March 11 – FIFA’s suspension of Kuwait, which caused the Gulf state to be banned from voting at the recent presidential election, has again hit the Asian World Cup qualifying campaign with the upcoming fixture against South Korea called off.
Reflecting on the way FIFA history is being rewritten with its new reform championing president, one wonders if two weeks ago football (we’ll soon be calling it soccer) had its WMD moment.
March 20 – For the first time on the continent, a South America football rightsholder has enlisted the services of a match-fixing detection service.
By David Owen
March 10 – Aston Villa, the Birmingham club marooned at the foot of the Premier League table, have reported a £27.8 million loss for the year to 31 May 2015. The deficit, which compares with a loss of just under £4 million the previous year, is the biggest among Premier League clubs yet to have reported, just ahead of Chelsea.
By Mark Baber
March 10 – A few hours after the news had leaked out prematurely, FC Barcelona announced officially that the winner of the international design competition for the refashioning of the Camp Nou is the Nikken Sekkei and Pascual i Ausió Arquitectes team.
By Paul Nicholson
March 10 – A sign that the broadcast sales of sports rights is shifting away from traditional platform sales to embrace the digital distribution options more fully can be seen from the partnership just announced by MP & Silva with Simplestream.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Francois Carrard, the former Olympic supremo who led the team that drafted FIFA’s much-trumpeted governance proposals, has given his backing to Gianni Infantino in ensuring the reform measures are implemented properly and not just left to fester.
By Samindra Kunti
March 10 – Coca-Cola and Olympique Lyonnais have signed a three-year supply deal pertaining to the French club’s new stadium Stade de Lyon.
March 10 – Zimbabwe has become embroiled in another match-fixing scandal after its national football association (ZIFA) provisionally suspended one of its own board members pending further investigation.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have reacted strongly to the police raid on the headquarters of the French Football Federation as part of the Swiss criminal investigation into the infamous “disloyal payment” that led to both men being banned by FIFA’s ethics committee.
By David Owen
March 10 – High-flying Leicester City, the shock Premier League leaders, are not just a transformed proposition on the pitch. Their financial prospects suddenly look as bright as Riyad Mahrez’s revelatory forward play or manager Claudio Ranieri’s post-match demeanour.
By Paul Nicholson
March 10 – CONCACAF have appointed a new director of refereeing following a review of its Refereeing Department earlier in the year.
By Paul Nicholson
March 9 – The long running battle between clubs and fans over the price of tickets for away matches has found a league-wide solution with Premier League clubs having unanimously agreed to cap away tickets at no more than £30 each. The agreement will last for three seasons.
By Paul Nicholson
March 9 – The call from interim FIFA president Issa Hayatou last week following the election of Gianni Infantino as the new president was for the whole of FIFA to unite behind him in impletenting the reforms and a bold and positive new future.
By Paul Nicholson
March 9 – Regulation of the runaway Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) business in the US took a step closer in Virginia this week, but a ruling is still awaited in New York over whether DFS games operated by DraftKings and FanDuel are illegal or not.