By Andrew Warshaw
December 13 – Forget Manchester United versus Manchester City or Real Madrid against Barcelona. It may not have made international football headlines but arguably the world’s biggest grudge match took place on Tuesday when hostile political neighbours South and North Korea played each other in the East Asian championship.
December 13 – The bitter in-fighting over who runs Sierra Leone football, and the future of the federation president Isha Johansen appears to have died down following pressure from FIFA to allow her to carry on even though her mandate officially expired in August.
December 13 – Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane is praying that none of his players pick up red and yellow cards in the FIFA Club World Cup.
December 13 – Sports rights agency IMG has been given the job of finding a headline sponsor partner for the home nation associations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
December 13 – Closing statements are set to take place in the New York trial of three former South American bosses charged in the corruption scandal engulfing FIFA.
December 13 – FIFA has annulled Nigeria’s 1-1 draw against Algeria in a World Cup qualifier last month and fined the Nigeria Football Federation CHF 6,000 for fielding an ineligible player.
December 13 – LaLiga has added Iranian telecommunications company Irancell as a new regional partner. Irancell has more than 230 million customers in 22 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
December 12 – The French Football Federation (FFF), has inked a content agreement with Chinese media company NetEase Media Technology.
December 12 – The English Football Association have launched an investigation into the post-match incidents that marred last Sunday’s hotly anticipated Manchester derby when City ended United’s unbeaten 40-game home run and in the process set a Premier League record of 14 straight wins.
December 12 – The judge in the FIFAGate trial in New York has deepened the intrigue over why current Brazilian football boss Marco del Nero is still at large even though he is one of those indicted, suggesting he might have “friends in high places”.
By Samindra Kunti
December 12 – Real Madrid will seek to defend their Club World Cup title this week in a bid to revive their season. Gremio from Brazil and Pachuca from Mexico look to be their biggest challengers in the tournament that kicked off in the United Arab Emirates last Wednesday.
December 12 – FIFA’s original governance guru has come out of the shadows to describe the organisation under Gianni Infantino as a laughing stock that has actually gone backwards from the days of Sepp Blatter when it comes to meaningful reform.
December 12 – Premier League Burnley have said that there will be no further ground developments to increase the capacity of Turf Moor until there is a greater demand for seats.
December 12 – Inter Milan have launched a bond issue to raise €300 million to satisfy a loan taken out by former majority owner, Indonesian Erick Thohir. The bond will mature in 2022.
December 12 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the top 10 performers in the Big 5 European leagues so far this season in eight positions. Four leagues have players filling top positions, only the Bundesliga fails to have a position leader.