By Samindra Kunti
May 20 – France has extended a nationwide state of emergency to cover EURO 2016 and the Tour de France this summer. German intelligence has warned that the tournament’s opening match and final are major terrorist targets.
By Samindra Kunti
May 20 – The All India Football Federation, the AIFF, has unveiled the first details of the widespread changes to the domestic structure of Indian football that will see the Indian Super League (ISL) become the country’s premier football competition.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Dutch football chief Michael van Praag says he is running for UEFA president to put the organisation back on an even keel before handing over to someone younger.
By Samindra Kunti
May 19 – The Dutch FA, the KNVB, has relegated FC Twente from the domestic top flight, the Eredivisie, as punishment for breaching financial regulations. Twente will, however, maintain their professional license.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Having taken FIFA’s membership completely by surprise with the announcement of Fatma Samoura as his new general secretary, Gianni Infantino’s team building has continued with Norwegian football federation official Kjetil Siem being hired in the new role of director of strategic matters.
May 19 – UEFA are to set up a special task force to determine how to accommodate Kosovo in their various competitions. Kosovo were accepted as a full member of FIFA last Friday, a week after being admitted to UEFA despite fierce opposition from Serbia.
May 19 – China’s influence as an emerging new global commercial player in football has been further underlined with businessman Tony Xia agreeing to buy Aston Villa, the historic English club just relegated from the Premier League, for a reported £60 million.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – UEFA have defended the choice of Basel’s St Jacob stadium for Wednesday’s Europa League final between Liverpool and Sevilla.
May 19 – The Premier League may have finished slightly later than planned with the forced shift of Manchester United’s final home game against Bournemouth to Tuesday night because of security concerns, but fans set a record attendance across the country for the Sunday 3pm kick offs.
May 19 – Leicester City, the rags to riches English Premier League champions who have rewritten the rules on the pitch, have moved swiftly to expand their international footprint and are reported to be focussing on China with a plan to train Chinese youth players at their academy.
Gianni Infantino, less than three months into the job as the man chosen to lead FIFA into a new era of respectability, turned to his fawning converts and declared: “I can officially inform you here, the crisis is over.”
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Michel Platini’s successor as UEFA president will be elected on September 14, with veteran Dutch FA chief Michael van Praag already in the frame.
By Paul Nicholson
May 18 – Angel Villar Llona (pictured), Spain’s controversial FIFA vice-president and the man currently in charge at UEFA following the sanctioning of Michel Platini, is facing legal action at home from rival candidate for the Spainish federation presidency Miguel Angel Galan.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 18 – Two-time FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan has angrily condemned Gianni Infantino for a “complete betrayal” of FIFA’s membership following Infantino’s controversial power grab at last week’s Congress in Mexico.
May 18 – The Barcelona trio of Messi, Neymar and Suarez fill three of the top four best performing big-5 league strikers, according to the CIES Football Observatory. The surprise is that Suarez, who has had a storming goalscoring end to the season is the fourth ranked striker.