August 15 – Expedia Group is to become the Official Travel Partner of the UEFA Champions League in a three-year deal that also gives the online travel booking firm sponsorship rights to the Super Cup, Youth League finals and the Futsal Champions League finals.
August 16 – Is this the season where the red and white half of Madrid gets the better of their more globally successful, if not illustrious, rivals?
August 16 – Santiago has been chosen by Conmebol as the venue for the first single Copa Libertadores final in the competition’s history as the Continent’s flagship tournament moves into the line with Europe in 2019 and does away with a two-legged climax.
August 15 – FIFA has moved swiftly to counter criticism of its Ethic processes following global outcry over the removal of the word ‘corruption’ from its updated Ethics Code, and the worrying (if not frightening) introduction of a new ‘defamation’ offence, being widely talked about as a new law for cover-up.
August 15 – Egypt’s sports minister Doctor Ashraf Sobhy has announced that fans will be allowed back into stadia to watch league matches on a regular basis for the first time since 2012.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 15 – Nigeria and Ghana, whose respective federations have been gridlocked for several weeks, have been warned by FIFA to halt “undue influence” in their affairs by outside authorities or risk being thrown out of international football.
August 15 – TAG Heuer has extended its partnership as Official Timekeeper of the Premier League for a further season. The Premier League will continue to play all matches run on TAG Heuer time, both on pitch and on broadcast signals worldwide.
August 15 – Facebook has confirmed it has snapped up the rights to show Spain’s LaLiga on Indian sub-continent in a three-year deal that starts Friday with the kick-off of the new league season.
August 15 – The new launch USL Division III will have at least 10 teams as founding members when it kicks off its inaugural season, according to sanctioning paperwork sent to the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF).
August 15 – Premier League Huddersfield Town, hard on the heels of announcing fire engine maker Rosenbauer as a club sponsor, have added business telecoms provider Abzorb as an official partner.
By Samindra Kunti
August 14 – Defending champions Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim kick off the new Bundesliga season this week and will be the first test of Germany’s reworked approach to the usage of the video assistant referee (VAR) system and technology.
August 14 – Italian Serie A team making inroads into the Chinese sponsorship market have been dominated recently by deals around Suning-owned Inter Milan, but now Juventus have stepped up their game with China Merchants Bank becoming an Official China Regional Partner and the Official Chinese Bank Partner until 2020.
August 14 – Asian online bookmaker M88 has become Premier League Leicester City’s official betting partner. M88 is a Mansion brand, the bookmaker already has deals with Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in the Premier League.
August 14 – Montenegro FA president Dejan Savićević has spoken about the dangers of competitive balance in European football as the larger nations grow in concentration of wealth.
August 14 – Tottenham Hotspur have been forced to make a further delay to the opening of their new state-of-the-art stadium until at least the end of October because of “issues with the critical safety systems”.