Hakeem al-Araibi freed in Thailand as Bahrain drop extradition request
February 11 – Bahrain has withdrawn its request to Thailand for the extradition of part-time footballer Hakeem al-Araibi.
Women’s World Cup: Ticket take-up hits 330K as FIFA announces new sales window
February 11 – Individual match tickets for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France will go on sale to the general public on March 7. To date 300,000 tickets have been sold out of a total allocation of 1.3 million.
Rio mourns as Flamengo training ground fire kills 10 academy players
February 11 – Rio de Janeiro has declared three days of mourning as investigators seek to determine the cause of the fire that ripped through a dormitory and killed 10 promising teenage footballers at the training ground of leading club Flamengo on Friday.
Caribbean storm: Grenada’s Joseph suspended while investigation takes place
February 11 – Cheney Joseph, Grenada FA president since 2010 and a vice president of the Caribbean Football Union, has been “provisionally suspended” by his own executive council following allegations that he has a court conviction against him.
Home decision: CAF appeals body lets Egypt’s Ismaily SC back into CL
February 11 – African football faces fresh accusations of politically-motivated bias after Egyptian club Ismaily SC were re-instated into this year’s African Champions League after a successful appeal against their expulsion.
LaLiga wins case to shut down three more IPTV pirate channels in Brazil
February 11 – LaLiga has won a battle against pirate TV operators stealing live broadcast of matches in brazil with the closure of three IPTV platforms who were getting more than 1.5 million visits a month and had over 8,000 illegal subscribers.
Ceferin says still no ‘concrete’ detail on Infantino’s $25bn FIFA competition revamp
By Andrew Warshaw
February 8 – With just over a month to go until the issue is due to come to a head, Aleksander Ceferin has re-iterated his call to FIFA to provide more information about Gianni Infantino’s plans to change the landscape of world football competitions.
Ghana’s Nyantakyi claims he was set up and subject of ‘terrorist’ attack in unhinged TV rant
February 8 – Former Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi, the one-time second most important official in African football, has broken his silence over the circumstances surrounding his involvement in the bribery and corruption scandal that led to his ban from the game pending appeal.
Title-chasing Liverpool confirm £125m world record profit
By David Owen
February 8 – Liverpool have confirmed that they have become the first football club in history to report an annual pre-tax profit of more than £100 million.
Brazil’s video-linked Del Nero pleads innocence to FIFA’s appeals committee
February 8 – In a seven-hour testimony former CBF president Marco Polo Del Nero has pleaded his innocence to FIFA’s Appeals Committee in a bid to avoid an enforced exit from Brazil’s supreme football body. Del Nero was banned for life from football by FIFA in April 2017 for taking bribes.
FifaGate: Booze-battling Guatemalan FA boss Jimenez set free with $350K fine
February 8 – Former Guatemalan FA chief Brayan Jimenez has been sentenced to time served and ordered to forfeit $350,000 after pleading guilty for his role in the FIFA corruption scandal.
FIFA activate legends for media campaign leading into France 2019 Women’s World Cup
February 8 – FIFA have launched a social media campaign featuring 23 legends of the women’s and men’s game ahead of the Women’s World Cup with the aim of increasing global support for women’s football.
Football Benchmark report suggests transfer trend towards younger players and loanees
By Paul Nicholson
February 8 – The spectacular drop in spending in the January transfer window of $325 million ($979 million in 2018 vs $654 million in 2019) is examined in the latest report from the KPMG Football Benchmark team.
Somalia to host Eritrea U-20s in first home international since 1988
February 8 – International football will return to Somalia for the first time in 30 years when the country stages an U-20 game against Eritrea later this month.
UEFA will have its OTT broadcast platform ready for 2019/20 season, says Ceferin
February 8 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin confirmed that the governing body’s over-the-top streaming service should be complete in the next six months in time for the the 2019/2020 season.