By Abdelaziz Abuhamar
January 2 – Out of the 552 players in the Asian Cup 2019, to be staged in the United Arab Emirates from January 5 to February 1, about 75% are taking part in the Asian football showpiece for the first time.
By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – Saudi Arabia’s controversial Turki Al-Sheikh who as president of the General Sports Authority has involved himself in the international football market and its politics, has had his ministerial position re-organised with a move to chairman of the Entertainment Authority.
January 2 – Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has taken control of Spanish lower-league club FC Andorra for an undisclosed sum.
January 2 – FIFA has been hit with a Swiss Supreme Court ruling ordering it to pay $16.8 million plus interest in compensation to US-based ticket broker JB Sports Marketing (JBSM), for World Cup tickets it never received.
January 1 – The search is on again for a new head of the English Premier League after the sudden withdrawal of broadcasting executive Susanna Dinnage before she even started.
January 1 – UEFA and the international players’ union FIFPro have both criticised the match officials for “failing to respect anti-racism protocol” after monkey chants were directed at Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly throughout his team’s 1-0 Serie A loss at Inter Milan on Boxing Day.
December 28 – The pre-match violence and racist chanting at the Inter Milan vs Napoli match at the San Siro in Milan on Boxing Day have immediately resulted in a ban on Inter fans attending the club’s next two home games.
December 28 – The boom in football leagues, federations and clubs entering the esports market is only scratching the surface of the potential of the business if you look at the volumes of prize money paid out in eSports competitions over 2018.
December 28 – With the AFC Asian Cup 2019 about to kick off in the UAE where the politicking off the pitch could be as potentially competitive as some of the play on it, the AFC ethics function appears to have fired a warning shot that it is not impotent and that it will observe its own governance rules and use its powers.
December 28 – A New York rabbi says he has been asked by Qatar for advice on how to plan for Jewish fans at the 2022 World Cup, the first to be held in a predominantly Muslim country.
By Abdelaziz Abuhamar
December 28 – Egypt and Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah is a goal scoring phenomenon. His goal in Wednesday’s win for Liverpool was his 25th in 28 home Premier League games. He has scored 12 goals in 19 games this season. But Mo Salah has become much more than a goal scoring machine.
December 28 – Yet another u-turn has been made by the increasingly unconvincing head of African football, Ahmad Ahmad.
December 27 – With Real Madrid having claimed a third successive Club World Cup title – and a fourth in the past five years – one Los Blancos star also made history.
By David Owen
If there is one message to FIFA from the TV viewing figures for Russia 2018, it is that, if it wants to attract even bigger audiences, it must hope for, or somehow engineer, greater diversity in its crown jewel’s final stages.
December 21 – Former FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi is back in the spotlight after a Swiss Federal Court ruled against his complaint that a house search by police investigators was conducted illegally and that documents taken should be returned.