By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – As part of the Chinese group’s expansion into the Czech market, CEFC has signed a deal to acquire a 59.97% stake in Slavia Prague. The group says it is also working towards becoming a sponsor of the Czech national team.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – Little over three months after being defeated by Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, the young reformer who won’t give in, put himself back in the firing line today as he officially announced he will stand again next February saying he wanted to finish where he left off.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Major League Soccer chief Don Garber has issued a hard-hitting response to the provocative suggestion by FIFA’s new reform guru that football is not a serious sport in the United States, accusing the former International Olympic Committee director-general of treating his country with disdain.
September 9 – The head of the European Club Association (ECA) has urged football’s world players’ union FIFPro not to carry out its threat to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its bid to rip up the existing transfer system.
By Mark Baber
September 9 – Adidas is extending its partnership with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) until 2026. Under the terms of the partnership, which had originally been scheduled to run until 2018, the German group will continue to supply kits and apparel to all RFEF teams, including the Spanish national football team.
By Tom Parsons
September 9 – According to a report by media agency Opendorse, Cristiano Ronaldo could potentially charge €230,366 for one advertising Tweet to his nearly 38 million followers on Twitter.
By Ben Nicholson
September 9 – Liverpool FC has announced a partnership with Banc De Binary, a binary options company that operates an online trading website through which customers may buy and sell binary options, for the 2015/2016 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – If Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho thought his treatment of the club’s female head doctor on the opening day of the Premier League season would die down, he is mistaken.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Outspoken Spanish league chief Javier Tebas, not content with taking on the authorities over Third Party Ownership, has now ignited the controversy over FIFA’s decision to switch the 2022 World Cup to winter.
September 9 – In a damaging blow to Asian football’s image, a World Cup qualifier between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia was abandoned just before full-time on Tuesday because of crowd trouble.
September 9 – The European Club Association, which represents the bulk of Europe’s clubs, says it would support Michel Platini if it were able to vote in next February’s FIFA presidential election.
September 9 – Wayne Rooney entered the record books of world football by becoming England’s all-time leading goalscorer on Tuesday when he hit his 50th goal for his country in the 2-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over Switzerland at Wembley.
If there is one subject everyone agrees on is that FIFA needs to be more accountable and transparent. Yet even as there is unanimity on this subject in one area of football there is so little transparency and information is so tightly controlled that it makes those who run the politburo in China look liberal and media friendly. This is in the area of how clubs communicate to the world.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is poised to announce tomorrow that he is standing for FIFA president for the second time in a matter of months. Sucker for punishment? He clearly doesn’t think so.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” Rudyard Kipling, If
We all want to know who’s hot and who’s not, and in football our assessment of triumph is for the most part a binary process. In these days of blink-of-an-eye judgements, the measure of a man or a manager is made in what is little more than the sixty seconds of a single season.