By Paul Nicholson
February 15 – Evangelos Marinakis is a big guy. He is physically big, he has a big shipping empire, he has the biggest football club in Greece, Olympiacos, and he is the big player in the social fabric of his home town Piraeus, a district of Athens, Greece.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – Two weeks before the deadline for initial expressions of interest, Turkey has announced it is bidding for Euro 2024, hoping to be fourth time lucky.
By Samindra Kunti and Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – Issa Hayatou’s quest to remain African football’s all-powerful figurehead is heading for open warfare after southern African states announced they were backing his rival for the presidency in defiance of their confederation.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – The domestic future of long-time FIFA powerbroker Angel Maria Villar will finally be decided on May 22 – meaning he will not have to suffer any embarrassment before the FIFA Congress a few days earlier.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – European leagues have again urged UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin not to marginalise them as part of his wide-ranging reform process.
By Samindra Kunti
February 13 – For the second time in three competitions, Brazil have failed to qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup to be played in Korea later this year. Meanwhile, the senior team have announced a friendly against Argentina in Melbourne in June.
February 13 – At least 17 people were killed in a stampede at a football stadium in the northern Angolan city of Uige after crowds blocked the entrances to the stadium for a league match between Santa Rita de Cassia and Recreativo do Libolo.
February 10 – The 2017 Total CAF Champions League kicks off with the preliminary round today. For the first time the tournament will have 16 participants in the group stages.
February 10 – MLS side New York City FC (NYFC) and USL club San Antonio FC have announced a partnership from the 2017 season that will make each club the other’s affiliate. The partnership will cover both playing and commercial departments.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – The thorny issue of how FIFA plans to regionally distribute slots when the World Cup finals are expanded to 48 teams in 2026 took another twist today when UEFA demanded that European teams be kept apart early on.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 9 – True to his word in the wake of his stunning election victory last September, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has announced sweeping changes to the organisation’s governance structure, highlighted by term limits and a ban on anyone outside senior national association positions from joining UEFA’s inner sanctum.
By Paul Nicholson
February 7 – The various charges against Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis – some legally and others through the media – are rapidly dropping away one by one. The latest charge to be reversed was by the Greek Administrative Court of Appeal in support of the positions of Olympiacos and Marinakis.
February 8 – The families of seven journalists killed in the Chapecoense air disaster are suing the club over the chartering arrangements.
February 8 – Howard Webb, one of the world’s most recognisable and respected referees who has recently been working as a television pundit, has been hired by the body overseeing officiating in MLS to manage the introduction of video assistant referees (VARs).
February 7 – Real Madrid are reportedly stepping up their interest in a European Super league after being left high and dry by the late postponement of a recent league game.