By Ian Griffiths
November 18 – Rafael Silva struck a vital away goal as Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds secured a 1-1 draw at Al Hilal in the first leg of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League final on Saturday.
September 18 – Omar Khribin and Samantha Kerr have been rewarded for their outstanding displays throughout 2017 by being named among the nominees for this year’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Player of the Year Award in the men’s and women’s categories.
November 17 – A judge in Paraguay has authorised the extradition to the United States of former CONMEBOL boss Nicolás Leoz, alleged to have been one of the masterminds in the FIFAGate corruption scandal but who has so far managed to escape the clutches of US prosecutors.
November 17 – Trade event organiser Soccerex have cancelled their December 4-5 conference in Doha, Qatar, initially saying on their website that the short notice was due to the blockade of the country by its neighbours. But this doesn’t seem to be the full story.
November 17 – FIFA has been adjudged to have wrongly viewed chanting by Mexican fans towards opposition goalkeepers at World Cup qualifiers as homophobic.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 17 – Next month’s Gulf Cup, one of Asia’s key tournaments in the region, is hanging by a thread after Saudi Arabia and two of its allies enforcing the political and trade blockade of Qatar were withdrawn from the eight-nation competition.
November 17 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has signed a new TV rights deal with Globo worth $2.5 million per match for the Brazilian national team until 2022.
November 17 – The draw for the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Senior Challenge Cup was held on Thursday whilst the tournament, to be held in Kenya, has lost two of the original participants (Somalia and Sudan) and been put back until December 3-17.
By Samindra Kunti
November 11 – Argentinian giants Boca Juniors have agreed a content partnership with Netflix. The online streaming service will make a four-part documentary series which will be released in 2018.
November 17 – Italy have sacked coach Giampiero Ventura after the four-time champions failed to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1958.
November 17 – A loophole that allows national teams to boost their seedings for the World Cup by deliberately avoiding playing too many friendly matches is likely to become a thing of the past after next year’s finals in Russia.
By Paul Nicholson
November 17 – Manchester United are immediately showing the importance of their return to Champions League football announcing a 17% revenue rise to £141 million for the first financial quarter of 2018 ended September 30.
November 17 – The United Soccer League (USL), the second tier of US professional football announced their third expansion team in a week for the 2018 season. North Carolina FC are exiting the under pressure North American Soccer League (NASL) – stripped of its second tier status for next season by the US Soccer Federation – to continue Division 2 play in the USL.
November 17 – UEFA launched its Nations League last month, now CONCACAF has launched its new League of Nations national team competition. Like UEFA’s new format, CONCACAF will also be based their competition on a league structure.
By Ian Griffiths
November 16 – Al Hilal striker Omar Khribin is adamant that his rich vein of goalscoring form will count for nothing when the Saudi Arabian giants take on Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds in the first leg of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League final on Saturday.