By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – Like him or loathe him, it’s hard to ignore Javier Tebas when he is speaking his mind. Critics may accuse the Spanish league boss of being a publicity seeker but his comments at this week’s Soccerex sports business conference in Manchester, when he took to the podium with all guns blazing to attack those he accused of “financial doping”, was not some ill-thought-out rant.
By Paul Nicholson at the Edinburgh Sports Conference
September 7 – The transfer window just closed saw player agents earn more than $76 million in commissions England, once again the highest value market in Europe for football’s intermediaries.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – Manchester City have vehemently defended their conduct in the transfer market after both they and Paris St Germain were accused by Spanish league boss Javier Tebas of “financial doping”.
By Mark Baber
September 7 – The Head of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, has slammed claims that the Iran-Syria game was fixed. Analysis of the game highlights confirms the Iranians made a determined effort to win.
September 7 – Ten months after South Africa beat Senegal in a World Cup qualifier, FIFA has taken the unusual step of ordering the match to be replayed after the official who refereed the game was banned for life.
By Paul Nicholson
September 7 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation and the second highest official at FIFA as senior vice president, is under increasing pressure from football stakeholders in his home country Papua New Guinea, where a breakaway group of top clubs is running its own league and development programmes already with greater numbers and participation than Chung’s FIFA-backed organisation.
September 7 – The CIES Football Observatory has published a full list of the transfer balances in of the 98 clubs from Europe’s Big 5 leagues. Just 40 clubs had a credit balance with Monaco at +€289 million topping the list and French compatriots Paris St-Germain bottom at a whopping -€343 million.
September 7 – Inter Milan have hooked up with Japanese company iCure to share best practices in the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation as part of the Inter Academy Health project.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex, Manchester
September 6 – Controversial Spanish league boss Javier Tebas says he will continue to speak out until the likes of Paris St Germain and Manchester City are properly held to account by UEFA for what he terms “financial doping.”
By Paul Nicholson
September 6 – He failed FIFA’s integrity test that prevented him running for the presidency of the world governing body, but Liberian FA president Musa Bility is considered to have high enough moral standing to lead FIFA’s Sierra Leone Task Force that has the job of preparing the way for new elections in the country’s football association.
By Mark Baber
September 6 – On an evening of high drama, World Cup qualifiers across seven time zones saw Saudi Arabia and South Korea qualify for the World Cup in Russia, whilst Australia and Syria will now face each other for a place in the AFC-CONCACAF play-off.
September 6 – Portuguese clubs Benfica and FC Porto top a ranking of clubs that have traded most profitably over the last year. Manchester City, PSG and Manchester United come bottom of the table.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex, Manchester
September 6 – The election of two new club representatives as members of UEFA’s inner sanctum has not been lost on Europe’s major leagues who are now anticipating similar treatment.
September 6 – The new boss of Europe’s top clubs is expecting “no more soap operas” when it comes to Champions League allocation and has played down all talk of a breakaway super league under his leadership.
By Paul Nicholson
September 6 – Olympiacos president Evangelos Marinakis, speaking at the Athens conference ‘Reinforcing, Crossing, and Transcending Borders: Soccer in a Globalized World’ sent a message to the world’s leading clubs saying “it is vital that they now accept their social responsibility towards their communities, and the world, by means of promoting specific actions and initiatives that can change the lives of everyday people.”