By Andrew Warshaw
February 22 – The former head of women’s football in Afghanistan says she would be killed if she ever returned to the country for lifting the lid on the abuse of women players.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 22 – Big-spending Chelsea, in the headlines for much of the season for all the wrong reasons, have been slapped with a two-window transfer ban by FIFA and fined CHF600,000 after being found guilty of illegally signing no fewer than 29 under-age foreign players.
By Samindrra Kunti
February 22 – Bolivia has offered to join Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay in their bid to host the 2030 World Cup, promoting the idea of a pan-South American World Cup.
By Paul Nicholson
February 22 – Goalscoring legend Roy Race, the iconic Melchester Rovers striker who has created more ‘wonder moments’ than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi combined and has never been convicted of tax evasion, has a new boot deal.
February 22 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) will present a number of measures to the technical council of its top league clubs to “advance” Brazilian football. They include adopting VAR in the Serie A, limiting the number of managerial changes and the introduction of a Brazilian Super Cup in 2020.
February 22 – The third edition of the China Cup from March 21-25 in Nanning will kick off with a rerun of the January Asian Cup last-16 encounter between China and Thailand.
February 22 – The first round of Champions League knock-out fixtures once again re- inforced the dominance of Europe’s Big 5 leagues with 14 out of the 16 teams qualified coming from those leagues.
February 22- The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has re-instated former Zambian president Kalusha Bwalya (pictured) to its executive committee after his two-year ban from all football was reduced on appeal by FIFA and thus covered the period already served.
February 22 – Paris St Germain have signed Accor’s new loyalty programme – ALL – as the club’s principal partner in a deal that will see the leisure group’s brand replace Emirates on the front of the PSG shirt from the start of next season.
February 22 – Football’s rule-making body will clarify rules on handball next week by bringing in new wording to reduce “grey areas”, the body’s technical director David Elleray has confirmed.
February 22 – A Manchester City fan is fighting for his life after an alleged assault following their Champions League win over Schalke in Germany this week according to reports in both countries.
February 21 – The stadium where 74 people lost their lives in one the worst tragedies to hit world football in recent years has been selected as one of the six venues for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
February 21 – Belgian authorities have stepped up their investigation into corruption in the local game detaining former club coach Peter Maes (pictured) for a second and time and holding him overnight in jail. His arrest came following revelations by agent Dejan Veljkovic, who has reportedly opted for a plea bargain.
By Paul Nicholson
February 21 – The Tunisian Football Federation has postponed its Super Cup, played between the winners of the Tunisian league and the Tunisian Cup, and which was being hosted after a gap of 18 years in Qatar after a row broke out between clubs over the selection of match officials.
By Samindra Kunti
February 21 – The newly arrived video refs were in the spotlight once more in the Champions League last night as both the Schalke 04 vs Manchester City and Atletico Madrid vs Juventus matches were punctuated by VAR incidents.