By Paul Nicholson
July 17 – An unexpected Caribbean hurricane has swept through the group stages of the Gold Cup in the US, and it has nothing to do with sports politics or financial corruption.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 17 – Future World Cup bidders will be banned by FIFA from funding overseas development programmes in an attempt to put an end to the kind of vote-trading shenanigans that have plagued recent ballots.
By Paul Nicholson
July 17 – Liverpool took the opportunity of the Australian leg of the club’s pre-season tour to launch their new away kit, the first away kit with New Balance. While current players Simon Mignolet, Martin Skrtel and new signing James Milner modeled the kit in King George Square in Brisbane, club legend Robbie Fowler was launched from a light aircraft wearing the Reds’ new white jersey.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 17 – The Ministry of Youth and Sports in Bulgaria has committed to allocating substantially increased funds to club youth academies in 2016. The announcement was made by Bulgarian sports minister Krassen Kralev (pictured) who outlined what would the subsidies for the Bulgarian Football Union would be for the new season.
By Mark Baber
July 16 – Real Madrid has retained the top spot as the world’s most valuable sports franchise, worth $3.26 billion, in the 2015 edition of Forbes’ annual list of the World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – FIFA’s ethics committee has called for greater powers to explain the precise reasons for punishing officials for corruption in order to speed up the reform process and prove it is entirely independent and has no political bias.
By David Owen
July 16 – David Gill, the former Manchester United executive and recently-elected FIFA vice president, is to attend Monday’s FIFA Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting, Insideworldfootball can confirm. The decision assures the European Confederation UEFA of its full complement at a critical gathering expected to set the date of an extraordinary Congress at which a new FIFA President is to be elected.
July 16 – The Russian Football Premier League has signed a multi-year data partnership with Sportradar which will become the league’s ‘Official Sports Data Partner’, starting with the 2015/16 season.
By Paul Nicholson
July 16 – The first of the seven FIFA officials to be arrested in dawn raids in Zurich at the end of May left Switzerland yesterday for the US, according to a statement from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan may have gone quiet media-wise since losing the FIFA presidential election to Sepp Blatter but in under two months’ time he will be in open forum when he seems sure to be quizzed on the pros and cons of his candidacy, which gained 73 votes, and what his next move might be.
July 16 – Swiss authorities have begun questioning a number of the officials facing extradition to the United States for their alleged roles in the money-laundering and racketeering scandal that has rocked FIFA, according to unconfirmed reports.
July 16 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have continued their push into the north American market with a merchandising hook-up with US sports eCommerce giant Fanatics.
It has been a long journey to Old Trafford. Bastian Schweinsteiger, as an impetuous youngster, made his Bundesliga debut in late 2002 and quickly became a beacon of hope for the team – at Bayern and in the German national set-up.
By Ricardo Setyon
July 16 – Lucas Piazon, Chelsea’s generally on-loan striker, who signed for the London club for €7.5 million in 2011 but has yet to secure a squad place, is unhappy and letting his feelings be known at the Pan-American games that have just opened in Canada.
By Alexander Krassimirov
July 15 – The new owners of Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia have taken emergency measures to financially stabilize the club, imposing a wage limit on players in advance of the new season.