January 21 – Bayern Munich have returned from a training camp in the Middle East to face a barrage of criticism over a friendly played in Saudi Arabia, with politicians and fans claiming the club had ignored the issue of human rights in the country.
By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The pressure on the Russian Football Union (RFU) to pay its Italian head coach and team manager, Fabio Capello and Oreste Cinquini, has been mounting with criticism of the RFU coming from inside Russia from sports minister Vitaly Mutko and outside from UEFA president Michel Platini.
January 20 – Qatar’s disastrous Asian Cup campaign is exactly the opposite of what they expected both in terms of maintaining progress on the field and also in sending out a message to those who oppose the World Cup going to the Gulf state in 2022.
By Mark Baber
January 20 – Communist multi-billionaire Wang Jianlin is set to take a 20% stake in La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid, with the agreement being signed on tomorrow, according to media reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein will be conspicuous by his absence when a new pressure group campaigning for greater reform convene at the European Parliament for the first time tomorrow.
January 20 – The future of Leeds United, a former giant of English football and one of the country’s most iconic clubs, has suffered yet another blow after Italian owner Massimo Cellino lost his appeal against the Football League’s decision to disqualify him.
By Mark Baber
January 19 – The threatened occupation of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Glass House HQ by the Chris Giwa faction fighting for leadership of the NFF didn’t take place last week as both Giwa and Amaju Pinnick were appearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne on Friday in attempt to find settlement of the disputed elections into the executive board of the NFF.
By Paul Nicholson
January 19 – The battle for control of Scotland’s Rangers Football Club continued over the weekend with angry fans protesting at Saturday’s match against league leaders Hearts (abandoned after 20 minuted due to heavy snow), and this morning the board announcing to the stock exchange that it is seeking the withdrawal of a notice for a general meeting that would seek to oust four directors.
January 19 – Organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations have sought to play down complaints about sub-standard facilities but have admitted the tournament, which got under way at the weekend, may not be of the highest standard.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 17 – The municipal authorities of Kielce have decided to bail out troubled football club Korona Kielce with an allocation of PLN7.8 million (€1.9 million) from the city’s budget for 2015. The funds will allow the club to continue competing in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Poland’s professional football league, in the current season.
January 16 – Teams arriving for the Africa Cup of Nations which starts tomorrow in Equatorial Guinea have reportedly been suffering from a lack of hotel rooms and other facilities.
January 16 – The Asian Football Confederation says every effort is being made to avoid match-fixing at the Asian Cup.
By Mark Baber
January 16 – Ronaldo’s conquest of the Golden Ball, football’s top individual honour, will have added five to ten million euros to the value of his CR7 brand, probably taking his value over the 60 million euro mark, according to Professor Daniel Sá, author of a IPAM School of Marketing study.
January 16- European clubs look set to count the cost of losing vital players to the 30th African Nations Cup that starts tomorrow.
Figures released by the European Club Association shows that two thirds of the players involved come from European clubs.
January 16 – FC Schalke 04 have agreed a partnership with South Korean tyre manufacturer Kumho Tyres until the end of the season 2016/2017 including an option for further cooperation.