By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Lawyers for Nasser Al-Khelaifi (pictured), the Qatari head of broadcaster beIN Sport and boss of Paris St Germain, have demanded a full acquittal of their client over bribery allegations relating to the sale of media rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cup.
March 10 – Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, president and majority owner of France’s AS Monaco and Cercle Brugge in Belgium, is donating money to support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and help ‘innocent’ people.
March 10 – The elections of the Ivory Coast’s football federation (FIF) have once against been postponed, with eligibility issues prompting the new delay.
March 10 – PSG and the fabled Messi-Neymar-Mbappe trio are out of the Champions League after Karim Benzema masterminded a dramatic 3-1 victory for Real Madrid to progress to the last eight of the European Cup, 3-2 on aggregate.
March 10 – Barcelona, who are challenging the legitimacy of LaLiga’s €1 billion venture capital deal with CVC in court, are nevertheless reportedly close to signing their own €300 million agreement with the investor.
March 10 – It is all change among the big kit and equipment suppliers in Italy. Adidas is to take over from Puma as the Italian federation’s kit supplier from January 2023. Last week Puma took over from Nike to become the official match ball of Serie A from the start of the 2022/23 season.
March 10 – Manchester City owner, City Football Group, is entering the education business via a partnership with BrandEd,to launch the City Football Leadership Institute.
March 10 – The AFC has added to their global broadcast footprint with a media rights deal with Free TV Australia for the Pacific Islands.
March 9 – Switzerland’s public prosecutor has called for hefty prison sentences for Paris Saint-Germain and beIN Sport boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi and FIFA’s former number two Jerome Valcke (pictured) over alleged bribery relating to a World Cup TV rights deal.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 9 – As anticipated, Poland has been awarded a bye over Russia in their World Cup playoff semi-final scheduled for March 24 and will now meet the winner of Sweden-Czech Republic to secure a place in Qatar.
March 9 – The Mexican Football Federation and LigaMX have moved swiftly to sanction Queretaro after violence at the weekend during the visit of league leaders Atlas that left 26 people injured and at least 21 hospitalised.
March 9 – The Premier League has suspended its TV deal with Russia with immediate effect, cutting off the feed as punishment for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
March 9 – The AFC has reinforced the importance it is giving to its club licensing proigramme with the suspension of the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran’s and Tajikistan Football Federation’s Club Licensing Administrations.
March 9 – Online sports betting platform Betcris has expanded its football sponsorships in South America, cutting new deals with Brazilian football clubs Ceará and Fortaleza.
March 9 – The Russian Football Union has formally lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the FIFA and UEFA decisions to suspend Russian national teams and club sides from their competitions.