By Samindra Kunti
January 18 – Ronaldinho has at last called time on his professional playing career. The 37-year-old has not played at club level since leaving Brazilian side Fluminense in July 2015 and on Wednesday his agent and brother Roberto Assis announced Ronaldinho he has officially retired.
January 18 – Portuguese authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to a top-flight league match being abandoned at half-time and spectators evacuated on to the pitch after cracks appeared in a stand.
January 18 – An Atletico Madrid supporter is in a “serious condition” after being stabbed three times before the club’s Copa del Rey defeat to Sevilla on Wednesday.
By Paul Nicholson
January 17 – European football has never had it so good, it’s official, and the latest UEFA Club Licensing Benchmarking Report backs this up with an impressive gathering of statistics and analysis that reports another financial year (2016) of 10% growth for the European game.
January 17 – Swaziland is in shock and all football in the country has been suspended after Premier League of Swaziland chairman Victor Gamedze (pictured) was gunned down at a petrol station in a targeted assassination on Sunday evening.
January 17 – After concluding a new sponsorship deal with the DFL (German FA) subsidiary Bundesliga International to the end of season 2020/21, sports betting company Tipico have immediately launched a testosterone-charged advertising campaign under the slogan “Nur wer mitspielt, ist mittendrin!” (Only Those Who Play Are Part Of The Game).
January 17 – The AFC from its earthquake relief fund has made a $300,000 donation to the Japan Football Association (JFA). The money will be used to build new facilities for the Kumamoto Renaissance Football Club.
January 17 – Chelsea’s fear that they might not be able to progress with the £1 billion redevelopment of Stamford Bridge after a local resident objected to the development and refused to cut a deal with the club, have now been overcome.
January 17 – Premier League Arsenal, via its newly launched ‘Innovation Lab’ initiative, has linked with six new technology companies to work with the club’s senior management team to identify business opportunities and develop new fan experiences.
January 17 – An investigation into claims by the mayor of Liverpool in the UK that there may have been fraud surrounding England midfielder Ross Barkley’s recent switch from Everton to Chelsea has failed to produce any evidence to that effect.
By Paul Nicholson
January 16 – Almost half of Europe’s champion clubs rely on UEFA competitions for 25% or more of their revenue, but it comes at a cost. For Real Madrid that was a 32% increase in staff costs to €406 million, the highest wage bill in world football and accounting for 61% of the club’s revenues.
January 16 – Has Lionel Messi done it again? The diminutive Argentine keeps scoring and evading his opponents on the field, but off the pitch he may not be as adept at evading tax obligations in Spain, according to various media reports.
January 16 – The extent to which football might have been affected by the Russian doping scandal has finally prompted action by FIFA which has confirmed it has questioned whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.
January 16 – A French referee who aimed a kick at a Nantes player before sending him off in a high-profile top-flight fixture against Paris St-Germain has been suspended “until further notice” by the French Football Association.
January 16 – Football fans around the world remain keen on attending the World Cup, the quadrennial high mass of the global game. In all, 3,141,163 tickets have been requested in the second sales phase, which runs until the end of January.