By Paul Nicholson
December 22 – English High Street retailers wondering where their shoppers were on the last weekend before Christmas will find a good bulk of them were at Premier League football grounds. Out of more than 400,000 seats available for round 17 fixtures, just 8,976 were unfilled in what is proving to be a bumper season for attendances.
December 22 – Manchester United has launched its third branded casino game with its social gaming partner KamaGames. Manchester United Social Slots is available to download on both the Apple Appstore and Google Play.
By Paul Nicholson
December 22 – As FIFA gathers votes from players, coaches and the media for its annual Ballon D’Or awards ceremony to be held January 16 in Zurich, the CIES Football Observatory has come up with its own list of the best performing big five European league players in 2015 and created, on the basis of stats analysis, the best overall team and best U23 team.
By Mark Baber
December 21- Barcelona’s victory over River Plate in the Club World Cup final on Sunday meant they equalled Al Ahly’s record of 20 international titles – at least according to FC Barcelona. However Al Ahly have disputed this claim, arguing 3 of Barcelona’s wins were in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and therefore don’t count.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – Defiant to the last, Sepp Blatter accused the very ethics committee he helped set up of portraying him as a liar and kicking him out of football without good reason.
In a passionate last-ditch stand after being banned for eight years along with Michel Platini – effectively bringing the curtain on his 40-year career at Fifa and almost 18 years in charge – Blatter was determined not to go quietly,
By Samindra Kunti
December 21 – FIFA is suspending further transfers from a World Cup legacy fund to Brazil pending further talks with the Brazilian federation, the CBF. Brazil has only received $8.7 million from the fund 17 months after the most profitable World Cup in history.
By Samindra Kunti
December 21 – Santos have signed a sponsorship agreement with Royal Air Maroc as the club seeks financial stability next season.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his would-be successor Michel Platini became the two most high-profile casualties of the organisation’s seismic corruption scandal today as their respective careers suffered a shattering blow when both were sensationally banned for eight years.
By Paul Nicholson
December 21 – FIFA has released more record breaking TV numbers for both for its men’s and women’s world cups – a poignant reminder of the popularity of the world’s favorite event as US justice authorities reiterate their crusade against football corruption on their own continent and their thinly veiled objective of bringing down world governing body FIFA.
As if FIFA didn’t have enough problems at present, the recently-published television audience report for last year’s World Cup in Brazil gives rise to the question, ‘Has the governing body’s flagship tournament plateaued out as a global TV phenomenon?’
December 20 – Players in the top Asian professional leagues are far more likely to have made their debuts at clubs where they came through the youth system, and will be playing along more players from their own country than is the case at clubs in Europe’s Big-5 leagues.
By Ben Nicholson
December 20 – With the 2015 MLS season now over, the time for reflection on the league and its teams are upon us. Moreover, so is the time for commercial reflection. To aid the process, soccer marketing agency, Gilt Edge Soccer, has released its summary report, ‘Soccer in America 2015’.
December 18 – South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) have signed up match-fixing monitoring specialists Sportradar to police the Suzuki Cup which kicks off December 23 in India.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 18 – After the most staggering capitulation in the history of the Premier League, never has the phrase ‘The Special One’ sounded so hollow.
By Mark Baber
December 18 – Tottenham Hotspur have had their plans for a new £400 million stadium approved by Haringey Council paving the way, subject to the Mayor Boris Johnson’s permission, for work to begin on a modern 61,000 seater stadium in spring 2016.