By Samindra Kunti
June 7 – Confederations Cup host Russia has boosted security ahead of the tournament’s kick-off on June 17. Russian president Vladimir Putin has approved legislation to curb violence and hooliganism at football games after violent clashes between Russian and English fans in Marseille at Euro 2016.
June 7 – Business magazine Forbes has released its 14th annual list of the world’s most valuable ‘soccer’ teams with Manchester United returning to head the ranking with a value of $2.6 billion on turnover of $765 million, an 11% gain on its previous year’s numbers.
Politics and sport make uneasy, if unavoidable, bedfellows. This has been underlined plenty of times in just the past few months and is now being highlighted once again by tensions in the Gulf centred on Qatar, host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
June 7 – The coaching mantra of not changing a winning team has been questioned increasingly in recent seasons as increased numbers of fixtures and pressure on players has seen many managers complain of not having large enough squads to compete in all competitions.
June 7 – Cristiano Ronaldo will be the cover athlete for EA Sports FIFA 18 game that will go on worldwide release September 29. Incredibly, it is the first time Ronaldon has been on the cover.
June 7 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has rebranded its top two club competitions – the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup – with a redesign.
June 7 – Jamaican Football Federation (JFF) president and CONCACAF senior vice president Captain Horace Burrell has died, aged 67, following a battle against cancer.
June 7 – UEFA have welcomed the new mood of co-operation with Europe’s major leagues but have made it clear that giving them a greater say in the decision-making process affecting European football must be rubber-stamped by the entire UEFA membership.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – After months of thorny negotiations, Europe’s major leagues say they have ended their long-running dispute with UEFA after being promised a greater say in the decision-making process, not least when it comes to Champions League fixtures.
June 6 – The U20 World Cup progressed to the semi-final stages in South Korea with England, Italy, Uruguay and Venezuela ensuring that it will be a Europe vs South America final. But not before there was proof that video technology is still very much at the experimental stage and needs fine-tuning after an incident that saw Italy’s Giuseppe Pezzella shown his marching orders in controversial circumstances.
June 6 – Big players do big things. While Ronaldo was scoring two goals to win the Champions League final in Cardiff, Wales, with Real Madrid, Lionel Messi was in Beijing launching a football theme park that will bear his name in Naijing, China.
June 6 – Egyptian giants Al Ahly and Zamalek have announced they will boycott the Qatari-owned television network beIN Sports following the damaging diplomatic rift between Qatar and several Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – FIFA has been drawn into the escalating diplomatic crisis surrounding Qatar as speculation intensifies over the extent, if any, to which the rift with its neighbours and other Arab nations might impact on preparations to stage the 2022 World Cup.
June 6 – CONCACAF has signed the Allstate Insurance Company as its Official Insurance Sponsor for all championships for the next four years. No figure has been disclosed for the deal that also included four-year renewals of deals with the MLS and the Mexican national team’s US tours.
June 6 – Tributes are pouring in following the tragic death at the age of 30 of Ivory Coast international Cheick Tiote who collapsed during a training session in China.