By Jaroslaw Adamowski
December 12 – The coaches of two of Poland’s leading football sides have called on the Polish Football Federation (PZPN) to reform the Ekstraklasa, the country’s top tier, by expanding it by a further two teams to 18 squads, similarly to the German Bundesliga.
December 12 – Canadian Sonia Denoncourt has been appointed CONCACAF’s Director of Refereeing. Denoncourt’s role will be to head all aspects of referreing and the development of referees across the region, including directing the Heads of Refereeing in the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).
December 12 – Two Paris St Germain fans are recovering after being stabbed following Wednesday night’s Champions League match against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, heaping even more pressure on Spanish to crack down on violence.
December 12 – Twenty-four days after Hereford United, famous for causing one of the great upsets in English football history, were thrown out of the game following a long and painful battle for survival, the club has been handed a reprieve.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 12 – Vital talks over whether to publish the hotly debated report into possible corruption during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process will take place next week when FIFA’s executive committee is expected to vote on releasing a redacted version of the controversial file.
December 12 – Volgograd’s new football stadium for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, being built on the site of the old Central Stadium, will be completed in November 2017, according to local government officials.
Could this be as good as it gets for the Bundesliga as it challenges its European ‘partners’on the field and off it for European and commercial dominance?
December 12 – Last week UEFA announced it was banning clubs in the annexed Crimea region of Ukraine playing in any Russian-organised football competitions. This week the Russians have announced a 4.5 billion ruble ($83 million) aid package to rebuild Crimean sports infrastructure.
By Alexander Krassimirov
December 12 – The President of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) Borislav Mihaylov (pictured) has said he has received threatening text messages, possibly from criminal groups linked to match-fixing gangs.
By Samindra Kunti
December 12 – The KNVB, the Dutch FA, has approved a structural reform of its domestic club football. From the 2016/17 season onwards professional and amateur football in the Netherlands will be integrated through a mandatory system of promotion and relegation.
December 11 – The elite group of players campaigning against the use of artificial turf at next year’s Women’s World Cup in Canada appear to have won a partial victory after the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario cleared the way for them to amend their case to include allegations of reprisal threats against some of them.
By Mark Baber
December 11 – As the final game of Los Angeles Galaxy legend Landon Donovan highlighted the trans-border interests of soccer fans in Mexico and the US, the football ties between the two countries look like deepening with Liga MX officials saying that they are evaluating the possibility of incorporating Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs into the biannual knock-out Copa MX.
December 12 – Memories of the cold-bloodied murder 20 years ago of Colombian World Cup star Andres Escobar have come flooding back following the latest harrowing tale of intimidation, this time involving Faustino Asprilla, who won 57 caps for the country.
December 11 – Far away from the riches of the Champions League, 42 years after achieving one of the great iconic upsets in English football history, Hereford United have been suspended “from all football activity” by the Football Association.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – While most of the big guns of Europe as expected qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League, the draw for which is Monday, Liverpool were left to rue the price of failure.