Head cases: English ref squares off with Ipswich player…called Judge
February 17 – Players squaring up angrily and just stopping short of a headbutt is nothing new in football but it rarely centres on the referee.
Integrity
Infantino puts record straight over Qatari handshake reports
February 16 – Gianni Infantino insists he was not the person responsible for instructing female referees not to greet a Qatari sheikh during last week’s Club World Cup medal ceremony.
Former football powerbroker al-Sabah to face Swiss trial for plot to discredit Kuwait government
February 15 – Olympic powerbroker Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah (pictured), once a major player at FIFA, will go on trial in Switzerland this month in a long-standing forgery case linked to Kuwait’s royal family.
Scottish FA apologies to victims of child sexual abuse that covered three decades
February 12 – An independent review of historical child sexual abuse in Scottish football has urged clubs to make a public apology to those affected.
UEFA opens case over racism row with officials at Basaksehir-PSG match
February 12 – UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against two Romanian officials at the centre of racism allegations in a Champions League match last December.
English football tells Twitter and Facebook to stop protecting racist abusers
February 11 – English football bodies have joined forces to send an open letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding action amid increased levels of abuse aimed at high-profile players and officials on social media.
Premier League’s data giants take ticketed fans to court for collecting stats
February 9 – The battle over who can collect match data from Premier League stadia took another ugly turn early this week when official data provider Genius Sports Group sued Sportradar in the UK saying it was illegally sending ‘data scouts’ to matches.
Headache for Ajax as keeper Onana drops the ball and gets one year ban for doping
February 9 – Ajax’s international goalkeeper André Onana (pictured) has been banned for one year by UEFA for a doping infraction and is set to miss next year’s African Cup of Nations in his home nation of Cameroon for whom he has 15 caps.
Manchester and Liverpool clubs join for anti-racism message; FIFPro demands social media clean-up
February 8 – The four Premier League clubs from Manchester and Liverpool have joined forces to condemn the online racial abuse suffered by players in recent weeks.
SIGA launches Female Leadership in Sport web summit, March 8-10
February 5 – SIGA has opened registrations for its first Web Summit on Female Leadership in Sport. Three days of webinars will kick off on International Women’s Day March8 2021.
Social media firms warned of £ billions in fines unless they tackle racist abuse
February 4 – The British government has threatened social media companies with fines which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse of footballers on their platforms.
IOC rejects complaint that Infantino broke the Olympic Charter
February 3 – Gianni Infantino, already being investigated by the Swiss authorities who have opened criminal proceedings against him, has at least won one battle, with a complaint against him dismissed by the International Olympic Committee after being brought by Swiss sports management company Sport 7.
CAS throws Ahmad an election lifeline with freeze on FIFA ban pending fast-tracked hearing
By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – In a rare and unexpected move that will raise questions over football’s judicial process at the highest level, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dramatically reinstated disgraced African football chief Ahmad Ahmad as head of his confederation pending a full appeal against his five-year FIFA ban.
Rashford latest of Man Utd’s black players to be racially abused by own fans
By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – Anonymous on-line abuse of black footballers in the English Premier League has reached such alarming and disturbing levels that even Prince William has now made a rare intervention to say it has to stop.
FifaGate: Extradited former El Salvadorian FA boss Vasquez held without bail
February 1 – Former El Salvador FA president Reynaldo Vasquez has been extradited to the Eastern District of New York where he made a remote court appearance last Friday facing charges of bribery and money laundering for his part in the FifaGate corruption scandals.