April 12 – The minute imperious central midfielder Yaya Toure got the news that Pep Guardiola would be replacing Manuel Pellegrini as manager at Manchester City in the summer, he knew his reign as one of the team’s pivotal superstars would be over.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 11 – Gianni Infantino has issued his most stinging rebuttal to date of any wrongdoing in the Panama Papers affair. The new FIFA president describes the way his involvement has been reported as a “disgrace”.
By Samindra Kunti
April 11 – The terrorist cell that struck at the heart of Paris and Brussels was planning to attack this summer’s European Championships, according to French media, further heightening security concerns ahead of the 24-nation tournament in June and July.
By Paul Nicholson
April 11 – The movement towards creating a cross-discipline global sports integrity alliance now has a name for the proposed umbrella body. The official formation of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) took step closer last week at a meeting of leading sports representatives in Madrid.
April 11 – The English Football Association wants FIFA to investigate whether there are definitive long-term health hazards from too much heading of the ball.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 11 – It’s less than 50 miles, a one-hour drive on a good day, between the respective grounds of Leicester City and Aston Villa in the English midlands. But the mood and atmosphere surrounding the two Premier League clubs could not be more extreme.
By Mark Baber
April 11 – With Nigeria having been eliminated from the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, the factional struggle for control of the Nigerian Football Federation has returned with a vengeance as, on Friday, Chris Giwa’s group returned to court, winning a ruling which effectively makes Giwa head of the federation and overthrows the Amaju Pinnick-led board.
By Bernd Fisa
April 11 – Florence, Italy celebrated the lives and achievements of Stefano Borgonovo and Armando Segato, last weekend. Both men were former strikers for Fiorentina and Italy’s La Squadra Azzura, who lost their battle with neurological disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
April 11 – Fans eager to know what the future holds for Portugal’s famed former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho will have to wait a bit longer.
By David Owen
April 10 – Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Mexico, the defending champions, will be the top four seeds in this week’s draw for the men’s Olympic football tournament. Their counterparts in the women’s competition will be Brazil, the United States and Germany.
When Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung received a message in spring 2015 that it would be receiving access to – as they say – some 11 million documents hacked out of Panamanian Law Firm Mossack Fonseca, the excitement was tremendous. One of Germany’s leading dailies was an odd target for whoever stole the documents from the large law firm in Panama, a solid US protectorate. The apparent logic was quickly established, considering that Mossack is a German national who chose to seek greener pastures in a land whose president had been kidnapped by the USA,
“Politics, these days, is no occupation for an educated man, a man of character. Ignorance and total lousiness are better.” Aristophanes, The Knights
There was of course no football 2,400 years ago when Aristophanes was writing his plays, and still less a FIFA or UEFA. But were the Old Comedian to be as popular a satirist now as he was then, he might be expected to use the same words to describe the people who have been governing our game for us as he used to describe the polis of ancient Athens.
By Paul Nicholson
April 8 – Speculation is mounting over who will have the sponsor position on the front of Barcelona’s shirt – probably the most valuable football sponsor position in world football – once the Qatar Airways deal ends at the end of June.
By David Owen
April 8 – West Bromwich Albion, the Midlands football club now assured of at least one more season of English top-tier football, remained in the black while suffering a near halving of profits in the year to 30 June 2015.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 8 – Asian football leaders are becoming increasingly concerned over individual member federations being suspended by FIFA because of government interference in their affairs, a trend they warn is seriously hindering development in the region.