By Paul Nicholson
August 21 – Manchester United have continued their seemingly unstoppable march to the top of the overall premier league club Twitter table, again clawing back more than 15,000 followers on the lead of table toppers Arsenal and Chelsea.
August 21 – The Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport (FITS) Forum being held in Geneva on 3-4 September has announced more speakers to its already heavyweight line-up.
What’s good for the goose, as the old saying goes, is good for the gander. When former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon entered the presidential race earlier this week by casting aspertions on both on his rival Michel Platini and the outgoing Sepp Blatter, he must have realised reaction to his comments would be swift.
By Mark Baber
August 21 – Two men were sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for selling BSkyB viewing cards for Premier League football matches, intended for domestic use, to pubs and other businesses.
By Paul Nicholson
August 21 – US Club Soccer, the 500,000 member organisation that launched its Players First initiative for youth clubs earlier this month, has officially launched its technical partnership with Spain’s LaLiga.
By Ben Nicholson
August 21 – Forbes has published estimated values of MLS teams, showing an average increase in value of around 50% since 2013.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 21 – As the overhaul of FIFA’s reform process picks up speed, the women’s game is determined not to be left behind and has called for a target of 30% of women’s participation in the body’s decision-making heirarchy.
By Samindra Kunti
August 21 – In 2015 Brazilian broadcasting behemoth TV Globo invested about €335 million in football and TV-rights, but its vice-like grip over football in the country is for the first time being seriously challenged by competitors, with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Sports at the forefront.
August 21 – Catania have been relegated to the third tier of Italian football for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal last season. The Sicilian side were also deducted 12 points for this season and fined €150,000 while club president Antonino Pulvirenti has been banned for five years and fined €300,000.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 21 – FIFA’s much-trumpeted reform body headed by former Olympics guru Francois Carrard will meet for the first time on September 2-3, three weeks before it is due to provide an update to the organisation’s top brass over proposals for cleaning up the corruption-tarnished body.
By Mark Baber
August 20 – Called before the National Assembly on Wednesday, South Africa’s Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula (pictured) explained that South Africa’s $10 million payment to the Caribbean, was a totally legitimate legacy payment, whilst a former South African Football Federation (SAFA) executive member gave an off-message interview to local media – saying neither he nor many of his colleagues were told anything about the payment.
By Samindra Kunti
August 20 – Belgian topflight club Sint-Truidense V.V. have partnered with Swiss start-up kickrs.net to crowd-fund the transfers of football players. Fans of STVV can invest in 18-year old Greek striker Panagiotis Kynigopoulos.
By Mark Baber
August 20 – FIFA subsidiary Early Warning System and the sports media group Perform have announced a new partnership which will see the integration of data from Perform into EWS’s integrity monitoring system in a major turnaround since this time last year.
The contest to succeed Sepp Blatter could still produce surprises, not least we could have more candidates. Some Africans, aided by European advisers, are still trying to find a heavyweight African, Tokyo Sexwale is the name most often mentioned, to provide a realistic chance of the first black man occupying Blatter’s wonderful House of Football in Zurich. Prince Ali could still stand. But whatever the final list of candidates already the contour of the election is clear.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – FIFA has taken steps with its six confederations to create a global club licensing framework that will set a minimum standards required by clubs in key areas like stadium safety, fan experience and youth football development. FIFA said the new licensing framework will be in place by the end of 2016.