July 10 – India may be taking the lead over its neighbours in terms of big tournament organisation with the FIFA U-17 World Cup this October, but the Asian Football Confederation is rolling out its development programmes throughout the region with the Bangladesh Football Federation’s AFC Grassoots Football Day being reported as a resounding success.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 7 – If circumstances had panned out differently, Michel Platini could now be running FIFA. Instead, the three-time European Footballer of the Year, who rose to become UEFA president, is now well and truly yesterday’s man after his final appeal against his four-year ban for financial wrongdoing was thrown out by Switzerland’s supreme court.
By Mark Baber
July 7 – The dispute between Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Australia’s A-League clubs over the composition of the FFA Congress needs to be resolved by November 30 or FIFA may impose a “normalisation committee” to push through changes.
How many times have we heard Hassan al-Thawadi, the public face of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup, utter those words when talking about the Gulf state staging football’s showpiece tournament?
July 7 – This week’s Supreme Court ruling against Rangers football club could have a damaging knock-on effect, say experts, with scores of other clubs and players – Scottish and English – potentially forced to hand over millions of pounds of unpaid tax.
By Paul Nicholson
July 7 – USA, Canada and Mexico have officially formed a United Bid Committee for their joint pitch to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With the deadline for the submission of the formal bid to FIFA being 16 March 2018, the Bid Committee will begin discussion with potential host cities and stakeholders immediately.
July 7 – The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) is developing predictive software technology for use in securing future major sports events. Combined with the use of smart data systems, the software is targeted to be used as part of big event safety and security planning.
July 7 – Eight people have died, seven of them children, in a Malawi stampede on independence day ahead of a match between two local teams.
July 7 – Premier League Manchester City have renewed their global partnership with Asian direct selling company QNET for another three years to 2020.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin believes a salary cap, which for many years has been widely debated in forums across European football, might be the only viable solution to stemming the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots.
July 7 – Premier League clubs are least likely to buy from each other in the transfer window and Manchester City have spent £1.14 billion on players over the past 10 years of which only 35% has stayed in England.
July 6 – FIFA says it will not back down after scheduling next year’s World Cup final kickoff in Russia on the same afternoon as the Wimbledon men’s tennis final.
July 6 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) brought its top leagues together earlier this week for a forum that put financial stability at the top of the agenda. The meeting was organised as part of the AFC League Development Programme.
July 6 – Fierce adversaries on and off the pitch, it is little surprise that Scottish champions Celtic have waded into the tax avoidance case surrounding Glasgow rivals Rangers.
July 6 – With 48 hours to go before the kick-off of the Gold Cup at The Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, CONCACAF have announced another last-minute sponsorship sale with Toyota coming on board as the Official Motor Vehicle of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.