By Andrew Warshaw
April 22 – Gianni Infantino wasted no time, on his first trip to Qatar since becoming FIFA president, in stressing the need for the 2022 World Cup hosts to maintain efforts to improve workers’ welfare.
By Mark Baber
April 22 – FC Barcelona have unveiled the designs for their revamped home – the Nou Camp Nou – at a ceremony attended by Barca board members, the first-team squad and media representatives. Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the new stadium will become “an icon for the city,” though most would argue it already is in global opinion.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 22 – In his eagerly awaited first book since leaving FIFA, Sepp Blatter has revealed that he was once asked by Switzerland’s foreign ministry to persuade an African leader to quit office in exchange for an ambassadorial role.
April 22 – China’s increasingly broad-based ownership positions in sport saw trading company Wuhan Double Co announce it is to spend €39.5million buying a 100% share of Nice International Sports Limited, whose principle business is player agency.
April 22 – New FIFA president Gianni Infantino joked that his only remaining question over the Russia 2018 World Cup on his recent visit was on his “bet with Minister Mutko if I will speak better Russian or he better English in 2018.” Mutko may not have mastered the English-language but the Russians are increasingly showing they have a grip of World Cup communication.
April 22 – With scores of their players repeatedly unpaid, Romanian football authorities have eased contract restrictions that will now allow them to move on and not be retained by clubs against their will.
April 22 – Liverpool’s Anfield stadium will host the final of the Four Nations Rugby League tournament November 20, while the London (and by the West Ham’s Olympic Stadium) will host the final group game of the tournament between England and Australia.
By David Owen
April 21 – Just at the moment, everything Tottenham Hotspur touches is turning to gold. The North London club – the only team still realistically capable of derailing Leicester City’s Premier League fairy tale – is enjoying a dream season, with a Champions League slot for 2016-17 all but secured.
By Paul Nicholson
April 21 – Gordon Derrick, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president who was banned from running for the presidency of CONCACAF after FIFA’s Independent Audit and Compliance chief Domenico Scala ruled he had failed the integrity test, did in fact clear all the CONCACAF integrity hurdles before the file was passed to FIFA.
By James Dostoyevksy
April 21 – Double jeopardy, denial of the most basic due process and defamation of character seems to be the latest modus operandi of a FIFA compliance outfit that makes statements about the person’s life and livelihood with an acute and present danger of destroying not only his career in football but his ability to make a living.
By Tom Parsons
April 21 – Stoke City have entered into a six-year sponsorship agreement with bet365 which will see the Britannia Stadium become the bet365 stadium, and announced plans to extend the ground.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 21 – Swiss authorities have enacted potentially ground-breaking new rules, dubbed by Swiss media ‘Lex FIFA’ (the FIFA Law), as part of an initiative to crack down on corruption in sport.
April 21 – Not many clubs sack their coach with the domestic league title about to be won. But in Scotland, where Celtic are by far the biggest fish in a relatively small pool of winners, expectations go much further than perennial success in the top flight.
By Mark Baber
April 21 – Speaking at a press conference to announce cooperation between the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) and France’s FC Metz academy over youth training, AIFF President Praful Patel (pictured) argued the blanket ban on sporting activities in Maharashta was unfair on football and revealed that the Indian Premier League (IPL) and I-League are to be merged in the near future.
April 21 – FIFA should have acted quicker in raising the issue of Qatar’s treatment of migrant labourers working on 2022 World Cup sites, according to its head of corporate social responsibility.