By David Owen
December 5 – Clubs which supply squad members for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia can look forward to massively increased payments of around $8,530 per player per day, in recognition of their “contribution to the successful staging” of the tournament.
December 5 – Mid-week evening fixtures are more popular – just – than weekend fixtures, if rounds 14 and 15 of the Premier League schedule are an indicator.
December 5 – Tottenham Hotspur have said that the construction costs for the club’s new stadium on the site of the old White Hart Lane ground are still forecast come in between £750 million and £800 million, and not hit the £1 billion cost reported.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – Brussels looks set to stripped as a host city for Euro 2020 this week with Stockholm likely to be parachuted in as a replacement.
December 4 – The cost of Tottenham Hotspur’s new North London stadium has ballooned to more that £1 billion, making it the most expensive football construction project in the UK, costing even more than West Ham’s Olympic Stadium, built for the 2012 Olympics and remodelled into the London Stadium for the Hammers.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – The joke buzzing around social media after last Friday’s evenly balanced World Cup draw was that there IS actually a Group of Death: Netherlands, Italy, Chile and the United States.
December 4 – West Ham’s tenancy at the London Stadium has been controversial from the start. Accusations that the stadium was a government giveaway to the Premier League club seem to have now been backed up London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s announcement that he is stepping in to take over the running of the stadium that is costing the taxpayer £20 million a year.
December 4 – The conduct of Zimbabwean football boss Philip Chiyangwa (pictured), an ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, has been called into question in his own country amid allegations of corruption.
December 4 – The French Football Federation (FFF) have prolonged their commercial partnership with automotive manufacturer Volkswagen until June 2023.
December 4 – Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operator Oulala is looking to expand its platform into India via its new partnership with Australian technology firm Bravio Gaming which provides online digital entertainment solutions on a B2B and B2C basis.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 1 – It was trumpeted by FIFA as a must-watch media briefing about World Cup preparations and the glittering draw at the Kremlin Palace later in the day. Instead, it barely touched on the draw ceremony and turned into a quite extraordinary full-scale personal assault on Russia’s critics by chief World Cup organiser Vitaly Mutko (pictured far left).
December 1 – The African Football Confederation (CAF) has granted financial subsidies of $500,000 to each of its qualified countries to help prepare their teams for the Russia 2018 World Cup.
December 1 – Russian World Cup chief Vitaly Mutko has insisted there will be no discrimination against gender preference at the tournament despite fears that the spectre of homophobia and racism could deter some supporters from travelling to the country.
December 1 – If they weren’t before, they are now. The gloves are officially off in the race for the hosting of the 2026 World Cup. USA, Mexico and Canada submitted their 2026 World Cup bid, as did Morocco, before the November 30 deadline.
December 1 – French police have questioned former FIFA vice-president Reynald Temarii (pictured) in their investigation into suspected corruption in connection with the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.