By Andrew Warshaw
January 5 – Zahir Belounis, the French-Algerian footballer whose tortuous saga of being “trapped” in Qatar against his will made him an international cause celebre, has finally reached a financial settlement in his long-running dispute with Qatar Stars League team El Jaish Sports Club.
January 5 – The Chinese FA (CFA) has moved to further strengthen its domestic football infrastructure repeating its policy of restricting transfer fees during the 2018 winter transfer window and at the time announcing a restructuring of its management and organisation nationally with the recruitment of new middle managers.
January 5 – Former England manager Roy Hodgson has warned that the introduction of video technology in English football will not necessarily be a positive move judging by recent instances of controversy elsewhere.
January 5 – LaLiga has released details of its broadcast income and its club distribution. TV income rose year-on-year to in €1.247 billion from 1.237 billion, with Barcelona being the top club earner with €146.2 million.
January 5 – The first Premier League fixtures of the New Year, round 22 of the season, saw nine clubs report stadiums over 94% full. Only on the South coast where Southampton were having a generally miserable holiday period, did crowds dip below 90%.
By Paul Nicholson
January 4 – The Liberian FA (LFA) and its president Musa Bility have hit back saying that the pre-Christmas visit to their country by a FIFA team of financial investigators was in fact a compliance audit and not a forensic audit tasked with investigating financial corruption in Liberian football.
January 4 – Runaway English Premier League leaders Manchester City have more financial clout than any other club in world football, according to a new study commissioned by global sports event organisers Soccerex.
By Mark Baber
January 4 – The Russian Football Union (RFU) is to nominate Moscow as host of the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, according to deputy president Sergei Anokhin.
January 4 – In what they describe as a “unique partnership”, Leeds United, one of English football’s most iconic clubs striving to return to the top flight from the second-tier Championship, have joined forces with Qatar’s famed Aspire Academy in order to bring about “long term benefits to the club’s on the field performance.”
January 4 – Here we go again. Juventus reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over neighbours Torino who were incensed at yet another example of video technology seemingly going wrong.
January 4 – FIFA have launched an investigation into racial discrimination after England under-17 striker Rhian Brewster made a complaint about a teammate being abused in the under-17 World Cup final.
January 3 – Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistle-blower whose revelations led to the explosive doping scandal that rocked Russian sport, is now free to talk to FIFA about the extent to which football was involved according to agency reports.
January 3 – In a repeat of the final a decade ago and of this year’s Group A opener, the United Arab Emirates and Oman will meet in the climax of the 23rd Gulf Cup on Friday in Kuwait after both squeezed through in their respective semi-finals.
January 3 – An Egyptian court has sentenced 28 fans to jail for one year for paying tribute to those killed in the infamous Port Said disaster five years ago, accusing them of incitement.
January 3 – SportPesa are withdrawing from all Kenyan football sponsorships after failing to win a legal case that would have halted the Kenyan government’s move to increase the tax rate on gross profit on all gambling activities to 35%.