March 26 – European Champions Portugal have added a second national team sponsor from China for the 2018 Russia World Cup. Eastroc Super Drink with be the Portuguese team’s Official Energy Drink.
March 26 – City Football Group (CFG), owners of Premier League Manchester City and New York City FC in the MLS, has again indicated that further club acquisitions are likely and that China will likely be the next market.
March 26 – LaLiga club Atletico de Madrid is flexing its Chinese muscle with the opening of two offices in the Chinese cities of Beijing and the other in Chengdu.
March 26 – Former England women’s head coach Mark Sampson was banned for three games by UEFA 24 hours after he was sacked in September by the English FA for “inappropriate behaviour” in an unrelated previous role, it has emerged.
March 23 – Regarded as the root of everything morally correct about the German club structure, the Bundesliga has voted to retain the 50+1 rule which has been held up as a bastion of commercial fair play.
March 23 – The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) which was readmitted to full FIFA membership March 16, has been given a $300,000 grant by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to renovate its damaged headquarters in Lahore.
By Samindra Kunti
March 23 – Belgian’s Pro League has earmarked €300,000 of its TV rights revenue for women’s football in a bid to boost and strengthen the game in the country. The step is a first sign that the league is taking the women’s game seriously.
March 23 – England manager Gareth Southgate says he has “no concerns” about security and safety at the World Cup in Russia despite the escalating diplomatic spat between London and Moscow over the poisoning of a former double agent on british soil.
March 23 – Alan Rothenburg, the man widely credited with bringing the 1994 World Cup to the United States and making such a success of it, says it is by no means a foregone conclusion that the tournament will go back to the USA – and its neighbours Mexico and Canada – in 2026.
By Paul Nicholson
March 23 – Rochell Woodson, the Liberian FA executive committee member who blew the whistle on corruption within the federation, has said she will not stand for election for president while the LFA continues to break its own statutes and manipulate the election rules.
March 23 – Following the gun-toting antics of PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis that led to the suspension of the Greek Super League, further information is emerging purportedly linking Savvidis, his associates and his companies to more criminal violence and intimidation in Greek football dating back to 2015.
March 23 – English Championship club Fulham have been granted planning permission to extend their Craven Cottage stadium to 29,600. The building work will start in the Summer of 2019.
March 22 – Kyrgyz Republic sealed their place at next year’s AFC Asian Cup on Thursday, as a 5-1 win over Myanmar saw the Central Asians confirm a first-ever qualification for the tournament.
March 22 – Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into last year’s sale of AC Milan by Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company to a Chinese consortium, according to Reuters quoting a judicial source.
March 22 – The crackdown by Spanish authorities to prevent elite footballers getting even richer by beating the tax system has struck again, with former Liverpool and Real Madrid star Xabi Alonso facing a possible five-year jail term after being accused of fraud.