By Mark Baber
October 28 – The presence of Hong Kong-based businessman Richard Lee with Silvio and Barbara Berlusconi (pictured) at AC Milan’s 1-1 draw with Fiorentina on Sunday has sparked media speculation of a China link for the Rossoneri.
October 28 – Six Real Madrid players are on the 23-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or FIFA World Player of the Year award.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – Lawyers representing an elite group of international players fighting to play on natural grass at next June’s Women’s World Cup have added a retaliation claim against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association, claiming “unlawful reprisal threats” towards those participating.
October 28 – Real Madrid are to appeal against a three-month suspension slapped on former World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane for not having the right coaching qualifications.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – Tributes continue to pour in following the murder of South African captain Senzo Meyiwa, with teammates speaking of their “utter devastation” and the country increasingly outraged at the shooting during what appeared to be a botched robbery.
October 28 – Barcelona, who fell foul of FIFA’s regulations on the transfer of youth players and were forced to clean up their act, have proof that their system does in fact work following figures from the CIES Football Observatory that show the club leads the way in Europe’s big-5 leagues in numbers of youth players making it through to their first team, as well as providing more players from their system to other big-5 league clubs.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 28 – As FIFA builds towards the latest meeting with football’s stakeholders to discuss exactly when to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, one of the main winter sports bodies has warned against a clash with the Winter Olympics.
By David Owen
October 28 – UEFA has agreed to chip in an extra €20 million for the 10 Euro 2016 host cities. The financial package will be released in two instalments, the first at once and the second after the competition finishes. The tournament, to be played in France, will be the 15th European Championship and the first to be contested by 24 teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 27 – Here today, gone virtually tomorrow. In less than seven months since taking over the club, Italian entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has turned Leeds United – not so long ago the proudest and most successful club in English football – into a laughing stock by sacking yet another manager almost as soon as he has walked through the door.
By Mark Baber
October 27 – President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou spoke out over the weekend on Nigeria’s football administration crisis, saying he had managed to delay a ban until after the African Women Championship final between Nigeria and Cameroon, which the country won 2-0, but that a ban was likely to be imposed on Monday.
By Andrew Warshaw
Ocotber 27 – His ban for biting may be over and last weekend’s Barcelona debut may have been incident-free but the infamy Luis Suarez brought on himself at the World Cup continues to generate widespread fascination.
October 27 – Michel Platini has re-ignited his well-publicised falling-out with FIFA president Sepp Blatter by accusing the veteran Swiss of having stopped serving the cause of football.
October 27 – CONCACAF completed its first Women’s football development summit yesterday with 39 of its 41 member associations present in Philadelphia, coinciding with the finals of the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship at PPL Park in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania.
October 27 – Bulgaria’s biggest club rivalry was marred by a serious outbreak of crowd trouble at the weekend but of a somewhat unusual nature when CSKA Sofia coach Stoycho Mladenov was knocked unconscious by a snowball thrown from rival Levski Sofia supporters.
October 27 – English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke is back on the offensive over FIFA’s reform process, saying senior officials, including the president, should be restricted to two terms of office.