USL’s D3 train leaves for Chattanooga for 2019 arrival
August 2 – The fast-franchising USL has added Professional soccer is coming to Chattanooga as USL Division III today announced its sixth team for the league’s inaugural season.
World Cup wrap up: Now even Pussy Riot can go home
August 2 – Four members of Russia’s anti-Kremlin ‘Pussy Riot’ protest group, who staged a pitch invasion during the World Cup final, have been released from police custody after being detained for 16 days, their lawyer says.
Cameroon hosting of 2019 African Cup of Nations on brink after poor inspection report
August 1 – Six months after being given a provisional green light to stage the region’s flagship event, the African Cup of Nations, in 2019, reports suggest Cameroon may be stripped of hosting rights by the Confederation of African Football.
Corruption cases haunt CAF, but Ahmad says fight is ongoing and change is happening
August 1 – Confederation of African Football president Ahmad Ahmad says African football is making improvements in its fight against corruption despite a string of recent cases including the suspension of his former vice-president Kwesi Nyantekyi who ran the Ghanaian federation.
Doing the right thing. Forest Green Rovers are world’s first UN-certified carbon neutral club
August 1 – An English fourth-tier club that is powered by renewable energy, serves vegan food to players, staff and fans and prides itself on being the “greenest” in the world has received a prestigious United Nations commendation.
Former CFU boss Derrick has ban reduced to four years by FIFA appeals body
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – One of the most politically driven and controversial decisions of FIFA’s ethics body has been revisited by the FIFA Appeal Committee. Gordon Derrick, the former general Secretary of the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association and President of the Caribbean Football Union, has had his ban reduced from six to four years.
New launch agency offers fans a piece of the player trading action
August 1 – Football agent Jon Smith, one of the first of the so-called band of Super Agents, is behind a fund-raising for a new player agency that will be part-owned by fans.
Free Tibet. Just don’t try it in Russia at a FIFA World Cup
August 1 – While most French fans in Moscow were able to celebrate their team’s World Cup triumph, one supporter was apparently not so lucky after being detained allegedly for simply displaying a Tibetan flag.
Inter Milan add 7th Chinese academy with Hong Kong launch
August 1 – Inter Milan has launched another of its Inter Academy projects in China, this time in Hong Kong, taking the number of Chinese academies to seven.
Rummenigge calls for end to 50+1 rule to enable Bundesliga clubs to be more competitive
July 31 – It’s regarded as the bastion of commercial fair play in an increasingly money-driven world. But Bayern Munich Chief Executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says the time has come to scrap Germany’s so-called 50-plus-one structure which effectively bars wealthy overseas investors, many with no previous football experience, from seizing control of clubs.
Uruguay’s Valdez pulls out of presidential re-election vote at last minute
July 31 – Has South American football been hit by more scandal? Uruguayan FA president Wilmar Valdez (pictured) resigned suddenly on Monday following the release of compromising audio recordings, just a day before he was due to stand for re-election.
Premier League shirt sponsorships top record £313m in value
July 31 – Premier League clubs will generate a combined record £313.6 million for the 2018/19 from shirt sponsorships, according to a Sportingintelligence analysis, the ninth time they have conducted this report.
US investor close to snapping up Ligue 1’s Bordeaux for estimated €70m
By Paul Nicholson
July 31 – The attractiveness of French Ligue 1 clubs to foreign investors is undiminished. Girondins de Bordeaux owner M6 Group has announced it has entered into exclusive negotiations with US-based investment fund GACP to sell its shareholding.
FIFPro says World Cup stars are being called back into Euro club action too early
July 31 – The international players’ union FIFPro says that at least 15 players who performed at the World Cup have taken part in UEFA club competitions less than four weeks after returning from Russia – not nearly enough time, it says, to recuperate properly.
Neymar dives into more criticism after Gillette mea culpa ad backfires
July 31 – Brazil’s World Cup talisman Neymar has come clean about his histrionics in Russia, admitting in an advertisement that he ‘exaggerated’ his reactions when fouled during the tournament, but his mea culpa has already backfired, the player coming in for heavy criticism in Brazil.