By Andrew Warshaw
March 12 – Laura McAllister is under no illusions about her chances of success when she bids to become European football’s female representative on the FIFA Council next month.
March 12 – Brazil’s iconic Maracana stadium will be renamed ‘The Edson Arantes do Nascimento-Rei Pele stadium’ in honour of the country’s football legend Pele, following a decision by the Rio de Janeiro state legislature.
By Paul Nicholson
March 12 – The restart of Asia’s international football calendar is rapidly taking shape. Yesterday the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rolled outs its plan for the centralised group stages of its 2021 Champions League, today it laid out the blueprint for the centralised completion of the group stages of the Asian qualifiers for both the Asian Cup 2023 and the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
March 12 – Bayern Munich have extended their partnership with sports betting firm Tipico until 2025.
March 12 – A major illegal streaming network that had over 100 million downloads of its app and had made profits estimated at €5 million has been shut shutdown following raids by Europol and the Spanish National Police.
March 12 – The sports ministry of Chad has dissolved the Federation of Chad Football Associations (FTFA) the country’s FA, which could led to a ban from the global game by FIFA.
By Paul Nicholson
March 11 – Women should not be left out of football’s rebuilding programme and that although positive steps have been taken by men for the women’s game, more can be done. These were two clear messages coming out of the just concluded Female Leadership webinars organised by sports integrity body SIGA.
By Paul Nicholson
March 11 – Saudi Arabia has stepped up to take on the bulk of Champions League group stage hosting next month in the AFC’s West zone. The UAE will also host a group while in the East zone Thailand will host three groups. India will also host a group.
March 11 – Despite an apparent agreement between UEFA and Europe’s leading clubs over plans to reform the Champions League post-2024 in order to stave off the threat of a breakaway super league, opposition to the plan continues to be voiced by some key stakeholders.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 11 – In the end, all the campaigning and lobbying proved fruitless – for three of the candidates at least.
March 11 – In Brazil, the ball keeps rolling, even as the country experiences it most dramatic moment of the coronavirus pandemic yet, breaking national daily death toll records day after day.
March 11 – The family of late Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala is taking legal action against English Championship club Cardiff City more than two years after his death in a plane crash.
March 11 – Paris Saint-Germain doesn’t do things the easy way. Last year’s Champions League finalists had to dig deep in a 1-1 draw to progress to the last eight of the competition and prevent another FC Barcelona miracle.
March 11 – Kosovo have backtracked and agreed to play Spain in their World Cup qualifier after saying the Spanish had expressed regret for referring to the Balkan country as a “territory”.
By David Owen
March 11 – A 67-year-old German lawyer called Thomas Bach was re-elected as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president on the first day of a videoconferenced IOC session on Wednesday (March 10).