By Samindra Kunti in Rio de Janeiro
August 2 – The Women’s football tournament will kick off competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games tomorrow with six matches across three venues in Rio, Sao Paulo and Mineirao. The official games opening ceremony takes place two days later in the Maracanã Stadium.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 2 – Israeli authorities have finally relented and reversed a ban on six Palestinian footballers after initially refusing them entry to the occupied West Bank to play the decisive second leg of the Palestine Cup final.
August 2 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-14 Regional Festival of Football for the ASEAN zone concluded in the Brunei capital on Saturday.
August 2 – He claimed he was forced to work 14 hours a day, often with no meal breaks, fined thousands of Euros if he was late for training by even 30 seconds and spend hours on end standing in the city centre selling newspapers.
August 2 – The fast expanding United Soccer League (USL), part of the professional tier of US football below the MLS, will play a longer season in 2017. The league that starts matches at the end of March will now run for 30 weeks with teams playing 32 games.
August 2 – With the first round of Scotiabank Champions League fixtures kicking off the 2016-17 season tonight with Trinidad’s Central at home to Canada’s Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexico’s Pachuca at home to Honduras’ Olympia, CONCACAF has announced a significantly expanded Spanish-language TV deal in the US with Univision.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 1 – Tensions between Israeli and Palestinian football authorities have seriously escalated after the final of the Palestine Cup, one of the most important fixtures in the region, was postponed by two days on Saturday when several Gazan players were barred from crossing through Israel to reach the West Bank town of Hebron where the fixture was scheduled to be played.
August 1 – Four months after pleading not guilty, former Guatamalan football chief Brayan Jimenez has changed his plea to guilty in a US court to charges racketeering and wire fraud as part of the FifaGate scandal and faces up to 20 years in prison.
August 1 – The failed military coup in Turkey has spilled over into football with the entire governing board of the Turkish FA resigning.
August 1 – William Hill has agreed a two-year partnership with Premier League Everton to become its new official betting partner, offering exclusive odds to Everton fans.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – English champions Leicester City made their Hollywood debut in LA with an inconspicuous 4-0 spanking at the hands of French champions Paris St-Germain. One wonders if the follow-up movie to the Leicester story currently being scripted by two big name Osar-winning writers will have a different storyline.
August 1 – Manchester City completed their first football data hackathon this weekend. The hackathon was designed to unveil new insights on player performance using data provided by the Premier League, OptaPro and ChyronHego.
Suddenly, strangely, it has all gone quiet. After days and weeks of eager anticipation about whether Gianni Infantino is being investigated for breaking ethics rules, Fifa continues to leave us all on tenterhooks.
By Paul Nicholson
July 29 – Chinese investors are reportedly circling around a third English Championship club. Leeds United, like Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers that are both under new Chinese ownership, are considered a ‘sleeping giant’ waiting to return to their glory years. Chinese money could provide the boost they need to achieve this.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – FIFA’s new Senegalese secretary-general Fatma Samoura, whose appointment raised a number of eyebrows as she had no prior experience in football, believes the time she spent working in war zones for the United Nations has more than prepared her for the challenges that lie ahead.