January 3 – Kuwait’s exile from the international football wilderness, including 2018 World Cup qualifying, looks set to continue after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to temporarily lift its suspension on the Gulf state that has now been in place for 14 months.
January 3 – A tiny Welsh team have won a glorious place in the global footballing record books after beating the longest winning streak in top-flight football set by Johan Cruyff’s Ajax 44 years ago.
January 3 – New England manager Gareth Southgate says he would love to be the man to end the country’s record as the great under-achievers despite having a squad full of Premier League millionaire footballers.
By Paul Nicholson
December 30 – Gianni Infantino’s triumphant pre-Christmas claim that FIFA was now close to being an integrity-credible organisation was met with thinly veiled amusement in many quarters – not least the press worldwide who dutifully re-reported the FIFA president’s latest musings. There is of course a far more credible integrity viewpoint. “It has been an awful year of integrity in sports,” says Michael Hershman.
By Lefteris Charalampopoulos
December 29 – They claim to be extremely wealthy. They are owners of football clubs and controversial businessmen. Dimitris Melissanidis, owner of AEK Athens, and Giannis Alafouzos (pictured) of Panathinaikos, have money but they have failed to meet their payment obligations to their players and coaches.
December 30 – The United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements has heaped pressure on FIFA to resolve the issue of Israeli lower-league clubs based in the occupied West Bank, according to Human Rights Watch.
December 30 – World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo turned down the chance to leave Real Madrid for a staggering 300m Euros to join the flow of expensive talent towards China according to his agent.
December 30 – The English Football league (EFL) has reported record Christmas attendances with more than half a million football fans going to the Boxing Day round of fixtures boosting average attendances to higher than some of Europe’s biggest leagues.
December 30 – KV Oostende have accrued a loss of €7 million in the 2015/16 book year, with the Belgian club’s debts mounting to €23.4 million. In comparison Anderlecht reported a net profit of €1.6 million.
December 30 – Bob Bradley, the former US national team coach sacked by Swansea City after only 85 days in charge, says he could have made a success of being the first American to manage an English Premier League side if he had been given more time by his fellow Americans who appointed him in the first place.
December 30 – Sevilla midfielder Samir Nasri is being investigated by Spanish Anti-Doping authorities over treatment he received at a Los Angeles clinic.
December 29 – The English Premier League doesn’t take a winter break, but for football fans it felt like it had taken one with a flurry of fixtures over the 10 days of December 10-18 and then a long and lonely wait to the traditional feast of Boxing Day fixtures on December 26.
December 29 – Argentine striker Carlos Tevez has become the latest international star to head for China after signing for Shanghai Shenhua from his boyhood club Boca Juniors.
By Paul Nicholson
December 29 – The increased difficulty of getting Chinese money into Europe to complete club acquisitions has been highlighted with Ligue 1 Olympique Lyonnais owner OL Groupe announcing that it had now received the first €30 million of a €100 million investment by Chinese investment fund IDG Capital Partners. At the same time Dutch club ADO The Hague said it was suing its Chinese owners for €2.3 million in unpaid investments.
December 29 – It would be fair to say that Tottenham Hotspur are not having a love affair with Wembley, either on the pitch where they failed to get the Champions League results to take them to the knock-out rounds, or off it as they prevaricate over committing to playing Premier League games there in the 2017/18 season while their rebuilt White Hart Lane stadium is completed.