May 12 – Following human rights protests by international players from Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Norway and letters from the Danish and Norwegian FA’s FIFA and World Cup 2022 organisers Qatar have begun a series of meetings with member associations.
May 12 – Time appears to have caught up with German football chief Fritz Keller who has offered to step down after sparking a wave of criticism for comparing his colleague to a notorious Nazi judge.
May 11 – Global sports integrity group SIGA, is holding the second of its latest ‘No such thing as a crisis’ webinar series tomorrow (May 12) focussing on the collapse of the European Super League and how this should trigger governance reforms.
By Paul Nicholson
May 6 – Real Madrid have lost a Spanish court case against LaLiga which challenged the legal right of the league to promote and sell its commercial and broadcast inventory.
May 6 – Former Arsenal and German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been sacked from his role on the board of Hertha Berlin after sending a WhatsApp message to Sky pundit and ex-international Dennis Aogo calling him a “token black guy”.
By Paul Nicholson
May 5 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino has won what he hopes will be the first step towards a more significant victory in his battle to quash the Swiss federal criminal investigation into his conduct.
May 5 – In the wake of the European Super League (ESL) protests, Chelsea have become the first of the English breakaway clubs to introduce fan representation at board meetings.
May 4 – The English Premier League has taken action to prevent its clubs threatening to break away again and join any future European Super League.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – English football’s boycott of social media in protest against the current scourge of online racist abuse has been joined by FIFA and UEFA as well as a number of other sports.
April 30 – Global integrity body SIGA launches the first of its ‘Women on Wednesday’s’ (WoW) webinars next week (May 5). The webinars will take place on the first Wednesday of every month and feature leading women’s sports executives.
April 30 – Former Germany and Dortmund star Christoph Metzelder (pictured) has been sentenced to a suspended 10-month prison term after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.
April 28 – SIGA will hold the first in a new series of webinars today (April 28) focussed on the issues around the fallout of the failure of European Super League.
By Paul Nicholson
April 27 – “This is a true revolution. This is do or die now. If they don’t chop their heads off they will become victims again within a few years time.” Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, former European Leagues boss and head of global integrity group SIGA is unequivocal in his assessment of what needs to be done next following the collapse of the European Super League.
April 27 – Veteran Swedish international striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is facing a UEFA probe into “alleged financial interest in a betting company” and could face a three-year ban if found guilty.
April 26 – The World Leagues Forum (WLF), which represents more than 40 professional league worldwide, has issued a statement calling for leagues to be better represented in football governance in the wake of the breakaway European Super League (ESL) furore.