By Paul Nicholson
July 14 – While Liverpool’s players visited Bangkok’s Grand Palace on the first leg of their pre-season tour, bonded with their new teammates and doubtless pondered the departure of £49 million Raheem Sterling, back home the Anfield Stadium was taking delivery of two of the UK’s largest cranes and a 650 tonne roof truss.
By Mark Baber
July 14 – Arsenal Football Club finally have an aircraft branded in their name, it was revealed as the players set off for the pre-season Barclays Asia Trophy in Singapore.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
July 14 – Partizan Belgrade is aiming to open a new stream of revenue with plans to sign a stadium naming rights deal, according to Milos Vazura, the chief executive of the Serbian football club.
July 14 – New Zealand are to take legal action after their men’s team were controversially thrown out of Olympic football qualifying for fielding an ineligible player.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 14 – In what promises to be one of the most eagerly awaited appearances of his 17 years in charge, Sepp Blatter is set to face the media next week for the first time since announcing he is stepping down as FIFA president.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 14 – An investment company supporting Third Party Ownership says it hopes to learn by July 24 whether it has been successful in challenging FIFA’s recently introduced global ban on the practise.
By David Owen
July 13 – Telefónica, the Spanish telecommunications group, has agreed to pay €600 million for domestic broadcasting rights to La Liga for the forthcoming season, in a landmark deal for Spanish football.
In a week’s time, FIFA’s new-look executive committee is due to decide on a date for the eagerly-awaited extraordinary congress that will elect a successor to Sepp Blatter after 17 often turbulent years in charge.
By Mark Baber
July 13 – Friday’s decision by the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) to overturn the ruling of UEFA concerning the Serbia-Albania game of October 14 and award the game to Albania leaves the court open to accusations it has been influenced by anti-Serbian sentiment.
July 13 – It is said that no player is bigger than the club, and this is especially so at the big clubs. But some players, even within the ‘legends’ category, have a special status. Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs is one of those and the club has used his fame and achievements to open a special exhibition.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 13 – Despite persistent claims by Russia and Qatar that their respective 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids were clean, the Swiss investigation into possible corruption linked to the bids has flagged up another 28 acts of possible money-laundering which have been received since June, bringing the total to 81.
By Paul Nicholson
July 13 – The Swiss Federal Office of Justice last Friday said that one of the seven FIFA officials arrested in the dawn swoop on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on May 27, had agreed to extradition to the United States.
July 13 – Just when you thought it had all died down, outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter and English FA chairman Greg Dyke have engaged in another unsavoury war of words.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 13 – The Ultras of Bulgaria’s Cherno more prematurely ended the club’s last friendly game before the start of the season against Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa. Fans of Bulgarian Cup holders, invaded the pitch during the first half, an attacked the Lokomotiv players.
By Samindra Kunti
July 13 – Belgian top-flight outfit Club Brugge has set its sights on acquiring an American club from the lower divisions in the future in a bid to bolster its youth operations.