Moldovans clamp down on match-fixing with suspensions and arrests
March 27 – Moldovan top division club Dinamo-Auto have indefinitely suspended two players over allegations of match-fixing.
Turkish Airlines set to land 3-year €150m Champions League sponsorship
By Mark Baber
March 27 – Turkish Airlines has announced to the Istanbul Stock Exchange that it intends to add the UEFA Champions League to its list of football sponsorships. The value of the three-year deal has not been revealed, but current Champions League sponsor packages are currently between €55-65 million per season.
FIFA steps into Sierra Leone match-fixing battle
By Andrew Warshaw
March 27 – FIFA are to send their Director of Security Ralf Mutschke to Sierra Leone to help tackle a match-fixing crisis that has caused deep division between sports administrators and government officials.
Belgian tax collectors swoop on FA and Pro League clubs
By Samindra Kunti
March 27 – Tax authorities in Belgium are stepping up their investigations into domestic football following unannounced inspections at the Belgian FA and the Pro League.
Van Praag puts straight talking and cost cutting top of his agenda
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 27 – He is guarded about how many votes he will pick up and where they will come from. And he won’t guarantee he will stay the course. Yet there is a certain gravitas, authority, self-belief and dry humour about Michael van Praag that gives the impression the Dutch FA president might, just might, just have a fighting chance of upsetting Sepp Blatter at the FIFA presidential election on May 29.
CSKA Sofia appeals to fans for urgent donations to save club
March 27 – CSKA Sofia, champions of Bulgaria 31 times, have issued a desperate plea to their supporters to cough up emergency funding to avoid being expelled from the country’s top division over mounting debts.
Yekaterinburg to build 35,000 capacity fan zone for 2018
March 27 – With Russia having completed its final planning for 2018 World Cup stadium build and construction underway, the current focus is now switching towards budgets and planning for infrastructure around the championships.
David Owen: The Gill and Dyke Show, and why protectionism isn’t the answer for England
Watching developments in English football can be a trying business, whether we are talking on or off the pitch. So it is characteristic that a week which brought a big step forward in manoeuvring a respected English voice on to the sport’s top table should also have featured a proposal from the boss of the Football Association that would, in my opinion, represent a significant backwards step both for the Premier League and the England team he is trying to strengthen.
Premier League to share £1bn of TV cash throughout English game
By Paul Nicholson
March 27 – English Premier League clubs have agreed to share at least £1 billion of league income in the period 2016/17-2018/19. The money will be shared through the English football pyramid as well as to good causes.
Martin Volkmar: Expect the unexpected from Niersbach
From journalist to the most important official in German football: Wolfgang Niersbach has never planned his upward career path and would have liked to save the job in the FIFA Executive Committee.
Brazil World Tour kicks off on Copa90 opening new channel for rightsholders
March 26 – Copa90, the digital football network, will showcase a new broadcast distribtuion option for rightsholders and sports-sponsor brands at the Stade de France tonight when the Brazil World Tour kicks off.
Qataris buoyant and move on, despite Zwanziger’s fading voice
By Andrew Warshaw
March 26 – Hassan al-Thawadi’s (pictured) mood was as bright as the spring sun that shone down over Zurich. For months – no, make that years – Qatar’s multi-lingual 2022 World Cup organising chief has had to field all manner of attacks over his country’s right to stage the tournament, whether it should be in summer or winter and what would happen if workers’ rights were not improved.
Hyundai launch Young Player Award for Women’s World Cup
March 26 – Ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, details of the Hyundai Young Player Award were revealed on Wednesday at the Vancouver International Auto Show.
Messi and Mourinho top World’s richest players and managers ranking
March 26 – The annual France Football Rich Lists for players and managers have been released, with the lists topped by Lionel Messi and Jose Mourinho respectively.
Prince Ali breaks cover and slams GOAL project in search for votes
By Andrew Warshaw
March 26 – Two months after announcing he was standing as a FIFA presidential candidate against Sepp Blatter, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan has broken his self-imposed withdrawal from the media spotlight by accusing the current regime of not doing nearly enough to develop football on the ground and Blatter in particular of playing politics to meet his own re-election ends.