By Paul Nicholson and Samindra Kunti
January 4 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has launched into the new year with a major design rebrand of its major national team and club competitions, following up on the announcement at the end of last year of the alignment of its key national team competitions under the Asian Cup naming convention.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 4 – What planet do they think they’re on? Just as the UK is battling a dangerous spike in Covid-19 cases, so English Premier League players continue to flout the rules, heaping embarrassment on their clubs and, as the epithet goes, bringing the game into disrepute – at least at elite level.
January 4 – In a snub to English football authorities, FIFA have stepped in to block the 10-game worldwide ban imposed by the English FA on international defender Kieron Tripper for breaking betting rules.
By David Owen
January 4 – Chelsea may be having an up and down time on the pitch at present. But the West London club have achieved something that few of their Premier League opponents will manage, by reporting a reasonable profit for the covid-blighted 2019-20 season.
January 4 – Pacific Media Group have acquired AS Nancy, the French Ligue 2 outfit who will become the fourth club in Chinese-American consortium’s portfolio.
January 4 – Jeep has renewed its shirt sponsorship with Italian giants Juventus in a €45 million-per-season, three-year deal running through to the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
January 4 – Just over a year after being shown the door by Tottenham Hotspur, Mauricio Pochettino is back in football as head coach at Paris St-Germain, his spiritual home.
January 4 – The £120 million majority sale of Premier League Burnley to Velocity Sports Partners (VSP), the sports investment arm of ALK Capital, was completed just before the start of the New Year.
January 4 – Manchester United’s Uruguayan international striker Edinson Cavani has completed the first of a three-match ban for a social media post containing a Spanish phrase that is offensive in some contexts but which has an acceptable interpretation in others.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 31 – Four hours before his team’s scheduled kick-off against Fulham on Wednesday night, Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho took to social media and remarked pointedly, “Match at 6 pm… We still don’t know if we play. Best league in the world.”
By Paul Nicholson
December 30 – Peace in our time? Not really if you are a Palestinian. While the UAE and Israeli signed high profile ‘peace’ agreements in September and even roped in their FA’s – overseen by FIFA president Gianni Infantino – to mirror the peace-pact with their own MoUs, the Israelis delivered a Christmas message to the beseiged Gaza strip via a bombing raid.
December 30 – A sixth Premier League club could come under US ownership this week with reports that ALK Capital are on the verge of completing their £120 million deal for Burnley.
Last month SIGA appointed the first members of its youth council in a bid to give youth a real voice in the sports integrity debate and a wider social change. But do the world’s youth care? And if they do, what is that they care about. SIGA youth council member Anđelija Milovanović opens the discussion with Anton Klischewski, vice chair of the Sports Integrity Global Alliance Youth Council.
December 30 – The Covid-19 pandemic, accelerated by a fast-spreading new variant of the virus, is threatening to decimate the English Premier League once again after a second fixture was called off at the 11th hour.
December 30 – The Ivory Coast FA (FIF) has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against FIFA’s appointment of a normalisation committee in the country.