December 11 – The head of the umbrella organisation representing Europe’s domestic leagues has launched yet another broadside against plans to revamp the Champions League saying his organisation is “tired” of threats about a breakaway super league.
December 11 – Irish police are reported to be investigating a series of threats made against staff at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), leading to increased security at the federation’s Dublin headquarters.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 9 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ordered the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA, football’s world governing body, to file, within 14 days, a reply to the claims made against them by Musa Bility, the former President of the Liberia Football Association.
December 9 – The final day of the league season in Brazil was marred by violence as Belo Horizonte giants Cruzeiro were relegated for the first time in their history from Brazil’s top flight following a 0-2 defeat at home to Palmeiras.
December 5 – A leading Italian sports daily has been widely criticised for a headline reading ‘Black Friday’ featuring two leading black Serie A players.
December 6 – A new chapter has begun following Sierra Leone football’s troubled recent past, with the Premier League having resumed for the first time in more than five years.
December 6 – With 12 teams already qualified for the 16-team 2021 Gold Cup, Concacaf have announced the knockout draw for the final four slots will take place December 11.
By Paul Nicholson
December 5 – Greek champions PAOK, and their fans, have responded furiously to allegations that owner Ivan Savvidis also controls Greek Super League club Xanthi FC.
December 5 – UEFA has announced the introduction of a new 16-team group stage for the Women’s Champions League from the 2021-22 season with centralised marketing and TV sales programme raise revenues and the profile of the women’s club game.
December 5 – UEFA wants to tweak the qualifying process for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, allowing a pathway via the Nations League to reach the global finals.
December 5 – East Africa’s flagship competition the Cecafa Cup will kick off with a depleted participants field after South Sudan, DR Congo and Ethiopia all withdrew from the competition.
December 5 – The draw for the 2020 Copa America, held in the Colombian city of Cartagena, has drawn Argentina with Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and invitees Australia. In the other group reigning champions Brazil and co-hosts Colombia were paired with Peru, Equador, Venezuela and Asian champions Qatar.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 5 – Cairo club Ahly have announced that they will now be staging their matches at the Al Salam stadium.
By Paul Nicholson
December 4 – A club ownership storm has broken in Greece linking controversial Russian-Greek oligarch Ivan Savvidis to control of two clubs in the Greek Super League.
“We must find an African solution to our problems” – Kwame Nkrumah (Prime Minister of Ghana, 1957-1966)
Anyone with an acute sense of history will remember how, in the late 1980s, the master-servant relationship between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western financial institutions, on the one hand, and financially troubled African nations on the other, led to the imposition of flawed ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP) that devastated the economies of the countries that borrowed money under these onerous SAP terms and conditions.