By Alexander Krassimirov
September 14 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia has paid more than BGN 3 million (€1.5 million) in debt settlement to former and current players, and coaches. Ivo Tonev (pictured), one of the majority owners of the club made the announcement after a meeting of the Governing Council.
By Paul Nicholson
September 14 – The Somali Football Federation’s campaign to win back their national stadium in Mogadishu, which is currently being occupied by African Union troops, took a step nearer realisation last Friday when the country’s president announced the stadium would be vacated.
By Paul Nicholson
September 14 – While the South Americans seem convinced that the 2016 Centennial edition of the CopaAmerica will be played for the first time outside of the region in the US, in partnership with CONCACAF, the idea this is now a done deal does not seem certain.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 14 – He was only elected to FIFA’s inner circle at the end of April but Malaysia’s Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (pictured) has announced he is stepping down as president of his country’s federation.
By Paul Nicholson
September 14 – Just one month after the candidates have to confirm their nominations for the FIFA Presidential race, and three months before the election itself, the International Football Arena (IFA) Conference will take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, November 19.
September 11 – The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) has upped its support and commitment to battling against match-fixing and is hosting the first technical meeting on the manipulation of sports competitions as a follow-up on the recommendations and commitments of the Declaration of Berlin with UNESCO in Doha, September 16-17.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber has vigorously defended the unique structure and calendar of his 20-team league, says David Beckham’s Miami franchise is close and insists MLS is not simply a retirement home for ageing foreign stars looking for a career-ending financial windfall.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 11 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia will have to declare themselves bankrupt if the club want to return to professional football. The statement was made by the chief executive director of the club Alexander Todorov (pictured).
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The Israel Football Association (IFA) announced on Wednesday that “all professional league and youth league games will take place as planned this weekend,” after Israel’s Attorney-General issued a ruling that the 1951 law mandating permission from the Ministry of Economy in order to work on the Sabbath need not be applied.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Gigi Becali, the controversial owner of Romanian football club Steaua Bucharest, is reportedly planning to leave the troubled side and purchase a new club competing in the country’s top tier Liga 1.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The failure of Barcelona to comprehend that they are in any way at fault for flouting the FIFA regulations designed to stop the exploitation and trafficking of children in football is once again apparent, even as the club, faced with the real possibility of a new transfer ban, decide to treat the issue as of “extremely high priority,” according to reports in the Spanish press.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 10 – The leader of the Bulgarian political party ‘Movement 21’ Tatyana Doncheva announced on TV that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Delyan Peevski, member of the parliamentary group of the liberal ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), are the real owners of top league club Levski through front men. According to her, Levski is most obvious example of political dependence in Bulgarian football.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – As part of the Chinese group’s expansion into the Czech market, CEFC has signed a deal to acquire a 59.97% stake in Slavia Prague. The group says it is also working towards becoming a sponsor of the Czech national team.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Major League Soccer chief Don Garber has issued a hard-hitting response to the provocative suggestion by FIFA’s new reform guru that football is not a serious sport in the United States, accusing the former International Olympic Committee director-general of treating his country with disdain.
September 9 – The head of the European Club Association (ECA) has urged football’s world players’ union FIFPro not to carry out its threat to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its bid to rip up the existing transfer system.