By Mark Baber
April 7 – Nissan confirmed it has agreed a four-year global partnership with the UEFA Champions League including the UEFA Super Cup. The agreement represents the Japanese manufacturer’s largest ever sponsorship deal and will establish Nissan as an official partner worldwide from 2014/15 to and including the 2017/18 seasons.
April 7 – CONCACAF is holding its first ever Beach Soccer coaching course starting this week in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. The course is the next extension of the confederation’s development programme led by CONCACAF’s director of development Hugo Salcedo.
April 7 – CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb hosted UEFA president Michel Platini in the Cayman Islands this weekend. The two confederation chiefs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) “for mutual co-operation towards the development of the game”.
By Paul Nicholson
April 4 – The final of FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica takes place tonight with Japan and Spain competing for the top honour. Italy and Venezuela will face off for the bronze medal.
By Mark Baber
April 4 – A bill passing its way through the British Parliamentary system will increase transparency in football club ownership and remove the protection so-called ‘football creditors’ have when clubs fall into financial difficulty.
By Tom Parsons
April 4 – Following Liverpool’s move last year to introduce Wi-Fi to its 12,000 seater Centenary Stand, Manchester City has become the first Premier League Club to install free Wi-Fi throughout their whole stadium.
April 4 – The spot-fixing scandal that rocked English football at the back end of last year has escalated with the revelation that seven more professional players, all from the north of the country, have been arrested taking the number suspected to 13.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu (pictured) says the transfer ban imposed by FIFA for signing under-age players is “unjust” and is standing firmly behind the Catalan giant’s system of nurturing some of the world’s biggest stars.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stepped into the Uruguayan crisis by declaring the country will not be kicked out of the World Cup – even though the federation has now been suspended by Conmebol, the confederation that runs South American football.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 4 – Players at Bulgaria’s Lokomotiv Plovdiv refused to train yesterday in a protest against unpaid wages. Meanwhile the club’s honorary president Hristo Bonev said publically that the future of the club was in doubt.
April 3 – Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has backtracked over his decision to withdraw policing at domestic matches, a move that led to the entire board of national football federation resigning.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 3 – Wisla Krakow has inked a cooperation deal with German company UFA Sports in a bid boost its marketing efforts and stabilise its financial situation.
By Mark Baber
April 3 – Official World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola has launched its 2014 World Cup marketing programme, titled ‘The World’s Cup’, which celebrates football as a force for good in the world.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 3 – Barcelona have confirmed they will appeal against the 14-month transfer ban, covering two transfer windows, slapped on them by FIFA for signing up under-age players. And if it fails, they will take their case even further.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 3 – FIFA has refused to kick Russia out of this year’s World Cup in Brazil, after two American senators asked for the country to be banned due to their role in the unrest in Ukraine.