By Paul Nicholson
June 21 – FIFA has issued a statement denying that its ethics committee has any investigation proceedings opened against its president Gianni Infantino, though the statement does not mention whether general secretary Fatma Samoura is under investigation.
By Mark Baber
June 21 – Real Madrid star Luka Modric is to be investigated for perjury by Croatian authorities, after giving testimony at the corruption trial of his former manager Zdravko Mamic. If found guilty of lying under oath about when he signed a crucial contract annex, the ex-Spurs and Dinamo Zagreb player could face between six months and five years in prison.
June 21 – Spanish prosecutors have kept up their pressure on football’s alleged tax avoiders with Manchester United manager José Mourinho being the latest to be dragged before the courts. Mourinho has denied tax fraud of €3.3 million relating to his time at Real Madrid.
June 21 – Both RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg have been given the go ahead to participate in the UEFA Champions League, having restructured their relationships with the Austrian Red Bull energy drinks company to overcome the regulatory prohibition on common ownership of clubs.
June 21 – Telemundo is reporting record broadcast numbers on its digital platforms for its coverage of the Confederations Cup 2017 from Russia. Nielsen ratings report that the Portugal vs. Mexico reached 4 million total viewers on Telemundo and ranks as the most streamed match ever on Telemundo’s digital platforms.
June 21 – Premier League Manchester City has signed Philippines-based on-line gaming company Kai-Fa Yule K8.com as the club’s official betting partner in Asia.
June 21 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is partnering with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to ease the plight of refugees within the AFC region with the first joint pilot project under the agreement being the support of the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia.
June 21 – European governing body UEFA has partnered with conference organiser Leaders for the Generation XX Series to promote dialogue and profile of the women’s game.
By Mark Baber
June 19 – Qatar has moved swiftly to reassure the world’s football community that construction is progressing on stadia for the 2022 World Cup, despite the political, economic and social isolation attempts by its neighbours led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
By Samindra Kunti, Moscow
June 20 – FIFA has defended the use of video assistant referees (VARs) in the Confederations Cup in Russia, with president Gianni Infantino satisfied with the system’s progress.
June 20 – The French football revolution being engineered at Lille looks to have lost focus. New coach Marcelo Bielsa didn’t up show up for his first training session at the club as it seeks to rebuild after struggling in previous seasons in Ligue 1.
June 20 – Sunderland’s relegation from the Premier League also saw the resignation of manager David Moyes over lack of transfer funds, and has accelerated the desire of American owner Ellis Short to sell the club. The club announced it is prioritising its sale over the search for a new manager.
June 19 – With the Gulf diplomatic crisis continuing, reports suggest Saudi Arabia plans to set up new TV channels to challenge the regional dominance of Qatar’s BeIN Sports which is banned in the country, but is the dominant regional player in the sports rights market holding most of the key international league and national team properties.
June 20 – The merger of daily fantasy sports DraftKings and FanDuel has been temporarily shelved after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stepped in to block the deal.
June 20 – FIFA has embraced the new Augmented Reality (AR) technology opportunity on the Facebook platform to give fans a new way of showing their support for their teams.