April 16 – U.S. Soccer has announced it is closing down the federation’s development academy structure saying the decision was due to the financial impact of the coronavirus. The shutdown will have immediate effect.
April 14 – Ajax and Benfica top a ranking of clubs providing the most players to Europe’s Big-5 leagues.
April 8 – The new handball law that was due to come into effect on June 1 – which would originally have been after the season ends – can be used by leagues whenever the current campaign resumes post-Covid-19.
April 7 – A ranking of clubs from 87 top divisions worldwide according to the number of players fielded in domestic league matches since January 2015 finds that top clubs generally change their players the least.
March 30 – England captain Harry Kane says the Premier League season should be ditched altogether if it cannot be completed by the end of June.
March 17 – Football may be in global lockdown and professional leagues suspended but for some clubs, the absence of competitive games is buying crucial time for injured stars to get fit again without missing any more action.
March 10 – The Dutch FA (KNVB) has staged a video assistant referee (VAR) technology test event en route to the 2022 World Cup with a focus on fine-tuning the technology and making it more affordable.
March 10 – A ranking of current big-5 league players according to the age at which they have reached 50, 100, 200 and 300 caps in their leagues sees AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma leading the 50 and 100-match tables, while the Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard is at the top for the 200 and 300-match rankings.
March 4 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has added his voice to the growing confusion over VAR saying something has to be done to make it more palatable to the average fan.
March 3 – Goals win matches, but you have to create the chances. Lionel Messi tops a ranking of players who create ‘big’ chances, making a significant goal opportunity every 90 minutes, according to data from the CIES Football Observatory looking at Europe’s Big 5 leagues.
March 2 – FIFA have enlisted Belgian company Double pass as a partner to roll out a new ‘Talent Development Progamme’.
February 28 – It’s not VAR per se that’s at fault, it’s the law itself that’s an ass. That’s the argument often churned out by the experts whenever goals are wiped out by the video assistant referee because of marginal offside decisions such as the width of a toe.
February 28 – LaLiga’s Valencia CF has added to its growing global network of academies with the opening of a new VCF Academy in Morocco.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 24 – When is VAR not VAR? When the system itself admits it has made a mistake!
February 21 – In a time of little international football Belgium have remained top of the FIFA ranking. Palestine moved up the ranking following their success in January’s Bangabandhu Cup.