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.
Integrity
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.
Man Utd fury over racial abuse aimed at players after loss to bottom side Sheffield Utd
January 29 – Manchester United say they are “disgusted” after two of their players, Axel Tuanzebe (pictured) and Anthony Martial, were racially abused on social media following Wednesday’s surprise 2-1 Premier League home defeat by bottom-placed Sheffield United.
Azerbaijan’s Qarabağ FK loses UEFA appeal over racist sanctions
January 29 – UEFA’s appeals body has upheld a €100,000 fine imposed last November on Qarabağ FK and rejected the club’s appeal.
FIFA launches safeguarding diploma to urgently address a global issue
January 29 – FIFA has launched a global safeguarding in sport education programme with the aim of building formal safeguarding capacity across football.
CAS confuses with a lose lose decision for everyone, or was it a win win? Who knows?
By Paul Nicholson
January 26 – A Court of Arbitration for Sport double ruling against the Asian Football Federation (AFC) in regard to one of its elections has renewed questions about CAS’s decision making and left observers scratching their head over the logic of the decisions and the process.