May 21 – Former UEFA president Michel Platini is unlikely to re-emerge as a footballing political force following his worldwide ban but that hasn’t stopped him stirring things up when the opportunity comes around.
March 21 – The two contenders to stage the 2026 World Cup are returning to southern Africa this week in a final push to secure the potentially pivotal backing of the region according to local reports.
May 21 – Concacaf is taking its expanded 16-team Gold Cup to 15 venues spanning 13 US cities in 2019, as well as taking matches to Central America and the Caribbean to venues that will be announced later this year.
May 21 – British-based German internationals Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan met German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the weekend in a series of clear the air talks after they were pictured with Turkey’s controversial president President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
By David Owen
May 20 – Unlike, say, FIFA, FEMS is not an acronym that many football fans will be familiar with. But it is a term that more switched-on supporters may soon come to recognise as global investment continues to flood into the game.
May 21 – Chelsea’s billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich, whose club won a distinctly unexciting FA Cup on Saturday to save their season, faced delays in renewing his UK visa and did not attend the game, according to reports.
May 21 – The data mining and data harvesting techniques used on Facebook to ultimately form opinion in the US election that saw the election of Donald Trump, were also used in the UK to target football fans and influence them to vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
May 21 – Chinese corporate sponsorship of football continues seemingly unabated. The Chinese Super League (CSL) has added an official motor sponsor while Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, a marketing force to compete with most national federations and leagues, has similarly secured an official Chinese SUV sponsor.
May 21 – In a late run to pick up support ahead of next month’s 2026 world cup vote, Morocco have named former Germany captain Lothar Matthäus as its latest promotional ambassador.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Morocco’s attempt to wrest the 2026 World Cup away from the North American favourites reaches its most decisive point to date on May 29 when FIFA’s evaluation Task Force delivers its verdict on whether the north Africans have met the criteria and can be on the ballot paper in Moscow.
By Samindra Kunti
May 18 – Roberto Martinez has extended his contract with Belgium in a two-year deal. He will remain Belgium’s coach until Euro 2020.
The FIFA trials – somewhat misnamed as they were very much more to do with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL and greedy individuals – are not over. A lot of people are still trembling in their shoes and watching carefully – but what for?
By Paul Nicholson
May 18 – English Football League club Blackpool who had a brief and colourful season in the Premier League in 2010-11 but have since dropped to third tier League 1, could have new owners in the shape of a Singaporean consortium – vSport – that has Wesley Sneijder on it board.
May 18 – He was among the biggest kingpins in European football – a FIFA and UEFA vice-president – and even for a time stood as interim UEFA president.
May 18 – The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has scored a hat-trick of sponsorship deal with Chinese companies. The news is timely boost for AFA, whose dysfunctions where highlighted again by the ‘flirting manual’.