By Paul Nicholson
February 6 – The row between stakeholders in the US Virgin Islands that triggered a visit from a FIFA and CONCACAF delegation has calmed but the storm may not be over.
February 6 – Argentine World Cup winner Mario Kempes has been sacked from his ambassadorial role with Spain’s Valencia for fiercely criticising the team after their 4-0 thrashing at home to Eibar.
February 6 – Bolivia’s appeal against being docked points for fielding an ineligible player in two World Cup qualifiers has been rejected by FIFA’s appeals panel.
February 5 – Round 24 of Premier League fixtures saw Chelsea, Spurs and Leicester top the attendance capacity table, while Hull matched their resurgence on the pitch with stay-away fans returning to the KCOM.
February 5 – The inaugural Sportego Celtic eSports League kicks off February 6 with a 14-week season that opens with Linfield against Shamrock Rovers followed by Crusaders vs Dundalk.
February 3 – In a fascinating case that will be noted by all stakeholders in football’s transfer landscape, player power has lost out to contractual obligations after Bayer Leverkusen’s Turkish international midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu had a four-month ban upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport meaning he will miss the rest of the season.
February 3 – The past week of social media stats in the Premier League has seen a rare win for Twitter over Facebook or Instagram in terms of growth number.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 3 – The role and reputation of Sportradar in detecting global match-fixing and irregular betting patterns has received a major boost after FIFA decided to hire the specialist firm in place of its own detection division.
February 3 – In a significant break with the past regime of Michel Platini and as promised by his successor Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA have introduced an open tender process for cities keen to stage its major club finals and have named those interested in hosting in 2019, with formal bidding now under way.
February 3 – China may be attempting to put the brakes on the spending of huge fees for foreign players, but there is no slow down in their domestic focus on specialist football programmes to train a generation that can compete on the world stage.
February 3 – Premier League action returned mid-week after a weekend of FA Cup action, and so did the fans to Burnley and Middlesbrough, though neither sold out their stadiums.
February 3 – AFC Champions League holders Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors have not been cleared to defend their title. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected the club’s request for ‘provisional measures’ to allow the club back into the 2017 competition following it January 18 sanction for historic match-fixing.
February 3 – In the latest power play for control of African football, an unsavoury war of words has broken out between two federations presidents over alleged meddling by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
By Samindra Kunti
February 3 – For the third time in history Egypt and Cameroon will meet in the final of the African Cup of Nations. In the semi-finals the two traditional powerhouses of the African game defeated Burkina Faso and Ghana respectively.
By Samindra Kunti
February 3 – This weekend Lanus and River Plate will play in the Argentine Super Cup, but the start of the domestic season has been overshadowed by financial turmoil in the country that is ranked number one in the world by FIFA.