By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – European leagues have again urged UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin not to marginalise them as part of his wide-ranging reform process.
February 14 – West Ham lead the Premier League weekly attendance chart for Round 25 of the season – just 17 seats were reportedly unfilled at the London Stadium. Sunderland came bottom of the table with 9,069 unfilled seats at the Stadium of Light.
February 14 – Lionel Messi has been handed a ‘lifetime contract’ by Adidas that will tie him to the company until the end of his career. No figure was announced for the deal.
February 14 – Following revelations about lack of drug testing in Spanish football, attention has now turned to the British domestic game with news that at least 39% of players who played in the English Football League last season – the three divisions below the premier League – were not tested by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) authorities.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 13 – Concern is intensifying amongst campaign groups and human rights organisations over FIFA’s failure to resolve the ongoing dispute over Israeli lower-league clubs playing official games on settlements in the occupied West Bank.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 13 – It surely won’t happen – or might it? This time last year Leicester City were on their way to becoming the most unlikely champions in English Premier league history, a remarkable feat that reverberated around the globe.
By Samindra Kunti
February 13 – For the second time in three competitions, Brazil have failed to qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup to be played in Korea later this year. Meanwhile, the senior team have announced a friendly against Argentina in Melbourne in June.
February 13 – At least 17 people were killed in a stampede at a football stadium in the northern Angolan city of Uige after crowds blocked the entrances to the stadium for a league match between Santa Rita de Cassia and Recreativo do Libolo.
February 13 – World anti-doping officials have expressed their alarm at the lack of drug testing in Spanish football, saying there have been no tests carried out for the last 11 months.
February 13 – Manchester United’s famed Class of ’92 players that included Gary and Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are being linked with the opening of a new university in the Greater Manchester area.
February 13 – Inter Milan has opened its fourth football school in Japan in Fuchu (Tokyo). It will be the first of the training centres to offer an elite youth teams programme.
February 13 – Zvonimir Boban, FIFA’s new deputy general secretary, has been quick to play down any embarrassment caused by Marco Van Basten over the Dutch icon’s revolutionary blueprint for the future of football.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 10 – FIFA looks set to rule by end of this month whether under-fire Russian World Cup supremo Vitaly Mutko is eligible to join its all-powerful ruling Council.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 10 – The man leading Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisation has issued another strong defence of his country’s right to host the tournament pledging it will act as a unifying force at a time when global divisiveness is very much in vogue.
February 10 – The Scottish FA is appealing against a CHF 20,000 fine imposed by FIFA after their players wore armbands featuring the poppy symbol as an act of remembrance during their Armistice Day match with England on November 11.