March 22 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) completed its third accelerated learning course for referees in Japan on Monday. Designed to identify and speed up the development of refereeing talent in the region, the two-year programme aims to graduate more officials to FIFA standards.
March 21 – South African football has been plunged into yet another scandal after Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life by FIFA for “match manipulation”.
March 21 – Iraq wants United States-born striker Justin Meram to rethink his decision not to join up with the squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia.
March 21 – With attention switching to World Cup qualifiers this week, the battle for a place at the Russia 2018 finals is no more competitive than in Asia where AFC qualification has reached the half way point. There are no runaway leaders and the traditional regional dominance of Australia, Japan and South Korea is under threat.
March 21 – Italy’s Internazionale have signed car manufacturer SWM Motors as an official partner with the company’s SWM X7 becoming the Official Car of F.C. Internazionale for the Greater China area.
March 21 – South Korea is taking steps to ensure the safety of its players as its national women’s team prepares to play North Korea.
March 21 – The German Bundesliga is often portrayed as a model example of fair play when it comes to club ownership rules and affordable ticket prices. But according to the league’s own CEO, Christian Seifert, Bayern Munich’s domination threatens the Bundesliga’s reputation and their rivals must show more ambition in order to close the gap.
March 21 –Premier League teams head the rankings of having the oldest players on average of all Europe’s leagues. Ten club from England’s top tier rank in the top 100 teams having on average fielded the oldest line ups in the domestic league matches played during the last six months.
March 21- Liverpool became the fourth Premier League club to break through the 7 million Twitter follower barrier this week. They put on 27,100 new followers for the week.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 20 – African football’s new leadership faces immediate and important questions about transparency and double standards after electing an official who was banned from running for FIFA president on to its own ruling body.
March 20 – Manchester United will tour the US for two weeks as part of their pre-season preparation in July, playing five games on the east and west coasts, most likely as part of the International Champions Cup (ICC) tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
March 20 – The Egyptian prosecution of former Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou over the award of CAF’s media and commercial rights to Lagardère Sports will continue, promised a legal spokesperson for Presentation Sports. This is despite Hayatou having lost the presidency of CAF to Madagascar’s Ahmad Ahmad last Thursday.
March 20 – The head of Palestine Football Association (PFA) Jibril Rajoub has re-iterated that he will not agree to any further compromises if FIFA continues to drag its feet over the festering dispute regarding Israeli conduct in Middle East football.
March 20 – He’s been the figurehead at Arsenal for a generation but Arsene Wenger has given the biggest hint yet that he will call it a day in the summer following mounting pressure over his position.
By Samindra Kunti
March 20 – India’s preparations for the U-17 World Cup have been hit following the postponement of two friendlies with Mali. Meanwhile car manufacturer Hero has become a local sponsor for the tournament.