By Paul Nicholson
June 8 – The Copa America Centenario sparked into life last night at Chicago’s Soldier Field with hosts USA thrashing Costa Rica 4-0 in the first of the second round of group games.
By Samindra Kunti
June 8 – Not everything is rosy in the corruption-free garden of the US-hosted centenary edition of the Copa America. President of the Uruguayan FA Wilmar Valdez has claimed it was a mistake for the USA to host the tournament.
June 8 – One of Africa’s football legends, Nigerian Stephen Keshi, has died suddenly at the age of 54. Keshi is one of only two people to win the Africa Cup of Nations as a player and a coach.
By Samindra Kunti
June 8 – Euro 2016 is set to be the best attended European Championship ever, but the opening match between France and Romania is struggling to sell out.
June 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is readying for its Goa elective Congress on September 27 where it will vote for its representatives to FIFA’s new Council. Meanwhile member nations are battling out for the final places in the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers.
June 8 – Southampton manager Ronald Koeman has quit the club after just two seasons in the job for the lure of Everton’s big money new owner. Saints will receive £5 million in compensation.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – Chelsea and Jose Mourinho have reached a confidential undisclosed settlement with former team doctor Eva Carneiro at an employment tribunal in London, bringing to an end one of the less savoury episodes in English football.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – As tension mounts ahead of Euro 2016, both on and off the pitch, Paris’ police chief promised he would be receiving thousands of reinforcements and that his force was as prepared as it could be to face the threat of terrorist activity.
By Samindra Kunti
June 7 – France is a country in disarray as the final preparations are underway to host Euro 2016. Social unrest is one of the overarching problems to have marred the build-up and failure to agree an agreement with rail unions last night could disrupt travel during the tournament.
By Paul Nicholson
June 7 – Brazil and Barcelona striker Neymar faces his second prosecution this year for tax evasion. Having been convicted of tax fraud and ordered to pay €45.9 million in fines and back-taxes in March in Brazil, now Spanish prosecutors want him to go trial in their country.
June 7 – Sepp Blatter’s lawyers say his compensation payments were completely above board despite the furore over revelations last week by FIFA’s American lawyers that Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner paid themselves millions of dollars in bonuses that hardly anyone else was aware of.
The trio awarded themselves salary increases and future golden handshakes totaling tens of millions of dollars over just five years, it was disclosed. FIFA said prior to 2013,
June 7 – The former Chelsea team doctor who was verbally lambasted by Jose Mourinho and had her position downgraded rejected a £1.2 million settlement from the club, documents submitted to her employment tribunal show.
June 7 – The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) has beefed up its tournament management tools with a three-year agreement with Sportradar for its Federation Management Platform (FMP) competition management tools.
June 7 – Oulala.com, the daily fantasy football platform that launched the monetised version of its games in Europe last October, has launched its Euro 2016 game.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has come under renewed pressure to explain a series of potentially unlawful manoeuvres that threaten to seriously derail his presidency after 100 days in the job.