May 26 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has issued new referee criteria emphasising the need to “continuously enhance the foundations for AFC MAs through the new criteria”.
May 26 – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can win his first trophy as Manchester United boss in Wednesday’s Europe League final in Poland’s Gdansk, but his side will have to overcome the competition’s ultimate expert Unai Emery and his Villareal, and lingering injury concerns over Harry Maguire.
May 25 – UEFA has this afternoon (Tuesday) opened up its general sales for tickets for the Champions League final on 29 May at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal.
May 25 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will restaff key positions within the organisation after a number of high-profile dismissals including director of legal affairs and compliance Achta Mahamat Saleh and head of finance Sheriff Elkhadem on Monday.
May 25 – Former DFB strongmen Theo Zwanziger, Wolfgang Niersbach and Horst Schmidt as well as former FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi have received compensation following the collapse of their fraud trial last year.
May 25 – The US Soccer Federation (USSF) is cutting ties with commercial agency Soccer United Marketing (SUM), essentially ending a conflict of interest that has increasingly become uncomfortable for the governing body.
May 25 – City Football Group (CFG), owner of Manchester City, has become an equal partner and investor in the development of Co-op Live, the new sports and entertainment venue being built on the Etihad Campus in Manchester, next door to the home of CFG’s flagship club.
May 25 – Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have confirmed that fans will be represented on the club board, becoming the third Big Six English clubs to implement the reform following the aborted European Super League (ESL) plan.
May 25 – With the unveiling of UEFA’s new Europa Conference League trophy and competition branding, the European governing body has released more information on the competition that will widen the participation in European club competition to all member nations.
May 25 – FIFA’s members have passed a projected budget based on $4.666 billion of revenue for 2022, the first year of a new four year cycle that has the financially underpinning World Cup in Qatar – albeit at the end of the year.
May 25 – With Europe’s five big league season complete the CIES Football Observatory have released Best XIs for each of them. The selections show players from the winning clubs in all leagues dominating, but not all football’s biggest names.
By David Owen
May 24 – For years, cost control has proved elusive in football. While revenue growth was the envy of most other industries, the issue was manageable. But with the covid crisis coinciding with pressure on the broadcasting rights valuations that have been football’s gold-mine for so long, the reckoning has arrived.
May 24 – Three years after staving off relegation, Lille won their first French title in a decade at the weekend and prevented Paris St Germain sealing a record-equaling 10thstraight domestic crown.
May 24 – A second-half winner from Luis Suarez secured Atletico Madrid’s first La Liga title in seven years as Diego Simeone’s team finished two points above cross-town rivals Real Madrid.
May 24 – The AFC Cup, the Asian Football Confederation’s club championship for its developing nations, has moved into the second round of matches in the AFC’s West zone where three groups are in action, one in Bahrain and two in Jordan.