By Alexander Krassimirov
February 20 – Sofia City Court (SCC) cleared the chairman of the supervisory board of CSKA Sofia, Alexander Tomov, of charges of misappropriation of funds from metallurgical plant Kremikovtsi and the football club. On Monday, prosecutors requested 10 years in prison for Tomov, but Sofia City Court dropped all the charges.
“I don’t want to be a thief of my own wallet.” Johan Cruyff
It is hard to imagine the nation that produced Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp ever giving its name to something negative in football. But then Dutch Disease is an economic concept.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 19 – Promising to prioritise grass-roots football and a fairer distribution of funds as well as increase the number of World Cup finalists, Portuguese icon Luis Figo today became the first candidate for FIFA president to launch an official manifesto as distinct from simply mission statements.
By Mark Baber
February 19 – The award of the US broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup to Fox and NBCUniversal’s Telemundo – they also hold rights to 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar – has raised a storm in US media circles.
February 19 – Juventus scored another social media success this month with its Social Selfie contest which generated a huge response with more than 15,000 selfies a week being sent into the club from around the world.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 19 – PSV Eindhoven has decided to swap Nike for Umbro as its kit supplier starting in the 2015/2016 Eredivisie season.
February 19 – Paris and London police are co-operating in an effort to identify the Chelsea fans who appeared to stop a black man from boarding a train ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against Paris St Germain.
February 19 – English Premier League club Liverpool has added five territory specific online club retail stores in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The club already operates a very successful online store in China which will be the model for the new sites.
February 19 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been quick to react to former Italian national coach Arrigo Sacchi’s complaint that there were too many black players in Italian youth football.
February 19 – The AFC Asian Cup 2015 that ended at the end of January with a home win for Australia has been hailed as a success in the battle against betting related match-fixing, with the AFC announcing that there was no evidence of match manipulation uncovered at the tournament.
February 19 – Football fans are often described as tribal. Polish club Legia Warsaw have taken it a step further with the club, and Poland’s, first affinity programme with fans given a military rank depending on the number of affinity points they accumulate.
By Alexander Krassimirov
February 18 – With one Bulgarian club owner facing a possible prison sentence for fraud, another, Levski Sofia Todor Batkov (pictured) has said he has had enough and has announced he is ready to sell his shares in the club.
February 18 – The parent company that owns second-tier English side Birmingham City has gone into voluntary receivership because of internal strife, another stark example of the struggles that can afflict clubs below the top flight.
By Mark Baber
February 18 – The FC Barcelona board has agreed to sell their audiovisual rights for 2015/16 to Madrid-based multinational Telefónica, ditching long-standing partner Mediapro, in a strategic move ahead of legislation in the Spanish parliament expected to impose collective bargaining for television income on Spanish clubs.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 18 – Spanish football has been rocked by yet another case of match-fixing, this time involving a crucial relegation battle last season between Espanyol and Osasuna.