By Andrew Warshaw
May 31 – None of the players are household names and there are no millionaire superstars or over-inflated egos. But there is no doubting the passion and patriotism of everyone involved.
May 31 – Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has slammed French Football Federation chief Noel Le Graet, who has claimed that the French national team has moved on from the striker.
May 31 – The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has hailed the decision to award the final of the 2020 Champions League Final to Istanbul as a positive move in the build-up to the September ballot to choose the 2024 Euro hosts.
May 31 – The Saudi referee appointed by FIFA for the World Cup has been dropped after he was handed a life ban in his homeland for match-fixing.
May 31 – The English Football League’s title sponsor Sky Bet is spending £1 million on delivering a responsible gambling series of education workshops to all 72 of its clubs next season.
May 31 – The UEFA Europa League is getting a new look for next season that UEFA says will emphasise the “scale and dynamic nature of the competition.”
May 31 – A ‘production index’ developed by the CIES Football Observatory using InStat data shows that the top teams in the Big 5 European leagues all have similar performance data characteristics that correlate to their league positions.
May 30 – He may still be suspended over that infamous CHF 2 million “disloyal payment” to Michel Platini but that hasn’t stopped former FIFA president Sepp Blatter from speaking his mind when it comes to the injustices he feels he has suffered.
By Samindra Kunti
May 30 – In a confidential report the Asian Football Confederation, the AFC, has recommended a unified domestic Indian football league to replace the concurrent Indian Super League (ISL) and I-League. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Indian clubs face exclusion from the continental club competitions if they don’t comply with the recommendations.
May 30 – Spain’s Mediapro has gatecrashed the TV rights party in France by snapping up key broadcast packages for Ligue 1 as total fees for the rights sale hit €1.15 billion. Canal Plus ended up with no rights in this round of bidding, in what is a major setback for the broadcaster.
May 30 – The Qatar-based beIN Media Group, the biggest sports broadcaster in the region, has urged FIFA to take legal action against what it called pirate broadcasters in Saudi Arabia ahead of the World Cup.
May 30 – West Ham United have been catapulted straight into the top division of the restructured Women’s Super League in England, while Manchester United have been awarded a license for the second tier Women’s Championship for their newly formed team.
May 30 – Maltese-based bookmaker ManBetX has become LaLiga’s official betting partner for Asia in a multi-million Euro three-year deal that will begin with the new season this September.
May 30 – The chief executive of the English Football Association says the potential sale of the national stadium at Wembley will not be a “betrayal” but makes sound economic sense.
May 30 – FC Cincinnati, founded only in 2016 but playing before average 24,500 crowds in the second tier USL this season, is the newest recruit to the MLS and will start play in the 2019 season.