February 22 – The Philippines Football League (PFL), which starts its second season in March, has agreed a multi-year data partnership with Sportradar. Included in the deal is a package of integrity and fraud prevention solutions to safeguard the game in the country.
February 21 – Sports specialist insurance broker Hart Special Risks, based in Genoa, Italy, have become a supporting partner of the Tackling Matchfixing conference, March 9-10. They join Sportradar and the Asian Football Confederation as a Supporting Sponsor. The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee are sponsoring the conference dinner at Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge stadium on March 9.
February 21 – FC Bayern München and Qatar Airways have agreed a new partnership with the airline becoming a Bayern platinum partner from July 2018 until 2023, replacing Lufthansa whose current agreement expires end June 2018.
February 21 – Agent Trump will be delighted, US broadcaster FOX Sports has unveiled a World Cup 2018 schedule of more live broadcasts than ever before and including studio coverage from the heart of the iron fist of democracy in Moscow’s Red Square.
February 21 – After just four months Brazilian top-tier side Santos have renegotiated their kit deal with Umbro, saying that the original agreement was unfair and having threatened to cancel the partnership.
February 21 – The Chinese owner of AC Milan has described suggestions that he has been declared bankrupt as “fake news” amid unconfirmed reports in Italy that his assets will be auctioned off on Taobao, the Chinese equivalent of eBay, to settle his debts.
February 21 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is set to introduce the video assistant referee (VAR) system for the first time this weekend.
February 21 – English Premier League club West Ham United are facing a Football Association charge alleging they broke rules on anti-doping procedures.
February 21 – The Dominican Republic will host the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield this April 13-21. The 12-team championship provides a pathway for the region’s smaller football nations towards the newly formed 2018 Scotiabank CONCACAF League.
February 20 – The scourge of matchfixing has reared its ugly head in Spain yet again with a spate of arrests relating to alleged rigging in the country’s lower leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 20 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino insists the world governing body was simply applying the rules when banning Morocco from promoting the country’s 2026 World Cup bid credentials before its own African supporters.
February 20 – The whistleblower whose revelations prompted the Russian doping scandal claims he was personally instructed by the country’s former sports supremo Vitaly Mutko, until recently a senior member of FIFA’s inner circle, to make sure footballers were protected.
February 20 – Former coach Barry Bennell, the serial paedophile whose sickening treatment of aspiring youngsters mainly in the 1980s rocked British football, was sentenced to 31 years in jail on Monday for 50 counts of child sexual abuse.
February 20 – Monday night games may have become relatively commonplace in the English Premier League but in Germany fans don’t take kindly to traditions being constantly eroded.
February 20 – Jack Warner, the most wanted man of all among powerbrokers snared by US authorities in the $200 million FIFAGate corruption scandal, has again managed to thwart extradition by having committal proceedings against him put on hold – for another nine months.