By Mark Baber
March 8 – The retirement of Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager was lamented by fans as the “end of an era” – and how true that has proved to be as media and sponsors slowly adjust to United’s loss of dominance.
March 8 – Former World Cup referee Pierluigi Collina has lent his support to the introduction of video technology trials to assist officials, saying it will end years of frustration.
March 8 – One of the remaining ‘Zurich Seven’, former Venezuela federation president Rafael Esquivel, has been extradited from Switzerland to the United States to face bribery charges in football’s ongoing anti-corruption investigation.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 8 – It didn’t take long for Michel Platini to express his indignation over the decision to trial video technology. No sooner had the International FA Board given the green light for experiments to take place than Platini, still waiting to discover whether he can resume his role as UEFA president after being banned from football, made it clear he would have voted against the move.
By Paul Nicholson
March 8 – Premier League attendances hit near record levels for the season last weekend after a round of mid-week fixtures that saw the lowest capacity attendance figures of the season.
March 7 – Only 29 players aged 27 or over have played for just one club since the start of their careers. The stats from the CIES Football Observatory cover Europe’s Big 5 leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
March 7 – Liverpool has started a recruitment drive for more than 1,000 new match day and occasional staff at Anfield as the club prepares for the opening of the expanded Main Stand next season.
By Mark Baber
March 7 – The Danish Football Association (DBU) announced officially on Friday that it, along with the football associations from Sweden, Norway and Finland is exploring the possibility of bidding for European Championship hosting in 2024 or 2028.
By Mark Baber
March 7 – The Danish Football Association (DBU) announced officially on Friday that it, along with the football associations from Sweden, Norway and Finland is exploring the possibility of bidding for European Championship hosting in 2024 or 2028.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – After an 18-month study, football’s lawmakers have released the findings of the most extensive and far-reaching review ever undertaken of the laws of the game in order to inject what former World Cup referee David Elleray (pictured) describes as “more commonsense” into the interpretation of the rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – After an 18-month study, football’s lawmakers have released the findings of the most extensive and far-reaching review ever undertaken of the laws of the game in order to inject what former World Cup referee David Elleray (pictured) describes as “more commonsense” into the interpretation of the rules.
By Samindra Kunti
March 7 – The Dutch FA, the KNVB, is further fine-tuning a structural reform of its domestic club football. From the 2016/17 season onwards professional and amateur football in the Netherlands will be integrated through a mandatory system of promotion and relegation. In a latest reform the ‘Topklasse’ has been rebranded as ‘Derde Divisie’ (Third Division).
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Franz Beckenbauer has sought to distance himself from the increasingly mysterious SFr10 million payment made during Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid campaign and which ended up in an account controlled by Qatar’s banned former FIFA powerbroker Mohammed bin Hammam.
By Paul Nicholson
March 7 – Signs that China’s football market is more than a passing fad have been given further credibility with Adidas’ announcement that it plans to open 3,000 new stores in the country over the next five years, with football being a key driver of that expansion.
By Ben Nicholson
March 7 – David Beckham’s Miami franchise dream is very much alive and kicking, and he says that it is not just his dream, revealing that some world class players have been “showing interest” in his upcoming MLS franchise.