April 4 – The return from the international break saw Premier League crowds match the ground capacity levels of the opening day of the season at 97.76% across the league, the joint second highest of the season.
April 4 – China’s Wuhan DDMC Culture Co has added a second Big 5 European league to its broadcast rights portfolio, acquiring Spain’s La Liga for the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 30 – Gianni Infantino’s insistence that the voting process to choose the 2026 World Cup hosts will be scrupulously fair and clean has come under grave scrutiny amid suspicions of underhand tactics by FIFA over the scoring system being used to assess the two contenders.
By Paul Nicholson
April 2 – Albania’s leading club KF Skënderbeu has been issued with a 10-year ban from European competition by UEFA for matchfixing.
April 3 – Michel Platini, not so long ago one of the most powerful men in world football who had aspirations to take over from Sepp Blatter as FIFA president until both were banned for ethics violations, has branded those who threw him out as “clowns” and “worthless judges” and told a French magazine that he will eventually be cleared of any wrongdoing.
April 3 – Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused the UK and US of using the poisoning scandal to try and take the World Cup away from her country.
April 3 – FIFA’s first ever female general secretary Fatma Samoura takes top position in Forbes’ latest ranking of the most important women in sport.
April 3 – The first signs that CONCACAF may not vote as a bloc in favour of the three-nation US-Canada-mexico 2026 World Cup bid have emerged after St Lucia became the first country in the region to announce publicly that it would be backing underdogs Morocco.
April 3- A group of Olympiakos players have been fined €400,000 and ordered to go on holiday for the rest of the season by club president Evangelos Marinakis following a string of poor results.
April 2 – The big just keep on getting bigger, with the gap to the minnows ever increasing, is the obvious conclusion from research looking at the percentage of matches with a gap of three or more goals across 29 European competitions.
By David Owen
April 2 – Burnley, the Lancashire outfit whose incisive style, backed by a strong defence, looks like landing them a top-half finish in this season’s Premier League, have become the latest English side to unveil strong 2016-17 profits.
April 2 – Manchester United are returning to the US for their pre-season tour for the second consecutive year. Their two-week tour, presented by sponsor AON, will include matches against Mexico’s Club America and MLS side San Jose Earthquakes.
By Paul Nicholson
March 29 – FIFA’s Greek monitoring committee has had enough. The committee set up in July 2017 to monitor the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) is now calling for its suspension with immediate effect.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 29 – As the two contenders to stage the 2026 World Cup await the all-important inspection visit from FIFA’s evaluation team next month, clear evidence has emerged that Europe will be split when the actual vote takes place on June 13.
By David Owen
March 29 – Newly-published accounts for West Bromwich Albion, the Midlands club marooned at the foot of the Premier League table, reveal a sharp drop in directors’ remuneration since it was taken under Chinese control in September 2016.