August 11 – Barcelona pay their players an $12.28 million annually, more than any other club in the world. That is more than a million more than Real Madrid (the world’s second highest payers) at $11.5 million.
August 11 – Newly promoted Leeds United, back in the Premier League after a 16-year absence, have unveiled online betting brand SBOTOP as the club’s new shirt sponsor.
August 11 – Phil Neville has been shortlisted for the role of head coach of Australia Women. In June, the English FA announced that his contract with England would not be extended.
August 11 – It isn’t every day that the prime minister of a country gets involved in a specific club take-over, but Boris Johnson has called on the English Premier League to explain why it neither approved nor rejected the recently failed Newcastle United deal.
August 11 – AC Milan Women, who are ploughing their own sponsorship furrow separate to their men’s team, have announced Italian bank Banco BPM as their new shirt sponsor.
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – It has been a busy few days of letter sending by FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino who have scrambled to inform FA presidents their version of the circumstances surrounding the criminal investigation into Infantino’s meetings with the Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber.
August 10 – Rui Pinto, the Portuguese whistleblower whose string of incriminating revelations shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal, has been freed from house arrest while remaining under judicial control.
By Paul Nicholson
August 10 – FIFA’s newly hired external PR teams went into overdrive at the weekend with a stunning assault, led by FIFA’s new-found media luvvie Alasdair Bell, the organisation’s deputy general secretary, on the FIFA reform process led Basel criminal law professor Mark Pieth (pictured) as being a useless waste of money.
August 8 – Atletico Madrid, due to play in the Champions League quarterfinals this week, have confirmed two positive cases of coronavirus from testing carried out on Saturday.
August 10 – Paris Saint Germain, one of the wealthiest clubs in world football, have signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Chinese consumer electronics and home appliances company Hisense.
August 10 – Concacaf has unveiled a plan to resume its suspended club competitions, though the exact dates and venue(s) for the final 11 games of the Champions League remain in limbo.
August 10 – English premier league side Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have reached the Europa League quarterfinals, have been punished for breaching UEFA’s financial fair play rules for the 2019/20 season.
By Paul Nicholson
August 7 – The involvement of organised criminal gangs (OCGs) in sports, and football in particular, is increasing in Europe and the Covid crisis has accelerated that increase, according to a new report by Europol, the European Union’s agency for law enforcement cooperation.
August 7 – The coronavirus is still raging in South America, but clubs traveling for Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana matches will not have to quarantine when crossing borders.
August 7 – Four countries – Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Poland – have offered to act as neutral venue hubs for upcoming Nations League matches and other UEFA competitions if Covid-19-related travel restrictions prevent them being played in the originally scheduled country.