By Andrew Warshaw
July 6 – FIFA’s appeals committee has cut the suspension of former secretary general Jerome Valcke (pictured) from 12 years to 10 and reduced Asian football powerbroker Chung Mong-joon’s ban from six years to five, though both moves represent only partial success for the two senior officials who served under the Sepp Blatter regime and were determined to clear their names.
July 6 – Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says he was “shocked” by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union and that it could have a serious negative effect on the Premier League in the long term.
July 6 – Their motto is Stronger Together and it has worked a treat so far. Can Wales, the smallest country population-wise ever to get this far, now carry on living the dream when they face Portugal in the Euro 2016 semi-finals tonight?
July 6 – Real Madrid say they will appeal an European Commission ruling that they must reimburse €18.4 million to city authorities because they benefitted from unfair subsidies.
July 6 – CONCACAF has put its U15 national team championship back into the calendar and will hold the Girls edition August 9-21 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney in Orlando, Florida. Twenty three nations are entered.
July 6 – The Bundesliga and Premier League will continue to dominate the business of football with their big and modern stadia; France, thanks to new stadia for Euro 2016 are getting better but need to do more, Spain and Italy are off the pace.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – Two more senior personnel at FIFA have been shown the door in the latest purge by Gianni Infantino’s administration aimed at suppressing opposition to his increasingly shaky presidency.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – In a ruling that will send alarm bells ringing across the Continent, seven Spanish clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid have been ordered to repay millions of euros of unlawful subsidies after being found guilty of breaking EU state aid rules.
By Paul Nicholson
July 5 – The US Soccer Federation has officially announced a new 25-club Girls’ Development Academy that will start matches in the Autumn of 2017. The academy structure is “an initiative designed to accelerate the development of world-class female players” in the World Champion nation.
July 5 – FIFA’s attempt to patch up differences between Israel and Palestine, overshadowed by ongoing corruption and reform issues, has been stepped up with the latest visit by former presidential candidate Tokyo Sexwale who leads the Monitoring Committee to the region.
July 5 – How much is a player worth and will he do the job required are the perennial questions facing club owners and managers. There is no exact calculation that answers either of these questions for buyers, and no guarantee of value for money. A new player ratings tool might go some of the way to providing at least peace of mind to those splashing the cash.
July 5 – Manchester City have relaunched their website with a number of new features and at a new url, mancity.com. The new site is the result of a long consultancy process involving multiple rounds of focus groups, surveys, prototype designs, and user.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Speculation that the net could be closing in on FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been intriguingly stepped up following the publication of an explosive leaked memo, seemingly on official FIFA letter-headed paper, that accuses Infantino of a series of ethics violations.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Fourteen countries have signed a potentially ground-breaking convention between the 47-member Council of Europe and UEFA designed to prevent any repetition of hooliganism at future European Championship finals.
July 4 – There are still some tickets left for the World Football Forum later this week (July 7-8) in Paris. The two-day meeting opens Thursday with an iSportconnect Directors’ Club and WFF Cocktail Reception. Conference sessions are on Friday at the Hotel du Collectionneur.