December 8 – Marco Polo del Nero, embattled president of the Brazilian football federation, has begun his leave of absence to prepare his defense against wide-ranging corruption charges.
By Mark Baber
December 8 – Bentley-driving, self-proclaimed ‘selfie-King’, multi-millionaire businessman Phillip Chiyangwa has been elected as the new President of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) after a campaign in which he promised to solve the body’s financial woes.
By Ben Nicholson
December 8 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has had a glowing report card sent home in respect to its progress in gender diversity. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport delivered the league a solid B for gender diversity, which is a two-footed leap from 2014 when the league was brandished with a must-improve C+.
December 8 – The Amsterdam ArenA is calling for ground breaking “creative thinkers and innovative entrepreneurs” to help the company create the stadium of the future as part of the revamp of the country’s main stadium.
By Samindra Kunti
December 8 – Brazil’s CBF wants to introduce a copy of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play into the Brazilian domestic league in a bid to clean up the wobbly finances of Brazilian clubs.
By Paul Nicholson
December 7 – Wherever there is money in football these days you will generally find Europe’s clubs prospecting. The current gold rush is in China with AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Arsenal very much in the middle of the race for Chinese football’s hearts and mind.
By Mark Baber
December 7 – In the wake of last Thursday’s superseding indictment, issued by the US Department of Justice, in the FIFA corruption cases, Sportswear company Nike has once again issued a statement to the effect that it is cooperating fully with authorities and to insist its officials were not aware of any bribery or wrongdoing in connection with the millions the company sent to a Swiss bank account.
December 7 – The French government has become embroiled in the Karem Benzema sex tape scandal, with prime minister Manuel Valls saying the Real Madrid striker “has no place” in the national team at next summer’s European Championship finals.
December 7 – The head of Ecuador’s football federation, one of 16 officials newly charged with corruption by US authorities, has turned himself in to authorities in his home country in the knowledge that it does not extradite its nationals.
By Samindra Kunti
December 7 – Marcus Antonio Vicente is the new president of the Brazilian Football Association CBF. He assumed the position on an interim basis after Marco Polo Del Nero was indicted by the FBI last week.
By Ben Nicholson
December 7 – David Beckham is al last enjoying some Floridian sunlight on his campaign to exercise his contractual option to create an MLS expansion team. After three years of toiling, and scorching in political heat, Beckham has secured a site for his team’s home stadium. The MLS approved the location, getting Beckham over a hurdle that last week threatened to indefinitely suspend the idea.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – Europe’s leading clubs, having been given no say in FIFA’s reform package, have issued a strongly worded rebuke of the organisation’s attempt to clean itself up.
By Samindra Kunti
December 3 – FIFA’s ethics committee has begun an investigation into the Brazilian FA (CBF) president Marco Polo Del Nero. If guilty Del Nero can expected to be added to an increasingly long list of south American football chiefs either suspended or banned from all football-related activities.
By Paul Nicholson
December 2 – The commercial rights for the Copa America Centenario 2016 which sparked the US Department of Justice’s deep dive into the murky world of football marketing on its continent, have been re-awarded.
December 2 – The world’s leading football leagues gathered in Paris yesterday and have agreed to form a permanent new world association to lobby for their interests with the game’s governing bodies.