By Mark Baber
December 21 – PSG, owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, has reportedly agreed a deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) worth between €150 million and €200 million a season.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – Asia’s Fifa vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein (pictured) has called for an end to disunity in the region and has urged the various factions to bury their differences and set the Asian Football Confederation on a new path of reconciliation.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – Interpol has been drafted in to help with the investigation into the match-fixing scandal that has sent shock waves through South African football.
So what has Qatar in common with South Africa? On the face of it you would think this is an absurd, Christmas quiz, question. But it is not.
In footballing terms they have a lot in common. The common factor is both countries are pioneers for the world’s most popular game, staging the World Cup in their part of the world for the first time. And both countries have had the need to convince the world they are worthy of having this honour.
By Mark Baber
December 21 – BT Sport, which surprisingly landed £738m of rights for Premier League football this summer, has named Sunset+Vine, part of the Tinopolis Group, as production company for their 38 live Premier League games for the next three seasons.
By Mark Baber
December 19 – Spanish club Deportivo de La Coruña are in imminent danger of entering administration.
By Mark Baber
December 19 – The shares of Rangers International Football Club plc opened at 75p per share in their first session of trading this morning soon climbing to 76.5p on London’s Alternative Investments Market.
By Mark Baber
19 December – The start of the Egyptian Premier League season, scheduled for 18 December has been postponed again by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA).
December 19 – FIFA have given the greenlight to the relocation of the stadium in the Russian city of Samara which is slated to host the 2018 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 19 – Just when football authorities round the world are striving to eradicate homophobia and racism, supporters of Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg have demanded non-white and gay players be excluded from the team.
By Mark Baber
December 19 – The war of words following the abandonment of the Copa Sudamerica final in Sao Paolo overshadowed the handing over of the state-of-the-art Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza on Sunday, and any publicity coup for Brazilian World Cup organisers.