August 17 – After losing his appeal against a five-match ban for pushing a referee during Sunday night’s Spanish Super Cup 3-1 first-leg victory over Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo, used his Instagram account to claim “This is what you call persecution.”
August 17 – French Ligue 1 side OGC Nice has dipped into its investor pool and pulled out a shirt sleeve sponsor. Chinese hotel brand 7 Days will take the position on the shirt for the start of the Ligue 1 season this weekend.
August 17 – Argentine FA President Claudio Tapia has told the press that it won’t just be him speaking to them in future but that the that national team players will return to doing media interviews and end their boycott.
August 17 – Online bookmaker Betway has signed a three-year deal to become the official betting partner of German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen.
By Mark Baber
August 16 – After analysing transfer activity at Europe’s top 20 clubs, global accountancy network price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) has forecast transfer fees for individual players could surpass £100 million on a regular basis by 2025, with Neymar’s record fee of £198 million coming 5-7 years before trends would have suggested.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – FIFA has again stepped into the Sierra Leone row to protect Isha Johansen, the SLFA president that the world governing body recognises but who football stakeholders and government officials in Sierra Leone argue is holding the position in an unelected capacity after her mandate ended August 3.
August 16 – The new season roll-out of the video assistant referee (VAR) system has been met with criticism in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium after a series of errors. But FIFA is determined to push through the referral system in time for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
August 16 – The Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) has brought in Sportradar to implement its Fraud Detection System across all matches in the country’s national leagues. At the same time the CBF has also launched its own in-house Integrity Department, putting in place an Integrity Officer who will work closely with Sportradar.
August 16 – Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) are the final three nominees for the 2016/17 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Awards.
August 26 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has announced a record attendance figure for the league after the first two rounds of fixtures with 230,204 fans attending matches across the league’s four divisions.
August 16 – After two years of suspension, the Libyan Premier League kicked off yesterday (Tuesday) with four matches successfully completed, albeit without spectators officially attending.
By Mark Baber
August 15 – Widespread reports that Iran had banned two members of the national squad for breaking the sporting boycott of Israel were refuted by the Iranian FA at the weekend in a letter to FIFA, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.
By Paul Nicholson
August 15 – In what looks like a further attempt to clean house of dissenting voices within the federation, the Liberian FA (LFA) has suspended its legal director Benedict Yarsiah “with immediate effect without pay, for time indefinite, pending an investigation.”
August 15 – Paris Saint-Germain have been eyeing Belgian top flight club Mouscron as a potential satellite club with the Parisian club keen on offering its homegrown players more playing opportunity.
By Mark Baber
August 15 – At their upcoming meeting on September 7, Premier League clubs look set vote on whether to part company with other European Leagues and have their transfer window close before the start of the 2018-19 season rather than on August 31 – three weeks into the season.