In April 1967, in an era when sports rights-holders were apt to worry about the impact of television on attendance figures, Football League chairmen in England took less than half an hour to turn down a BBC live television proposal worth a then highly respectable £781,000.
March 11 – Zambia have qualified for the first time for the Olympic Women’s Football tournament following a 2-1 victory over Cameroon.
March 11 – Liverpool have taken over from Manchester United as the Premier League’s most powerful football team sponsorship property, according to a new ranking from DataPOWA.
March 11 – The European Club Association (ECA) has called off its forthcoming general assembly in Budapest at the end of this month because of Covid-19 with representatives of more than 200 clubs across the continent forced to cancel their arrangements to fly to the Hungarian capital for their biggest annual gathering.
March 11 – What happens if the Serie A season in Italy can’t be completed as a result of Covid-19?
March 11 – Portugal’s Benfica have reported a record €104.2 million first-half profit for 2019/20, largely due to the sale of one player. Last year the club reported a profit of €14.1 million.
March 11 – Coronavirus fears have prompted SIGA to postpone its VI SIGA Sport Integrity Forum and general assembly, scheduled for 24-25 March in New York. The integrity group will now rearrange for a date in the Autumn.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – The eagerly awaited trial of three of Germany’s most high-profile former football chiefs plus ex-FIFA Secretary General Urs Linsi linked to suspicions that Germany bought votes to obtain the 2006 World Cup has been adjourned after three of the four were absent from the courtroom near the Swiss-Italian border because of the coronavirus.
March 10 – LaLiga has issued a statement saying that all matches will be played behind closed doors for at least the next two weeks.
March 10 – Italian top-flight football has finally bowed to pressure from the government with the whole of Serie A called off until April 3 because of Covid-19.
March 10 – The Dutch FA (KNVB) has staged a video assistant referee (VAR) technology test event en route to the 2022 World Cup with a focus on fine-tuning the technology and making it more affordable.
March 10 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has advised English football authorities to scrap the League Cup competition, which has been in existence since 1960, to avoid fixture congestion.
March 10 – A ranking of current big-5 league players according to the age at which they have reached 50, 100, 200 and 300 caps in their leagues sees AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma leading the 50 and 100-match tables, while the Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard is at the top for the 200 and 300-match rankings.
March 10 – Manchester United have announced that they have frozen season ticket prices for the 2020-21 campaign for a ninth consecutive season.
March 9 – Milan’s San Siro may not be considered fit for purpose or provide a state-of the-art experience for the modern day fan, but it will soon have a cutting edge perimeter LED technology billboard system.