By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino insists that expanding the European Championship finals to 24 teams will not devalue the competition – and has also defended the pan-European concept for Euro 2020.
October 10 – UEFA have agreed that their decision to change the seedings format for the Champions League to avoid domestic champions being ranked lower than other clubs from the same country will start next season.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 9 – UEFA’s new divisional Nations League, scheduled to start in 2018, has been met with caution by leagues and clubs concerned that the game could become far too saturated, with unnecessary additional fixture pressure placed on their much-prized players. But Uefa’s plan to replace friendly internationals with another meaningful competition every two years will ultimately take off, according to UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino.
October 9 – UEFA has renewed its agreement with betting fraud monitoring service Sportradar for another four years. The new agreement will also see Sportradar provide e-learning services to the confederation in the battle to contain one of the biggest threats to the integrity of the game.
By David Owen in Monaco
October 9 – Spain looks increasingly likely to switch to a collective model for the sale of broadcasting rights to La Liga for the 2016-17 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 9 – The Premier League may be the most watched in world football worth a staggering £5.5 billion over three years, including overseas rights of £2.4 billion, but money doesn’t necessarily buy you world-class stars.
By David Owen in Monaco
October 9 – Battle-lines over the issue of third-party ownership (TPO) are being drawn, with Spain’s La Liga coming out strongly against FIFA’s decision to ban the practice.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 9 – Swiss club FC Schaffhausen has unveiled the design of its planned CHF 52 million (€43 million) new stadium. Under the plan, the stadium will be built on a recently-acquired 33,000 square metre site. The construction project will be jointly implemented by Aniello Fontana, the club’s chief executive, and local real estate developer Gallus Immobilien AG.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – As debate continues to split opinion over the best time to stage the 2022 Qatar World Cup, a leading representative of Europe’s clubs says if the tournament is switched to January and February, the winter Olympics should move, partly because it means far less to most fans.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – The battle to replace FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce at the top table of world football administration has been stepped up with the announcement that England’s David Gill is putting his name forward even though he has only been a member of UEFA’s executive committee for less than 18 months.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – The administration of Italian football has been plunged into disrepute after federation president Carlo Tavecchio was banned from all European roles by UEFA for six months over his infamous ‘banana eaters’ comment whilst running for election.
By Mark Baber
October 7 – UEFA have fined Partizan Belgrade €40,000 and imposed a partial stadium closure for their next Europa League home game in response to the display of a banner reading “Only Jews and Pussies” by fans at their 18 September game against Tottenham Hotspur, a north London club with a strong Jewish tradition.
October 6 – The Romanian league is the latest to experience racist abuse after Concordia Chiajna’s Brazilian striker Wellington complained about persistent insults from visiting Rapid Bucharest supporters.
October 6 – Austria’s notorious match-fixing case has been concluded with a series of jail sentences handed down to those at the centre of a nine-year manipulation scandal.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 3 – A group of investors led by Czech businessman Karl Pražák is targeting a takeover of Slavia Prague. The group says it will also bring in over the municipal authorities of the Czech capital’s Prague 10 district as a new shareholder, reported local daily Mlada fronta DNES.