By Paul Nicholson
January 31 – U.S. Virgin Islands FA president Hillaren Frederick is fighting for survival as head of his federation after rejecting a suspension by his own executive committee, saying that they did not have the authority to suspend him. A delegation from FIFA and CONCACAF is expected in the islands this week to investigate the situation.
January 31 – As global condemnation of Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration intensifies, U.S. Soccer president and FIFA powerbroker Sunil Gulati says his country still hasn’t yet made up its mind whether to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
January 31- Premier League managers may have taken the opportunity to give key players a rest this week with the Fourth Round of FA Cup matches, but fans were in no mood to to take a week off. Five of the eight Premier League clubs with home matches sold out more than 95% of their capacities.
By Samindra Kunti
January 27 – Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracana stadium, which hosted the 2014 World Cup final and the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics and is one of football’s spiritual homes, was plunged into darkness on Thursday after Light, the energy provider for the stadium, cut off the electricity supply due to unpaid bills that reach back to October last year.
January 25 – French club Bastia have banned a supporter who made monkey chants at Nice’s Italian striker Mario Balotelli during last Friday’s Ligue 1 match.
January 25 – Who are the all-time champions of Europe? Not surprisingly it is the two Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona who lead the ranking, with Real edging ahead but only by five points over the 25 years of Champions League competition.
January 26 – San Diego, which is pitching for a franchise in the expanding MLS, could be getting a 20-30,000 capacity new stadium costing $200 million as part of $1 billion redevelopment of the Qualcomm Stadium property.
By Samindra Kunti
January 25 – Ivory Coast’s title defence came to an end at the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon after a 1-0 defeat to Morocco in the final round of Group C games. In a tournament that has thrown up some unpredictable results, the interest and attendance of fans has been low except for Gabon games, but they have also now exited the tournament.
January 25 – Serbia’s appeal against Kosovo becoming a member of UEFA has been rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, finally paving the way for the breakaway state to persue its footballing ambitions without interference from Big Brother.
January 25 – A lower-league English club has taken the rare step of sacking its head groundsman of 27 years – not because of anything to do with team but after a match was postponed because of a frozen pitch.
By Paul Nicholson
January 24 – Talks of a Caribbean breakaway from regional confederation CONCACAF are premature, and there has been no recommendation tabled for a split, said the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in response to Insideworldfootball’s story on discussion allegedly held at a CFU executive committee meeting at the weekend.
By Samindra Kunti
January 24 – The revamped Copa Libertadores kicked off yesterday with qualifying across South America, but question marks remain over the tournament’s expanded new format.
January 24 – CONCACAF has added a new international club competition and revamped its Champions League format to bring it into a single calendar season for clubs, rather than spanning two seasons currently.
January 24 – The Confederation of African Football has taken action to protect its website after it was hacked by a Russian group protesting at the African Cup of Nations being staged in Gabon where President Ali Bongo Ondimba retained power in disputed and violent elections last year.
By Paul Nicholson
January 23 – FIFA could be facing the request for the formation of a seventh confederation after an executive committee meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) in Miami at the weekend agreed to explore the prospects for a breakaway of the 31 Caribbean nations from the 41-member CONCACAF confederation.