo’s football federation has said its request to move next week’s African Cup of Nations qualifier out of Tunisia due to security concerns has been turned down by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
By Samindra Kunti
March 15 – The former president of the Brazilian FA (CBF), Ricardo Teixeira, is fighting what appears to be a losing battle against the parliamentary inquiry (CPI) led by senator Romario into corruption in Brazilian football. His request to protect bank secrecy has been denied.
By Paul Nicholson
March 15 – Having passed their package of reforms at an extraordinary congress the confederation for north and central America and the Caribbean has embarked on the search for a new general secretary and chief legal/compliance officer. This May CONCACAF will also elect a new president.
March 15 – Lars-Christer Olsson, who spent four years as general secretary of UEFA, has taken over as chairman of the European Professional Football Leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – The latest match-fixing scandal to strike at the heart of African football, and Zimbabwe in particular, has taken a significant turn with the alleged involvement of former Zimbabwe FA chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya, who had a life ban for her role in what became known as ‘AsiaGate’ lifted only in January.
March 14 – Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema (pictured) will technically be eligible to play for France at Euro 2016 after certain legal restrictions were lifted in the sex tape blackmail investigation that has rocked French football.
By Bernd Fisa
March 13 – The world’s football community will pay a further tribute on the next few days days to former Italian striker Stefano Borgonovo who in 2013 passed away at the age of 49 following a long battle with motor neurone disease also known as Lou Gehrig disease.
By Samindra Kunti
March 11 – When Carlos Dunga, Brazil’s head coach, called up his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Paraguay respectively earlier this week, the interim president of the CBF, the Brazilian FA, Antonio Nunes (pictured) mockingly responded to a reporter’s question about Nunes’s possible cooperation with the parliamentary inquiry (CPI) into the business dealings of his organisation.
March 11 – Italy national coach Antonio Conte is edging closer to taking over at Chelsea’s but hanging over him is a match-fixing debacle from his time at Siena.
March 20 – For the first time on the continent, a South America football rightsholder has enlisted the services of a match-fixing detection service.
By Mark Baber
March 10 – A few hours after the news had leaked out prematurely, FC Barcelona announced officially that the winner of the international design competition for the refashioning of the Camp Nou is the Nikken Sekkei and Pascual i Ausió Arquitectes team.