April 1 – FIFA is to set up an emergency fund to assist the football industry amid growing fears that the coronavirus crisis will bring the sport to its knees.
April 1 – Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt is changing the name of its stadium sponsor, swapping banks from Commerzbank to Deutsche Bank in what the club describes as a “long-term Premium Partnership”.
April 1 – Major League Soccer has unveiled MLS Unites, a league-wide platform that highlights all of the efforts that clubs, players, coaches, and the league are doing to provide emergency support during the current coronavirus crisis.
April 1 – US Soccer has toned down its legal language in new federal court filings in the equal pay dispute with members of the American’s national women’s team.
April 1 – Spain’s La Liga could return behind closed doors in July, according to Jaume Roures, chief executive of Mediapro one of the country’s major broadcast partners – but would have to be scrapped for good if any players contract Covid-19 thereafter.
April 1 – After attracting fierce criticism for shutting down all non-league football except for its two top leagues, English football authorities have now agreed to their indefinite suspension – but still controversially leaving the door open to finish the season.
By David Owen
April 1 – Burnley, the small Premier League outfit from Lancashire with a reputation as one of the best-run clubs in the business, managed to remain narrowly in profit last year in a season featuring its first European campaign for more than half a century.
April 1 – Scotland manager Steve Clarke has taken a 10% pay reduction to stave off the financial effect of coronavirus while leading staff at the Scottish FA and SPFL have also agreed to take between 10 and 20% less.
April 1 – Kenyan football is reportedly in danger of being suspended by FIFA with April 6 being touted as the date when the ongoing crisis reaches its denouement. That is when talks are supposed to take place between the Ministry of Sports, Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and FIFA.
By Paul Nicholson
March 31 – The coronavirus lockdown has not stopped football-related betting fraud with the re-emergence last weekend of so-called ‘ghost’ games in Ukraine.
By David Owen
March 31 – Tottenham Hotspur look to have posted a pre-tax profit more than twice as big as any Premier League rival for the 2018-19 season which saw the North London club reach the Champions League final.
March 31 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) is partnering with Inside World Football on two exciting new initiatives “4 Questions for 4 Leaders” and a monthly “Sport Integrity Bulletin”, in order to promote Sport Integrity during the coronavirus crisis.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 31 – With time running out and no sign of the Covid-19 pandemic easing in Europe, UEFA are set to hold emergency talks by video conference tomorrow with all of Europe’s 55 national football associations amid growing concerns that the season may have to be scrapped despite a collective will to try and restart fixtures by the end of June.
March 31 – Barcelona’s players have agreed to take a 70% pay cut so that the club’s other employees can earn their full salaries during the coronavirus crisis.
March 31 – Jose Maria Marin, 87, is on his way home. Amid health concerns in times of the global coronavirus pandemic, the former Brazilian football supremo has won his release from an American prison, where he was serving a four-year sentence for his role in the FIFAgate scandal.