By Mark Baber
April 2 – An apology from the Tunisia Football Federation for accusing the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of bias has prevented the nation from being banned from the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The apology follows the disgraceful scenes which met the team’s elimination in the quarter-final of the African Cup of Nations by Equatorial Guinea.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – FIFA’s radical reform of the status of agents, brought into effect on April 1, has caused an immediate backlash. The deregulation move whereby agents are now the responsibility of national associations rather than world football’s governing body is designed to weed out rogue parties and make for a more transparent process.
By Mark Baber
April 1 – PUMA and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) have renewed their partnership, whilst FIGC President Carlo Tavecchio, central to the racism scandals plaguing Italian football, focuses on the need for Juventus to drop their €443 million civil suit.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 1 – Bulgaria’s two most successful clubs, CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia, just managed to beat the deadline to file their paperwork to obtain a license for European club tournaments. CSKA and Levski are plagued by deep financial problems which have threatened their eligibility for a license.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – UEFA and the international players’ union FIFPro have joined forces to try and re-inforce Fifa’s forthcoming worldwide ban on third party ownership. The two bodies are filing an official complaint with the European Commission about the practise in order to strengthen stopping outside investors partially owning transfer rights.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 1 – The municipal authorities of Poland’s Chorzow have unveiled plans to launch construction works on a new stadium for local club Ruch Chorzow in early 2017. In the first phase of the project, the facility will be fitted with a capacity of at least 4,500 seats.
April 1 – European club representatives will join the top table of UEFA in a major breakthrough in terms of the way European football is governed. Two European Club Association officials will sit on UEFA’s executive committee meeting as “co-opted” members with full voting rights to follow, to be implemented at next year’s UEFA Congress.
By Mark Baber
March 31 – Real Madrid has signed its first Chinese sponsorship deal – with Luyuan, an electrical vehicle manufacturer based in Zhejiang.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 31 – The administrative footballing career of former Asian powerbroker Vernon Manilal Fernando has effectively come to an end after his appeal against a life ban was turned down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
By Andrew Warshaw
March 30 – Historic efforts to use football as a tool for change on the politically divided island of Cyprus have triggered an immediate backlash, with local politicians stepping in to try and block any deal.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 31 – The Greek government has unveiled a draft bill designed to curb the growing trend of in-stadium fan violence at football matches.
By Mark Baber
March 30 – The Azadi stadium in Tehran was packed with 80,000 Afghans on Sunday evening as their under-23 team lost 6-0 to the Iranian Under-23 team, ending their hopes of progressing in the AFC Under-23 Championship and of winning a place in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
March 30 – FIFA will announce the host country for the 2026 World Cup nine years earlier in May 2017, with the United States, Mexico and Canada all considered possible contenders.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 30 – After months of often painstaking negotiations that several times almost collapsed, more than half a century of division is on the verge of being wiped out in Cypriot football.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 30 – Palestine has formally submitted a resolution to the FIFA Congress in May demanding the suspension of Israel, a blow to FIFA president Sepp Blatter in his efforts over two years to forge a lasting mediation between the two sides.