July 30 – Brentford defeated Swansea 3-2 on aggregate to reach the Championship play-off final in their Griffin Park farewell game as they chase Premier League riches and a return to top-flight football for the first time since 1947.
July 30 – The £7 million government grant to England’s Pitch Preparation Fund, administered by the Football Foundation grassroots charity, will see 40,131 teams given a boost.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – Manchester City showed a “blatant disregard” for UEFA’s investigation into alleged Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches but, crucially, no cover-up was committed by the club.
July 29 – Malaysia will host two of the unfinished AFC Champions League’s East Asian groups as well as the knock-out rounds, assuming travel and quarantine restrictions allow teams to cross international borders.
July 29 – Real Madrid striker Mariano Diaz has tested positive for Covid-19, but UEFA says it is confident Real Madrid’s Champions League last-16 second leg clash at Manchester City will go ahead as planned next week.
By Paul Nicholson
July 29 – Musa Bility, the banned former Confederation of African Football (CAF) executive committee member and former president of the Liberian FA, has kept up his pressure on FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino with an open letter to UEFA president Alexander Ceferin and Conmebol president Alexander Dominguez demanding they call for the FIFA president’s resignation.
July 29 – SIGA has launched its first-ever Sport Integrity Week which will be conducted as a series of webinars taking place September 7-11.
July 29 – This Friday’s Irish Cup final between Ballymena United and Glentoran is set to be the first official football fixture played in front of spectators in the UK since lockdown in March.
July 29 – Relegated Bournemouth are considering legal action over a massive goalline technology blunder in June that should have awarded a key goal against Aston Villa who survived in the Premier League at their expense.
July 29 – Viewing figures from the US show record numbers for the women’s club game and a significant breakthrough for the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League).
July 29 – Professional sport in Australia including top-flight football has once again been plunged into chaos because of the reprecussions of Covid-19.
By Paul Nicholson
July 28 – Regional confederation Concacaf has rescheduled and re-formatted the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that will see all 35 of its FIFA member associations compete for the three places at the Qatar finals, plus the half spot inter-confederation play-off.
July 28 – Concacaf has scheduled the 2021 Gold Cup in the US for next July, and in a unique revamp of qualification – and to take account of lost international windows due to the Covid pandemic – the preliminary rounds will see the 12 competing teams centralised in the US.
July 28 – The long drawn out proposed £300 million takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi Arabian-led consortium spearheaded by the country’s Public Investment Fund looks on the brink of collapse as confusion increases over who will actually control the club and their links with the Saudi government.
July 28 – The whole of next season’s Premier League might have to be played in front of reduced crowds whenever spectators are finally allowed in, according to a senior government adviser.