April 4 – When it comes to buying in first team talent, Chelsea tops the table for foreign signings with 75% of its players coming from outside of England. The next highest club in the Big 5 leagues is Ligue 1’s Monaco with 73% followed by Manchester City with 69.2% and Italy’s Lazio with 67.9%.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – FIFA is facing fresh crisis right at the heart of the body responsible for rooting out corruption after ethics committee member Juan Pedro Damiani was himself placed under investigation after being caught up in an explosive tax haven scandal dubbed the Panama Papers, one of the biggest leaks of a confidential database ever recorded.
By Samindra Kunti
April 4 – The Brazilian FA, the CBF, will face more scrutiny by a newly established investigatory commission (CPI). Meanwhile, on the field, Brazil’s qualification campaign for the Russia 2018 World Cup ran into serious problems after draws with both Uruguay and Paraguay.
By Mark Baber
April 4 – Barcelona have ignored Neymar’s preference to play in both the Olympics and Copa America Centenario this summer and announced they will refuse to release the player twice – and would be “enchanted” if he played in the Olympics, whilst also trying to dampen speculation the player might move to another club.
April 4 – This time last year Leicester City’s fans were chanting “we are staying up” as their team put together the greatest ever survival feat in Premier League history.
April 4 – Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have been chosen as the neutral venues for upcoming fixtures between clubs from Iran and Saudi Arabia.
April 4 – Eden Arena, the shared home ground of leading Czech club Slavia Prague, looks set to be bought by the club’s owners CEFC China Energy Company.
April 4 – Nordic countries are to make a joint bid to host the European Championship in 2024 and 2028, with matches in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland plus related events in Iceland and even the Faroe islands.
April 4 – The four English clubs – three of them in the Premier League – named in the athlete doping allegations at the weekend have all issued statements denying the claims.
April 4 – Round 32 of Premier League fixtures after the international break delivered near capacity crowds in eight of ten home fixtures but at Aston Villa despair found a new level on Saturday.
By Paul Nicholson
April 1 – Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers have issued a strong rebuttal of the Amnesty International report accusing Qatar of using forced labour to renovate the Khalifa International Stadium and rejected any talk of it not being fit for World Cup purpose.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – Five senior members of the World Cup-winning US national women’s team have filed a legal challenge over wage discrimination having consistently outstripped the achievements of their male counterparts.
April 1 – Broadcast preparations for the 2016 Copa America Centenario in the US are progressing with France-based Host Broadcast Services (HBS) being appointed to deliver the pictures and logistics for tv stations worldwide.
By David Owen
April 1 – Unfashionable Burnley have quietly become one of the most profitable clubs in English football, the Leicester City of football finance. The team in claret and blue from an old East Lancashire cotton town has posted a pre-tax profit of £34.6 million for its year to 30 June 2015 – just £500,000 less than Arsenal and Manchester City managed between them.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – One of the first reported cases of racism within the senior European women’s game has led UEFA to open disciplinary proceedings after claims that Frankfurt fans abused Rosengard players during their Women’s Champions League quarter-final.