AS Roma to restructure debt with €275m bond offer
July 30 – AS Roma will issue €275 million in bonds to help restructure debt repayments, the Italian club has announced.
DFB brings in Genius Sports to monitor match-fixing threat
July 30 – The German FA (DFB – Deutscher Fussball Bund) has selected Genius Sports to monitor more than 7,500 fixtures for match-fixing and betting-related corruption activity.
Betway punts on PSG’s esports team to drive deeper into gaming markets
July 30 – The PSG brand push into the esports arena has now seen the PSG.LGD partnership secure a reported six-figure shirt sponsorship deal with online bookmaker Betway for its Dota 2 team.
England to roll-out 10-minute sinbins in grassroots football
July 30 – English football is introducing temporary dismissals, popularly known as sinbins, at grassroots level from the start of the forthcoming season.
Tebas says €2bn TV money jeopardised by RFEF schedule intervention
By Andrew Warshaw
July 29 – A fresh row has broken out between the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and La Liga, who have long had a fraught relationship, this time over playing top-flight games on Fridays and Mondays.
US denies entry visas for Guatemalan U-15s
July 29 – Nine members of the Guatemalan under-15 team have been denied travel visas to the United States to play in a Concacaf competition according to reports.
Pressure mounts on Indian FA to resolve two-league top tier war
By Samindra Kunti
July 29 – The crisis in Indian football is deepening after All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary general Kushal Das said that the federation will need time to implement the recommendation from a 2018 FIFA/AFC report to form a unified league.
Hazard scores cover of EA Sport’s FIFA 20 game
July 29 – Eden Hazard has scored his first hattrick with Real Madrid, featuring on the cover of EA Sports FIFA game for the third time.
Indian beer brand Kingsfisher makes Premier League debut with the Saints
July 29 – Leading Indian beer brand Kingfisher has made its first foray into Premier League football becoming the Official Beer partner of Southampton in what is described as a “multi-year” deal.
Match-fixing: Swedish betting markets suspended for second tier league
July 29 – Following the suspension of all betting markets on the Swedish second tier following a series of match-fixing alerts, Svenska Spel has said the only solution to the problem is to suspend all betting, indefinitely on the league.
Chinese whispers: Real Madrid call off mooted Bale transfer to Jiangsu Suning
July 29 – The high-profile move of Gareth Bale from Spain to China is off after Real Madrid cancelled the deal, with the Welsh international now set to stay at the Spanish club instead of switching to Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning for a reported £1 million a week.
StormGain take Newcastle United sleeve patch in one-season deal
July 29 – Premier League Newcastle United have struck a deal with cryptocurrency trading platform StormGain for their sleeve sponsorship for the 2019/20 season.
Osasu Obayiuwana: Unravelling the CAF and Lagardere money myths
After the shenanigans of the last few days, and weeks, in the Byzantine world of Confederation of African Football (CAF) politics, where Niccolo Machiavelli clearly has his ardent disciples – in the art of ruthless political bloodletting and the decimation of perceived, real and feared adversaries – my original plan was to write a column on the serial governance missteps that are a clear existential threat to the organisation.
FIFA waited 5 months before using Ethics ban blackmail on Bility
By Paul Nicholson
July 26 – FIFA waited more than five months before issuing the verdict banning Liberian Musa Bility from football activity and stripping him of his position on the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The ban was issued after Bility refused to support the FIFA intervention and two days after he said he was taking his complaint to CAS.
FIFA gift Liverpool a busy Xmas with clashing December dates for Club World Cup in Qatar
July 26 – The penultimate edition of the Club World Cup in its current guise will kick off in Qatar on December 11 with the final taking place 10 days later.