By Osasu Obayiuwana
April 9 – Facing rigorous criticism for the poor state of its financial affairs, following the completion of a detailed forensic audit by PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers), top officials of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) refuse to accept the various allegations of financial impropriety laid at its door in Cairo.
By Paul Nicholson
April 9 – The former president and board of the Trinidad and Tobago FA (TTFA) have followed through on their promise and yesterday filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against their removal and replacement by a FIFA Normalisation Committee.
April 9 – Amid mounting pressure to accept wage cuts like some of their overseas counterparts, Premier League footballers have launched a fund-raising initiative to raise money for the country’s National Health Service (NHS) charities to help tackle the Covid-19 outbreak.
April 9 – Mauritius has become the first African country to cancel its professional league season “with immediate effect” due to the coronavirus outbreak.
April 9 – Italy’s Serie A is reportedly discussing playing all the remaining fixtures for the 2019/20 season in Rome.
April 9 – 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 released from pre-trial detention and placed under house arrest, his lawyers announced.
April 9 – Cyber security tech company VST Enterprises Ltd (VSTE) has launched a sports health passport-style app that will enable fans to return to stadiums as the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
April 9 – Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the elections for the presidency of the French Football Federation, originally scheduled for next December, have been postponed to March 2021.
April 9 – In the latest public relations gaffe to hit English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur during the Covid-19 outbreak, manager Jose Mourinho has been forced to semi-apologise after being pictured flouting government restrictions by leading a training session in park woodland not far from the club’s training ground.
April 9 – Real Madid have become the latest Spanish club whose players and coaches have agreed to take pay cuts to alleviate the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 8 – Qatar’s World Cup organisers, who thought they had finally moved on from years of suspicion and finger-pointing over the process by which they were awarded the 2022 tournament, have been forced to deny fresh allegations of corruption and bribery.
April 8 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) and Inside World Football launch today the first edition of ‘4 Questions for 4 Leaders’, focusing on how the Olympic movement are dealing with the Coronavirus global pandemic, the impact on sport in different regions across the world and the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
April 8 – Dutch football is drawing up a roadmap to resume the season that was suspended in March following the outbreak of the coronavirus with a return to action behind closed doors tentatively set for June 19.
April 8 – Former Brazil and Barcelona star Ronaldinho, detained in Paraguay after an investigation into the use of fake passports to enter the country, has been released but will remain under house arrest in the country.
April 8 – La Liga has earmarked three possible dates for the resumption of domestic matches once the green light is given by health authorities.