By Ben Nicholson
August 5 – This past weekend saw a major breakthrough for soccer in the USA. Average attendance figures for the ten professional soccer matches of the weekend was higher than the average attendance figures for the 15 Major League Baseball games over the same period.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men’s professional team in a competitive match in a major European country on Monday but ended up on the losing side as Clermont Foot narrowly went down 2-1 at Brest in the French second division.
By Ben Nicholson
August 5 – The bidding war for the final expansion team spots in the MLS has intensified further as the previously thought long shot Sacramento has raised eyebrows with a big money investor.
August 5 – Greece’s World Cup coach Fernando Santos has been handed an eight match international ban by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee. The Portuguese was sent off after extra time in the World Cup knockout game against Costa Rica.
August 4 – UEFA has opened an investigation into the crowd trouble that marred last week’s Champions League qualifier between Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Copenhagen in Ukraine.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – Strict new betting rules previously announced by English football authorities to prevent players, managers, club employees and match officials from gambling on any football-related matter worldwide have now come into effect.
August 4 – Luis Suarez will learn later this week whether he can start training with his new club after the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed it will hear his appeal against his four-month ban for biting at the World Cup on Friday.
August 4 – Kenya’s 0-0 draw with Lesotho on Sunday which ended their Africa Cup of Nations qualification hopes also marked the end of Adel Amrouche’s tenure as head coach along with his backup team.
August 4 – Lens have won their fight to gain promotion to the French fop flight that begins this week but will be playing home games elsewhere.
August 4 – A regional club Futsal championship will make its debut in CONCACAF at the end of this month in Guatemala. The draw for the inaugural CONCACAF Futsal Club Championship was held last week with six clubs representing their member associations.
August 4 – Moscow’s regional governor Andrei Vorobyov has confirmed that 12 training sites will be upgraded for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – In what will be regarded as, at best, an unfortunate turn or phrase and at worst another disgraceful gaffe, the Italian official at the centre of the latest racism storm in European football says he believes he has suffered more pressure than even former US president John F Kennedy’s assassin.
By Alexander Krassimirov
August 4 – A Bulgarian national youth team player has been arrested on suspicion of manipulating U19 matches. Although the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has not released the name of the 20-year-old player it is known that he is plays in Bulgaria’s A Grupa.
By David Owen
August 1 – Shares of Adidas, the sportswear group that recently agreed a record £750 million 10-year kit deal with Manchester United, have been hit hard following a profit warning.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has said that the 2018 World Cup will be played in 12 stadiums across 11 cities, and that there is no need to reduce the number of venues.