April 1 – He might not be making the shortlists of the end of year awards these days but Lionel Messi is still the best player in Europe, according to a just released statistical analysis of performance data from the first third of 2021.
April 1 – Spain’s World Cup qualifier against Kosovo on Wednesday may have gone ahead as planned but it was always likely to be embroiled in controversy.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 31 – A decision on the future of the Champions League post-2024 has been delayed until next month with UEFA seemingly at loggerheads with Europe’s elite clubs and leagues over the precise nature of the deal.
March 31 – African football has been hit by yet another Covid-related controversy after Benin refused to play a decisive African Cup of Nations qualifying game in Sierra Leone after disputing that five of its players had tested positive just before kick-off.
March 31 – Pakistan football is veering further towards an international ban after FIFA urged former federation leaders to immediately hand back control to a FIFA-installed normalisation committee.
By Samindra Kunti in Leuven
March 31 – Belgium national team coach Roberto Martinez has voiced his support to expand national team squads to 26, 27 players for Euro 2020, calling it “a necessity”.
March 31 – Swedish football that has been rocked by match-fixing scandal and saw criminal charges issued against five individuals last December, has moved to beef up its integrity operations via an increased betting monitoring deal with Sportradar.
March 31 – The world’s number one team Belgium wore t-shirts on Tuesday in support of migrant workers involved in building 2022 World Cup stadiums in Qatar, following other European sides in protesting for improved human rights in the Gulf state.
March 31 – German Football League (DFL) boss Christian Seifert has confirmed that the league is offering a 25.1% stake in a new company to handles its media rights in a 25-year deal.
March 31 – Schalke 04 and Russian energy giant Gazprom have extended their long running shirt sponsorship agreement, the German club announced on Tuesday.
March 30 – While UEFA and Concacaf have opened up their Qatar 2022 qualifying with a slew of matches, the AFC has pushed back the next rounds of its Asian Qualifer series to June where centralised groups will complete the preliminary round 2 of group play.
March 31 – The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the US has struck a deal with online bank Ally whose logo will appear on the sleeves of all 10 clubs in NWSL this season.
March 30 – The English Football League (EFL) has secured a £117 million loan fund for Championship clubs with MetLife Investment Management.
March 30 – Constant Omari is slowly exiting football through the back door. The often controversial but influential official has said he will not stand in the upcoming elections of the Congolese Association Football Federation (FECOFA).
March 30 – Four weeks after announcing they were ceasing operations, defending champions Jiangsu FC have been formally kicked out of the Chinese Super League, the latest confirmation that the financial gravy train to China for world stars in the latter stages of their careers is over.