December 6 – Saudi Arabia and Qatar ended 2019 the way they had began it with a blockade derby. This time the venue was Doha’s al-Janoub Stadium, with the Green Falcons winning thanks to a first-half goal from striker Abdullah al-Hamdan. The Saudis will now meet Bahrain in Sunday’s Gulf Cup final.
December 6 – With 12 teams already qualified for the 16-team 2021 Gold Cup, Concacaf have announced the knockout draw for the final four slots will take place December 11.
December 6 – The final decision on whether Cardiff City have to pay the first instalment of €6 million to Nantes for €17 million striker Emiliano Sala will not taken until June 2020.
By Paul Nicholson
December 5 – Greek champions PAOK, and their fans, have responded furiously to allegations that owner Ivan Savvidis also controls Greek Super League club Xanthi FC.
December 5 – UEFA has announced the introduction of a new 16-team group stage for the Women’s Champions League from the 2021-22 season with centralised marketing and TV sales programme raise revenues and the profile of the women’s club game.
By David Owen
December 5 – Brighton and Hove Albion, the south coast club winning plaudits for their adventurous style under new head coach Graham Potter, slipped back into loss in their second season in the Premier League.
December 5 – UEFA wants to tweak the qualifying process for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, allowing a pathway via the Nations League to reach the global finals.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 5 – The consequences of the decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to terminate its $1 billion, 12-year marketing contract with Lagardere Sports (LS) continue to reverberate at the French company, with staff of its Africa Division uncertain of their future.
December 5 – East Africa’s flagship competition the Cecafa Cup will kick off with a depleted participants field after South Sudan, DR Congo and Ethiopia all withdrew from the competition.
December 5 – Spanish TV group Mediapro are taking UEFA to court for allegedly altering submission bids for the Champions League for 2021-2024 in favour of France’s Canal Plus and Middle East broadcasting giant beIN Sports.
December 5 – The draw for the 2020 Copa America, held in the Colombian city of Cartagena, has drawn Argentina with Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and invitees Australia. In the other group reigning champions Brazil and co-hosts Colombia were paired with Peru, Equador, Venezuela and Asian champions Qatar.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 5 – Cairo club Ahly have announced that they will now be staging their matches at the Al Salam stadium.
By Paul Nicholson
December 4 – A club ownership storm has broken in Greece linking controversial Russian-Greek oligarch Ivan Savvidis to control of two clubs in the Greek Super League.
“We must find an African solution to our problems” – Kwame Nkrumah (Prime Minister of Ghana, 1957-1966)
Anyone with an acute sense of history will remember how, in the late 1980s, the master-servant relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western financial institutions, on the one hand, and financially troubled African nations on the other, led to the imposition of flawed ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP) that devastated the economies of the countries that borrowed money under these onerous SAP terms and conditions.
December 4 – Qatari telecoms company Ooredoo has become a local sponsor of the Club World Cup which kicks off on December 11 in Doha, Qatar.