February 29 – A ranking of the players who have made the most domestic league appearances since the start of their adult career shows English Premier League players occupying 15 of the 20 age group categories.
By Matt Scott
February 29 – The Northern Irish referee Arnold Hunter has been drawn in to the match-fixing scandal surrounding Olympiacos over his performance in Anderlecht’s 2-1 Europa League win over the Greek champions last Thursday night.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 26- New Fifa president Gianni Infantino says he will stick to his manifesto pledge to appoint a non-European as his general secretary – throwing into question the position of Markus Kattner who is currently doing the job.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 26 – FIFA found out yesterday that it had a new stakeholder. The World League Forum officially announced its formation with French Football League President Frédéric Thiriez (pictured), saying: “We want to participate constructively in the reconstruction of FIFA.” The new groups aim is a seat on FIFA’s new governing council.
By Samindra Kunti
February 26 – Brazilian governing body, the CBF, has released a report highlighting the inequality in wages between football players in Brazil’s domestic game. In 2015, 96 % of Brazil’s football players had a ‘maximum’ salary of just €1,150.
By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
February 25 – Having said all the ‘right things’, and then voted the ‘right way’, CONCACAF’s member associations will now proceed to, hopefully, ‘doing the right thing’. A big step forward was taken by the confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean and its member associations at their extraordinary congress in Zurich where they voted unanimously to approve a wide ranging package of reforms.
By Mark Baber
February 25 – The Turkish national team’s record goal scorer, former Inter Milan and Galatasaray striker Hakan Sukur, has been indicted for insulting the increasingly dictatorial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter, an offence for which he faces up to four years in a Turkish jail.
By Mark Baber
February 24 – President of the Libyan Football Federation (LFF), Anwar Al-Tishani has warned the country risks being excluded from international football if clubs do not rise to the challenge of resuming domestic league action.
By Mark Baber
February 24 – Barcelona have announced that they will be setting up a club academy in Lagos, Nigeria, it was disclosed at a meeting with Lagos Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
February 24 – In a welcome break from news on reform and political manouevring issues, CONCACAF has announced that it is using the quarter finals of its club showcase championship, the Scotiabank Champions League, “to promote social well-being through soccer”.
By Ben Nicholson
February 24 – Minnesota United FC are rumoured to be facing the possibility of changing their name because the MLS is concerned about the presence of three ‘Uniteds’ in the league.
February 24 – FC Bayern Munich’s 2-2 draw at Juventus FC in the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final left the latter more spirited as they came back from a 2-0 deficit. Off the pitch, though, is another story. KPMG’s Football Benchmark team has found that Bayern significantly outperformed Juventus for the 2014/2015 season.
February 23 – Under 21 players are far more likely to be given playing time in France’s Ligue 1 than in any of the other Big 5 European leagues in England, Germany, Italy or Spain. In fact, they are almost three times as likely to get playing time than in England’s Premier League.
By Samindra Kunti
February 23 – Mumbai City FC of the Indian Super League and Mumbai FC of the I-League encapsulate the growing schism in Indian football. Halfway the regular season the I-League is again suffering from a lack of exposure.
By Paul Nicholson
February 22 – While Jordan’s Prince Ali enters the final week of his second quest to conquer the top table of world football and become FIFA president, one of his billionaire subjects has shown a much more humble ambition by buying a 92% stake in fourth tier English club Bristol Rovers.