By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – One of China’s leading teams, big-spending Guangzhou Evergrande, face an investigation after the club’s fans unfurled a provocative banner in an Asian Champions League match describing Hong Kong’s independence movement as ‘poison’ and carrying the words: ‘Annihilate British Dogs’.
April 26 – Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam will rename their stadium in honor of their greatest player Johan Cruyff, who died in 2016. Cruyff passed away on March 24 last year following a battle with lung cancer, he would have turned 70 yesterday.
By James Dostoyevsky
When Saoud Al-Mohannadi, the Qatari official who was disqualified from standing as an Asian member of FIFA’s ruling Council won a landmark appeal – well timed so that he couldn’t run for office next month – the (football) world was mighty surprised. His was a rare, a very rare, case for the FIFA Appeals Committee to overturn the “independent” FIFA Ethics machine, not merely by reducing a sanction but by vacating it entirely.
April 25 – Newcastle United’s re-ascent to the Premier League will immediately catapult the club into ninth place in the Premier League social media rankings, but is it a position that perhaps reflects the under achievement of what is undoubtedly one of England’s most passionately supported clubs?
By Paul Nicholson
April 25 – A leading executive of one of Hull City’s suitors for club ownership has been arrested in Hong Kong raising questions over the progress of the sale that has been on-going since the start of the season.
By Paul Nicholson
April 25 – Multi-club ownership has gained an increased profile with City Football Group’s (CFG) recent addition of Atlético Torque (Uruguay) to their portfolio, while Atlético de Madrid have invested in Atlético San Luis (Mexico) and AS Monaco have agreed to acquire Cercle Brugge KSV (Belgium). But is it the pathway to financial profit?
April 25 – Olympiacos have had their Greek league title win, the club’s 44th, confirmed after a hearing into reported fan trouble after a Greek Cup semi-final first leg match against AEK Athens resulted in a four game sanction for both clubs to play behind closed doors.
April 25 – In an unusual move, Bayern Munich have approached the office of German chancellor Angela Merkel to officially request an official explanation from the Spanish authorities for the behaviour of their police during last week’s Champions League quarter-final in Madrid.
April 25 – Portuguese authorities have opened an investigation into the death of an Italian supporter caught up in last weekend’s Lisbon derby between Sporting and Benfica.
April 25 – Manchester City has expanded its partnership with London-listed but China focussed technology, content and services company BNN. The new deal will see the club deliver coaching programmes and unique content via the Xinhua News mobile app.
April 25 – Exactly 348 days after the anguish of being relegated, Newcastle United, one of English football’s most iconic clubs, are back in the big time at the first time of asking.
By Samindra Kunti
April 24 – Saint Petersburg’s 69-000 all-seater Krestovsky Stadium has opened two months before the Confederations Cup, but concerns remain over the venue’s readiness.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – The FIFA committee charged with resolving the increasingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian issue looks set to postpone a final ruling once again by giving Israel six months to discontinue playing matches in the occupied West Bank – or face possible sanctions.
By Paul Nicholson
April 24 – When Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg launched its augmented reality Camera Effects developer platform last week at its annual developer conference last week in California, Manchester United teamed up as the demonstration guinea-pig to demonstrate the applications.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – Sepp Blatter’s colourful and controversial career may be over as a result of his six-year ethics ban but despite speculation to the contrary, the 81-year-old insists he will not end up facing prosecution at the hands of either US or Swiss justice authorities.