February 20 – No sooner had Serbia’s top flight resumed at the weekend after a two-month winter break than the same familiar racism-fuelled trouble re-occurred, with Rad Belgrade’s match against visiting city rivals Partizan marred by a player brawl.
By Samindra Kunti
February 20 – RSC Anderlecht have announced that the club will not move to the Eurostadium, dealing another blow to the construction of the EURO 2020 venue.
February 20 – Any doubts that the FA cup, the world’s oldest and most prestigious domestic knockout competition, has lost its romance were swept away at the weekend when Lincoln City – four divisions below the Premier League – became the first non-league side in 103 years to reach the quarter-finals.
February 17 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino insists he has not asked Russian sports supremo Vitaly Mutko, the chief 2018 World Cup organiser, to resign over the doping scandal that has rocked his country.
February 17 – Adidas’ recent signing of the world’s second best player Lionel Messi (according to recent awards events) to a lifetime deal may be a reflection of their overall brand positioning when it comes to winning. An analysis of Europe’s big club competition winners over the past 10 seasons finds that 51.4% of teams wore Nike kit, while Adidas were in second place with 28.5% of teams wearing their kit.
February 17 – Following tentative research published in the UK earlier this week which suggested that repeated headers during a player’s career may be linked to brain damage, UEFA has commissioned its own research project examining links between dementia and playing football.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 17 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino says he has no fears about fan violence at the World Cup in Russia next year despite chilling threats against English supporters made in a television documentary.
By Samindra Kunti
February 17 – Savio Madeira has been appointed as the new technical director of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) succeeding Scott O’Donnell. Senior coach Stephen Constantine will take over at the U17 team on an interim basis as the hunt for a new coach continues.
February 17 – Eyebrows have been raised at the leniency of a £35,000 fine meted out by cash-rich English Premier League club Manchester City for breaching anti-doping rules.
February 17 – If there was any doubt that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) meant business when it said it was operating a zero tolerance policy on match-fixing, can be dispelled with the news that its Disciplinary Committee has issued life bans from football-related activities to 22 players and officials from Laos and Cambodia, one of the largest single group of suspensions related to one set of match-fixing instances.
February 17 – Clubs in English football’s second-tier Championship clubs have agreed “in principle” to use goalline technology from the start of next season.
February 17 – The eSports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) and International Centre for Sport Security Europe (ICSS EUROPE) have signed an agreement to work on match-fxing integrity issues facing the esports industry.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 16 – Issa Hayatou’s quest to hang on to power at the helm of African football has taken another jolt with the news that the highly influential Nigerian FA is backing his rival for the leadership.
By Paul Nicholson
February 16 – It seems Gianni’s jet fetish may still be alive and kicking despite a FIFA Ethics investigation and reminders on rules about accepting gifts or favours that could prove later to be compromising. The FIFA president took a private jet on November 26, 2016 from Moscow to Kazan, provided by Russian sports minister and FIFA Council candidate Vitaly Mutko.
February 16 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino says multiple hosting of the World Cup can work perfectly well and that 2026, when the process is likely to start, could even be staged by up to four neighbouring countries.