January 17 – Watford showed the largest percentage growth in Twitter followers in the Premier League this week, as it led the mourning over the sudden death of Graham Taylor, a legendary manager at the club. Hull City, with new manager Marco Silva beginning to hit his stride, led the ranking of clubs tweeting the most.
January 17 – Neymar and not Leonel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo is the most valuable player in Europe, at €246.8 million, according to a new study which values 10 players at more than €100 million.
January 17 – He may still be fighting extradition to the United States over corruption charges but banned former FIFA powerbroker Jack Warner shows no sign of staying silent when it comes to domestic footballing affairs.
By Samindra Kunti
January 17 – The CAF executive committee has withdrawn the hosting right for this year’s U17 African Cup of Nations from Madagascar.
January 17 – CONCACAF has launched a high level initiative in conjunction with Mexican federation FEMEXFUT to boost the standard of referring and coaching at the top levels of its member federations.
January 17 – Already embroiled in the 2006 World Cup bid scandal, German football has suffered another internal administrative blow with the premature departure of sporting director Hansi Flick, with former under-21 coach Horst Hrubesch hauled out of retirement to temporarily replace him.
January 17 – A former English league coach has denied eight child abuse offences in the 1980s in a case that came to light late last year, one of many that rocked the sport when several ex-players came forward to describe their suffering.
By Paul Nicholson
January 16 – After a number of government warnings, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has confirmed that it is stepping in to end the gravy train of European-based players’ big money transfers to Chinese Super League clubs.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – An Israeli-based media watchdog has sent a detailed and highly damning file on Palestine football leader Jibril Rajoub to FIFA in the latest tit-for-tat exchange over the sensitive issue over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian players and officials in the occupied territories.
January 16 – The British sponsorship consultant widely acknowledged as one of the pioneers of modern sports marketing has described as “absurd” FIFA’s decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.
January 16 – When is retirement not retirement? FIFA have been asked by Liverpool to make a ruling over the eligibility of Cameroon defender Joel Matip after the club was forced to leave him out in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
The Swiss Prosecutors are investigating the scraps that the US Department of Justice left with them. The DOJ used spooks to identify the bad men at FIFA. They didn’t just do this in the US where super-snitch Blazer was caught in his electric armchair on his way to yet another eatery. They did it throughout Europe, and one would now be permitted to assume also in Russia.
January 16 – Hailed as a Messiah and the most sought-after coach in Europe when he joined Manchester City after blazing a trail at Barcelona and then Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola appears to have conceded that winning the Premier League title in his first season in England is over.
By Paul Nicholson
January 15 – Lagardère Sports have won the international sales rights to CONCACAF events including this year’s Gold Cup, taking over from last international sales reps IMG who held the contract for a year. No details were given on the deal or the size of the guarantee that Lagardère made.
January 16 – A return to Premier League football after FA Cup fixtures marked a return to sell out crowds at seven Premier League stadia. Swansea, West Ham, Man Utd and Leicester again recorded over 99% of their stadiums full.