Monster Energy amps up its football footprint with Everton and Leicester City
September 18 – Monster Energy is making inroads into the Premier League having signed on both Everton and Leicester City as their Official Energy Drink partners.
Rights owners tell Saudis to stop ‘abusing’ football and end Arabsat’s beoutQ transmissions
By Paul Nicholson
September 17 – Football rights owners have issued another demand to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, satellite distributor Arabsat and IPTV platforms to stop the broadcast of pirate TV channel beoutQ that has been stealing their rights and rebroadcasting across the region.
Hero or hacker? Portuguese have held whistleblower Pinto for 6 months without charge
By Andrew Warshaw
September 19 – The lawyer representing Rui Pinto, whose string of incriminating leaks shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal, has denounced the Portuguese authorities for holding his client without charge and claims he would never have been jailed in other leading western democracies based on the accusations against him.
Liverpool headline draw as Qatar readies for Club World Cup
September 17 – The 2019 Club World Cup is taking shape with Liverpool as red-hot favourites in a tournament that will mark Qatar’s first major test run ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
UK court rules in favour of Saudi Prince as McCabe loses Sheffield for £5m
September 17 – Sheffield United, back in the English Premier League after 12 years, look set to be controversially taken over by the Saudi prince who already owns 50% of the club.
Italian police arrest violent Juve fan gang members for criminal ticketing scam
September 17 – Police in Italy have arrested 12 Juventus ‘ultra’ fans over allegations of blackmail and extortion including threatening to chant racist slogans if they weren’t provided with tickets to games.
Financial football. Is Arnault kicking around an €890m deal for AC Milan?
September 17 – AC Milan are being linked with a takeover by the world’s second richest man, Bernard Arnault, though reports of a £890 million deal have been denied.
The long and the short of it: pass masters will lead Ajax, not Liverpool, to Champions League glory?
September 17 – With stats increasingly showing that possession and the number of passes made differentiate the winning teams from the losing, the CIES Football Observatory has made an analysis of the current Champions League teams using InStat data.
New ball, new tournament, old rivalries. UEFA’s Champions League kicks off tonight
September 17 – The new Champions League season kicks off tonight, with a new Adidas ball and defending champions Liverpool taking on Napoli and FC Barcelona traveling to Dortmund.
Galatasaray joins the Socios.com ‘fan bit-token’ platform
September 17 – Galatasaray have become the latest club to partner with Socios.com for a step into the brave new world of cryptocurrency fan tokens. They are the first Turkish club to do so.
FIFA bosses allegedly block CAF whistleblower El-Sherei’s return after Egyptian FA offer job
By Osasu Obayiuwana
September 16 – Mohamed El-Sherei, recently sacked as CAF’s Finance Director, following allegations of impropriety and incompetence, received another setback, after a subsequent job offer to him from the Normalisation Committee (NC) of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) was withdrawn.
Wolves’ Chinese owners said to be seeking £70m minority investment
By David Owen
September 16 – Reports have started circulating that Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Chinese owners are open to selling 20% of the club, as they seek to build on what has so far been a successful return to English top-flight football.
FIFA bans former Russian FA official Shprygin for discrimination
By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – FIFA has banned a former leading Russian football administrator and fan club founder for two years for discrimination.
Esperance finally win CAF Champions League. But will Wydad play CAS leg?
By Osasu Obayiuwana
September 14 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has made its final conclusion – political and judicial – on the 2019 Champions League – and it is that Esperance Sportive de Tunis remains the Cup holder.
Liverpool vs Spurs CL final is world’s leading event in 2019 with 1bn+ interactions
September 16 – With the Champions League group stages kicking off this week, UEFA has released a 1 billion interaction social media stat that makes shows the European club showpiece outperformed all other major events in 2019 by more than 30%.