April 16 – The judge who chaired the inquiry into the Bradford City fire disaster that killed 56 people in 1985 has described claims the blaze may have been started deliberately as “nonsense”.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 16 – The race is on for one of the most colourful and charismatic coaches in European football after Jürgen Klopp announced he would be leaving Borussia Dortmund in the summer after seven years in charge.
Klopp’s contract expires in 2018 but he has asked to be released after a tough season by Borussia’s high standards.
April 16 – UEFA have decided to take no action against Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal following allegations that he bit Atletico forward Mario Mandzukic in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final, first leg between the city rivals.
By Paul Nicholson in the Bahamas
April 16 – For anyone taking the global annual football confederation congress tour, the Caribbean is the current stop on the schedule which will end in Zurich in May with the main event of the election of the FIFA president. And as in previous elections, the Caribbean is having its day in the FIFA political sun.
April 16 – FC Twente and its main sponsor XXImo have reached an agreement to terminate their contract. The Dutch club is going through troubled times after losing the Dutch Cup final against PEC Zwolle.
April 16 – While their federation presidents were in the Bahamas at the CONCACAF Congress, 15 clubs from nine Caribbean Football Union (CFU) member associations were starting their quest for qualification to the CONCACAF Champions League for the 2015/16 next season.
April 16 – Manchester United are to return to the US for their pre-season tour this summer and will defend their ‘International Champions Cup’ title which they won last last year.
A sad, very disturbing, fact remains constant, over the decades I’ve covered the African game, which is fuelling my deepening pessimism about its future – the ruthless cultivation of a reactionary climate that is extremely hostile to the desperately needed transformation of CAF, the continent’s governing body, into an organisation that will finally command the genuine respect of the global fraternity and use its political capital in the interests of those it ought to primarily serve.
April 15 – A striker with Manchester City’s women’s team has been forced to apologise after causing a social media storm by posting a photograph of herself sharing a laugh with Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal just hours after City’s derby defeat on Sunday.
April 15 – Croatian football, marred by constant problems involving hooligan fans, is back in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons after national team coach Niko Kovac was assailed by a group of supporters wearing Hajduk Split colours.
April 15 – Bulgarian football is facing yet another potential match-fixing scandal following allegations of games being manipulated in the country’s second division.
April 15 – Anything Torpedo Moscow can do when it comes to discrimination, Spartak Moscow can seemingly match. Within days of Torpedo being found guilty of racism and ordered to play two more home games behind closed doors after their fourth offense of the season, so Spartak Moscow have been punished after fans displayed racist images during the April 9 fixture at Arsenal Tula.
By Mark Baber
April 15 – Manchester City have agreed that Vivo Energy, the company that distributes and markets Shell branded fuels and lubricants across Africa, will be the Club’s Official Fuels and Lubricants partner in Botswana, extending an existing association with the company, unveiled at the end of 2014, which covered the Ivory Coast.
By Mark Baber
April 15 – Football has made it on to the election agenda in the UK with the Labour Party making a manifesto commitment to introduce legislation to allow football supporters to appoint club directors and also to give fans the right to purchase shares in their club when there is a change of ownership.
By Ricardo Setyon
April 15 – The writing was on wall from the moment the decision was taken to build. The Arena Amazonia – a beautiful and giant stadium, in the heart of Manaus, the capital city of the most important forest on Earth, and constructed for the greatest show on Earth, the FIFA World Cup – has become a monument to Brazilian football’s financial folly. A legacy nightmare.