By Mark Baber
April 4 – Barcelona have ignored Neymar’s preference to play in both the Olympics and Copa America Centenario this summer and announced they will refuse to release the player twice – and would be “enchanted” if he played in the Olympics, whilst also trying to dampen speculation the player might move to another club.
April 4 – This time last year Leicester City’s fans were chanting “we are staying up” as their team put together the greatest ever survival feat in Premier League history.
April 4 – Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have been chosen as the neutral venues for upcoming fixtures between clubs from Iran and Saudi Arabia.
April 4 – Eden Arena, the shared home ground of leading Czech club Slavia Prague, looks set to be bought by the club’s owners CEFC China Energy Company.
April 4 – Nordic countries are to make a joint bid to host the European Championship in 2024 and 2028, with matches in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland plus related events in Iceland and even the Faroe islands.
April 4 – The four English clubs – three of them in the Premier League – named in the athlete doping allegations at the weekend have all issued statements denying the claims.
April 4 – Round 32 of Premier League fixtures after the international break delivered near capacity crowds in eight of ten home fixtures but at Aston Villa despair found a new level on Saturday.
By Paul Nicholson
April 1 – Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers have issued a strong rebuttal of the Amnesty International report accusing Qatar of using forced labour to renovate the Khalifa International Stadium and rejected any talk of it not being fit for World Cup purpose.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – Five senior members of the World Cup-winning US national women’s team have filed a legal challenge over wage discrimination having consistently outstripped the achievements of their male counterparts.
April 1 – Broadcast preparations for the 2016 Copa America Centenario in the US are progressing with France-based Host Broadcast Services (HBS) being appointed to deliver the pictures and logistics for tv stations worldwide.
By David Owen
April 1 – Unfashionable Burnley have quietly become one of the most profitable clubs in English football, the Leicester City of football finance. The team in claret and blue from an old East Lancashire cotton town has posted a pre-tax profit of £34.6 million for its year to 30 June 2015 – just £500,000 less than Arsenal and Manchester City managed between them.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 1 – One of the first reported cases of racism within the senior European women’s game has led UEFA to open disciplinary proceedings after claims that Frankfurt fans abused Rosengard players during their Women’s Champions League quarter-final.
By Mark Baber
April 1 – As the blame game for Nigeria’s disastrous qualification campaign for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations begins, the Nigerian Football Federation says its legal team is looking to take the African Football Confederation (CAF) to court over their exit, claiming it was unfair.
April 1 – Last season’s beaten Europa League finalists Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk of Ukraine have been banned from European competition for one season by UEFA for breaching financial regulations.
April 1 – Already without the services of former England midfielder Adam Johnson, imprisoned for six years after his conviction on charges of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl, struggling English Premier League team Sunderland have now had to sack one-time Arsenal fullback Emmanuel Eboué, who has been banned from football for 12 months by FIFA because of an unpaid debt owed to his former representative.