By David Owen
You would never guess from the complacent tone of the new UEFA club licensing benchmarking report, but January 2020 may be set to go down as a turning-point in English, and therefore European, club finances – and not in a good way.
January 20 – Football in Cyprus has once again been plunged into a suspected match-fixing scandal after a raft of matches were postponed at the weekend following notifications sent by UEFA with regard to suspicious betting activity and a bomb attack against a local official.
January 20 – LaLiga’s Atletico Madrid is bidding for a club franchise in Ottawa to compete in the Canadian Premier League (CPL).
January 20 – UEFA stand accused of deliberately manipulating their team of the year award to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo.
January 20 – Flamengo’s curtain raiser in the Rio state championship, a 0-0 draw with Macae on Saturday, was not broadcast after the club and TV Globo failed to reach a rights agreement.
January 20 – With all indicators pointing to a significant slowdown – and for many leagues a decline – in broadcast revenues, a section of the just published UEFA Benchmark report points to a clear area of growth opportunity.
January 20 – Barcelona are the most popular club online in China, the Premier League is most influential competition and Cristiano Ronaldo is still the player that excites Chinese more than any other, according to the latest Red Card Report from Mailman, published last week, which ranks online performance in the country.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
January 17 – A leading figure at Lagardere Sport, the French sports marketing company, has told Insideworldfootball that his company is seeking up to $90 million in compensation from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), for breaking their 12-year marketing contract.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 17 – In a hugely significant move that will have major repercussions for domestic leagues, UEFA and the European Clubs’ Association (ECA) are apparently “close to an agreement” to add four more rounds of fixtures to the Champions League each season.
January 17 – Hosts Thailand and defending champions Uzbekistan are among the teams that progressed to the last eight of the AFC U-23 Championship. Japan, Qatar and Iran were eliminated in the first round.
January 17 – England and Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a potentially massive blow after a leading orthopaedic surgeon predicted Harry Kane will miss not just the rest of the season but also Euro 2020 in the summer.
January 17 – English Championship club Derby County have been charged by the English Football League (EFL) for a breach of spending rules and face a possible points deduction.
January 17 – In India, a new club has been born, ATK Mohun Bagan, following the merger of ATK and Kolkata giants and traditional powerhouse Mohun Bagan, integrating Bagan into the Indian Super League.
January 17 – Barcelona have signed a four year global partnership with online trading platform FBS that will run through to end June 2024.
January 17 – The 712 top-flight clubs in Europe’s 55 leagues earned a record €21 billion in the 2018 financial year, up by 20% according to the latest “benchmarking” report from UEFA.