April 12 – Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development since 2019, says the game would be considerably improved if marginal offside calls are decided automatically and hopes it will happen in time for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, using Artificial Intelligence to make instant decisions.
April 12 – Flamengo claimed their first prize of the season winning the Brazilian Super Cup 6-5 on penalties against Palmeiras on Sunday.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 12 – In what amounts to one of the most draconian and insensitive rulings in non-league football, 17 English clubs have been punished for failing to meet fixture obligations – in the middle of a pandemic.
April 12 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has launched a Pan-African School Football Championship, the governing body announced on Saturday.
April 4 – Former Italy captain Daniele De Rossi, now the national team’s technical coach, has been admitted to an infectious diseases hospital with pneumonia symptoms after testing positive for coronavirus.
April 12 – Manchester City has added Middle Eastern e-commerce platform noon.com as a regional partner.
By David Owen
April 12 – The South London club Crystal Palace have announced a pre-tax loss of £58 million for 2019-20. This was after the accounting period was extended until the end of July. The Eagles are the third Premier League side so far to have adopted this business tactic, in spite of the inclusion of an extra month’s wages in operating costs for the period as a consequence.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 10 – UEFA have given four of the 12 European Championship host cities until April 19 to come up with further details of their plans to allow fans to attend – or risk being thrown out.
By David Owen
April 10 – Aston Villa, the Birmingham club which has made sound on-field progress in its second season back in the Premier League big time, has become the latest English outfit to announce a substantial loss for the covid-impacted 2019-20 campaign.
April 9 – Three British clubs have decided independently to boycott social media platforms because of online racist abuse.
By Paul Nicholson
April 8 – The Gold Cup will open in Miami July 2 with a series of knockout rounds to qualify the final three teams for the 16-team Gold Cup that kicks off July 10.
April 8 – After waiting to start their Tokyo Olympic knockout qualifier for more than a year, China emerged favourites for the last AFC qualification slot after a 2-1 away over South Korea in Goyang City.
April 9 – Laura McAllister, the Football Association of Wales nominee for Europe’s female place on the FIFA Council, has launched her manifesto ahead of the election on April 20, highlighting her experience in football and how that, along with her professional skills, make her the ideal candidate to represent UEFA’s 55 member nations at the top table of world football.
April 9 – In their legal dispute with Flamengo, the parents of the late Christian Esmerio are demanding 10 million reais (€1.5 million) in damages from the Rio Club. In 2019, a night-time blaze swept through the Flamengo training centre on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, killing ten youth players.
April 9 – With UEFA due to decide a list of venues for the delayed Euro 2020 tournament at their executive committee on April 19, Azerbaijan has guaranteed 50% of total fan attendance at Baku’s Olympic Stadium for this summer’s finals.