By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – Morocco’s claim of unfair treatment by FIFA in the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup has been strongly rejected by football’s world governing body which has moved swiftly into face-saving overdrive in an effort to maintain credibility.
April 4 – Dominica has become the second CONCACAF nation after St Lucia to come out and confirm it is backing Morocco for the 2026 World Cup despite being part of the same confederation as the rival United 2026 bid.
April 4 – With Qatar having already stated it is supporting Morocco for the 2026 World Cup, Saudi Arabia has said that it is going the other way as the race to clinch Asian backing hots up.
April 4 – The Austrian Bundesliga has announced and extension of their main sponsorship with sports betting company Tipico for at least two years from the summer of 2018.
April 4 – Zenit St Petersburg have been cautioned by UEFA after one of their players failed to attend a routine doping test following Celtic’s 1-0 Europa League win over the Russian side in February.
April 4 – Scotland looks set to secure their future at Hampden Park after League One club Queen’s Park agreed in principle to sell the ground to the Scottish FA.
By David Owen
April 3 – Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club in the process of building a new stadium adjacent to their now-demolished traditional White Hart Lane ground, have revealed details of a strong year for profits – and an eye-popping one for directors’ remuneration.
April 4 – The return from the international break saw Premier League crowds match the ground capacity levels of the opening day of the season at 97.76% across the league, the joint second highest of the season.
April 4 – China’s Wuhan DDMC Culture Co has added a second Big 5 European league to its broadcast rights portfolio, acquiring Spain’s La Liga for the country.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 30 – Gianni Infantino’s insistence that the voting process to choose the 2026 World Cup hosts will be scrupulously fair and clean has come under grave scrutiny amid suspicions of underhand tactics by FIFA over the scoring system being used to assess the two contenders.
By Paul Nicholson
April 2 – Albania’s leading club KF Skënderbeu has been issued with a 10-year ban from European competition by UEFA for matchfixing.
April 3 – Michel Platini, not so long ago one of the most powerful men in world football who had aspirations to take over from Sepp Blatter as FIFA president until both were banned for ethics violations, has branded those who threw him out as “clowns” and “worthless judges” and told a French magazine that he will eventually be cleared of any wrongdoing.
April 3 – Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused the UK and US of using the poisoning scandal to try and take the World Cup away from her country.
April 3 – FIFA’s first ever female general secretary Fatma Samoura takes top position in Forbes’ latest ranking of the most important women in sport.
April 3 – The first signs that CONCACAF may not vote as a bloc in favour of the three-nation US-Canada-mexico 2026 World Cup bid have emerged after St Lucia became the first country in the region to announce publicly that it would be backing underdogs Morocco.