Liverpool director joins £1m club as full details of historic profit revealed
By David Owen
February 15 – Liverpool’s record year resulted in sharply higher salaries for staff and directors.
Author: Paul Nicholson
Europe’s Big 5 make up $642.8m of global $1.09bn January transfer spend
February 15 – Europe’s big five leagues spent a combined $642.8 million in the January transfer market, a dip of 37.5% on 2018. Italian clubs bucked the downward trend by more than quadrupling their spend, but still laying out less than English clubs.
OL plan 15,000-capacity ‘side’ venue to boost club revenue
February 15 – Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais have announced plans to build a second 15,000-capacity stadium next to its Groupama Stadium which was completed in 2016 in time for the France 2016 European Championships.
Concacaf to live stream Champions League on Yahoo Sports platform
February 15 – Concacaf has taken a deeper step in live streaming with the announcement that 2019 Champions League matches will be broadcast in English on Yahoo Sports platforms, a part of the confederation’s multi-platform media-rights deal with Verizon.
Did he? Didn’t he? UEFA to probe Ramos ‘deliberate’ booking
February 15 – UEFA have launched an investigation that could rule Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos out of a potential Champions League quarter-final after he admitted getting booked on purpose in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Ajax Amsterdam.
Trading places: Palermo sold again in prep for another big money investor
February 15 – Italian Serie B club Palermo has been sold for the second time in three months.
LFP join LICRA lawsuit against abusive anti-Mbappe graffiti authors
February 15 – The French football league (LFP) says it will join a lawsuit against the perpetrators of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti targeting Paris St Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe.
Mali and Senegal set for CAF U-20 final this weekend
February 15 – Mali and Senegal will dispute Africa’s U-20 crown on Sunday in a showdown that is a repeat of their Group B curtain raiser. Both finalists, alongside Senegal and South Africa, have qualified for the U-20 World Cup in Poland this summer.
UEFA ref boss Rosetti happy with VAR debut in Champions League
February 15 – Despite a hugely controversial offside call at Ajax that went Real Madrid’s way and could have changed the outcome of the game, the Video Assistant Referee system “worked perfectly” at all stadiums that hosted first leg games in the last 16 of the Champions League this week, according to UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Roberto Rosetti.
Counting the cost of Jose: Man Utd give near-£20m pay-off to Mourinho and team
By David Owen
February 14 – Manchester United appear to have paid José Mourinho and his team close to £20 million in compensation after they left the club in December.
Somali FA hits back at accusations of theft of funds from women’s game
By Paul Nicholson
February 14 – The Somali FA has hit back at claims by Shaima Mohamed that funds were being embezzled by officials and not being used for football in the country.
ESSA data shows match-fixing still a danger to football integrity and a threat to esports
By Paul Nicholson
February 14 – Sports betting integrity body ESSA reported 267 match-fixing alerts to the relevant sporting and/or regulatory authorities for investigation in 2018, 83 of those cases were reported in the last quarter.
Big vs Little: VAR’s debut in Champions League sparks Ajax allegations of favourtism
February 14 – The video assistant referee system made its eagerly anticipated Champions League debut in the last-16 this week – and immediately caused huge controversy.
Player safety: Former England player advocates re-look at dangers of heading
February 14 – A former England midfielder has called for a ban on children heading footballs to be introduced
PSG left red-faced after 1.4m watch Man Utd game pirated on to its Facebook site
February 14 – Already in the wars over financial fair play, Paris Saint-Germain have been left embarrassed again after part of their Champions League last-16 game against Manchester United was accidentally illegally streamed live to a global audience on social media platform Facebook