Everton pair with The Open for cross-sport media partnership
February 22 – Everton have teed off a media partnership with The Open Championship which will play its 146th Championship at Royal Birkdale in July.
Prosecutors demand jail as Neymar loses fraud case appeal and heads for trial
February 21 – Barcelona’s troubles on the field are being matched by a serious distraction off it with the news that Brazilian star Neymar has lost his final appeal and will stand trial on corruption charges relating to his transfer from Santos to Barcelona four years ago.
A new future for Africa? Hayatou challenger Ahmad focuses on the money
February 21 – Issa Hayatou’s rival in next month’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election says he intends to totally overhaul the Continent’s financial transparency as he bids to bring to an end to the long autocratic reign of Issa Hayatou.
Discrimination: Luiz wants to move on but Serbs stay rooted in a racist tradition
February 21 – The Brazilian at the centre of the latest disgraceful outburst of racist abuse in Serbian football says he wants to forget the incident as soon as possible despite being in floods of tears at the final whistle – pictures that were flashed across the world.
Infantino encourages ASEAN nations to bid for World Cup 2034
By Paul Nicholson
February 21 – The prospect of a 48-team World Cup is opening up new frontiers and finding new friends for FIFA President Gianni Infantino who was in Myanmar last week meeting ASEAN members (a sub-region of the Asian Football Confederation) encouraging them to consider how they could participate in the expanded format.
Salman shows support in Thailand and welcomes new Indonesian boss to AFC family
February 21 – While FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been active in the South-east Asian region, the Asian Football Confederation’s own president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has similarly been travelling inaugurating a new Football Association of Thailand (FAT) headquarters in Bangkok on Saturday and yesterday visiting the new President of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) Lt General Edy Rahmayadi.
Barca and Real top home trained players list but Arsenal have most still at the club
February 21 – Of the 16 teams left in the knockout rounds the Champions League, 86 of the 384 players registered (16 squads of 24 players) graduated to the first team via the academy of that club. However, 26 of those players were playing for different clubs than those that trained them.
Monaco eye stake in Belgium’s Cercle Brugge as a development club
By Samindra Kunti
February 21 – French club Monaco have made an offer to buy a majority stake in Belgian First Division B club Cercle Brugge.
Cairo court upholds death sentences for 10 involved in Port Said stadium massacre
By Paul Nicholson
February 20 – Egypt’s top court in Cairo has this morning (Monday) upheld death sentences for 10 men for their part in the violence that left 74 football fans dead in the Port Said stadium disaster in February 2012.
Hayatou gets South African welcome as Infantino joins Ahmad’s birthday bash
By Andrew Warshaw
February 20 – The tension ahead of next month’s potentially game-changing Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election is mounting after South African president Jacob Zuma was reported – apparently wrongly – to have formally given his government’s backing to Issa Hayatou despite the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) executive committee officially endorsing Hayatou’s rival, Madagascar’s Ahmad Ahmad (sic).
Osasuna match-fixing case lands 18 in court including three former Betis players
February 20 – A total of 18 people, including three players, are to stand trial in the latest match-fixing case to hit Spain. Former Real Betis trio Xavier Torres, Antonio Amaya Carazo and Jordi Figueras are accused of accepting payments to rig results at the end of the 2013-14 La Liga season in an effort to ensure Osasuna avoided relegation.
Beckenbauer under scrutiny over consultancy role in SA’s 2010 bid
February 20 – After weeks of relative silence, Franz Beckenbauer’s much publicised business dealings while he was at FIFA have come under fresh scrutiny, this time over the award of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Yorke is trumped by travel ban and left stranded in Doha over Iranian passport stamp
February 20 – US president Donald Trump’s executive order barring those from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen entering the country – now on hold – has nevertheless had its first high profile impact on a footballer.
French deal with Nike tops Germany and England at €50.5m a year
February 20 – French Football Federation President Noël Le Graët has revealed that the Nike kit deal for the French federation is worth €50.5 million a year for the next 10 years.
Racism returns with Serbian league restart at Belgrade derby
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.