By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Morocco has not ruled out bidding for the 2026 World Cup with a fellow African nation – or two – now that it has been made clear that Europe will not be allowed to bid.
By Samindra Kunti
May 21 – Venezuela won the opening match at the FIFA U20 World Cup in South Korea with a 2-0 victory over Germany. England got their campaign underway with a 3-0 win against Argentina.
May 21 – Real Madrid have secured the Spanish league title for the first time in five years after winning 2-0 at Malaga to finish three points clear of arch-rivals Barcelona.
May 21 – Despite a late run of six wins from their final seven games, Arsenal have failed to reach the Champions League for the first time since manager Arsene Wenger took over a generation ago.
By Samindra Kunti
May 21 – India’s U17 team defeated Italy’s U17 2-0 on Friday, but in reality the ‘Indian Colts’ beat a selection of lower league Italian players.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Germany’s FIFA Council member Reinhard Grindel has re-iterated his opposition to the removal of FIFA ethics chiefs Cornel Borbely and Hans-Joachim Eckert saying the surprise move should have been handled more transparently.
May 22 – Manchester City have signed Carlsberg as their Official U.S. Beer Partner. Carlsberg, through its US distributor St. Killian, will promote initially around the Man City pre-season tour to the US.
May 22 – Livingston, newly promoted to the Scottish Championship, is looking to raise up to £3.8 million via a share issue but the club says that there are no plans to pay investors a dividend. Shares are priced at £1 each.
By Paul Nicholson
May 19 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation as well as the Papua New Guinea FA, is facing a revolution in his home country where a rival faction has established its own federation, is playing its own matches and has more members than the FIFA-recognised federation Chung leads.
By Paul Nicholson
May 18 – The long expected sale of Nottingham Forest has been completed with NF Football Investments (NFFI), headed by Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis, taking 100% control.
May 19 – Zhang Jian, China’s newly elected FIFA council member, says a World Cup bid from his country will come “sooner or later” but has declined to specify when.
By Samindra Kunti
May 19 – This Saturday the FIFA U20 World Cup kicks off with Germany and Venezuela playing the opening match in Daejeon, South Korea, thought the tournament favourites are a two other teams from Europe and South America – France and Uruguay.
May 19 – The Under-20 World Cup, which runs from this Saturday to June 11 in six South Korean cities, will be the first FIFA youth tournament to employ video assistant referees but the world governing body’s head of refereeing has cautioned against its over-use.
May 19 – Players who dive or feign injury could face two-match suspensions from the start of next season under a new English Football Association crackdown.
May 19 – One of the biggest fixtures in the Swedish football calendar has been postponed due to match-fixing fears.