January 3 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked 270 players to watch with England and Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham (pictured) leading the pack in a report focussed on young and developing players born in 2003 or later.
January 3 – Japan have called up Brighton and Hove Albion standout forward Kaoru Mitoma for their Asian Cup squad despite Mitoma currently being sidelined by injury.
January 3 – Brazil’s São Paulo has closed a R$ 25 million ($5 million) a year naming rights deal with confectionery giant Mondelez and its BIS chocolate brand.
January 3 – The city of Skopje in North Macedonia has committed €200,000 in financial assistance to local club Vardar Skopje, angering the capital city’s other top tier team, Shkupi, who are not being financially supported and say the actions of the Municipality of Skopje are discriminatory.
January 3 – Belgian second-division club Beerschot have appointed former Liverpool star Dirk Kuyt as head coach.
January 3 – The AFC has unveiled the inaugural AFC Knowledge Sharing Programme 2024, spotlighting its drive to enhance the capabilities of its Member Associations (MA) and Regional Associations (RA) and establish football as the primary sport across the continent.
The 2015 AFC Asian Cup saw the competition go down under for the first time as Australia stepped up to host the tournament, with Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney all providing venues and Stadium Australia the venue for the final.
January 8 – Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda) has reacted angrily to reports that the club is to be sued by former coach Barak Bahar (pictured) over unpaid wages.
The 2011 AFC Asian Cup saw the tournament head back to the desert as Qatar hosted the tournament for the second time.
The AFC Asian Cup had taken place every year every four years since the first tournament in 1956. However, for the 14th edition of the tournament, the AFC made the decision to change the tradition as the tournament always clashed in the same year as the Summer Olympics and the European Championships, so the next tournament was scheduled for 2007, with the four-yearly cycle continuing from there.
The 2004 AFC Asian Cup in China PR was the biggest tournament yet, with an expanded finals tournament from 12 to 16 nations as the membership of the confederation grew to 45 members.
The new millennium saw over 40 countries enter the Asian Cup hoping to dethrone holders Saudi Arabia, with the tournament being held in Lebanon for the first time.
The last AFC Asian Cup of the 20th Century saw more teams that ever enter following the collapse of the Soviet Union and new nations joining the AFC and the tournament itself expanding to a 12-team competition, hosted for the first time in the United Arab Emirates.
The 1992 AFC Asian Cup was a competition that saw some of the established names fall short and also signalled the emergence of a new force in Asian football.
The 1988 AFC Asian Cup saw the continued dominance of the competition by West Asian nations, with seven of the 10 qualifying teams coming from West Asia, including the defending champions and the hosts, with the tournament coming to Qatar for the first time.