July 9 – The head of the English Football League has broken his silence on the collapse of Championship club Wigan Athletic pledging to get to the bottom of why the club was plunged into administration when its Hong Kong owner pulled the plug on further funding.
By Paul Nicholson
July 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) the first regional body to shut down its international competitions when the Covid-19 pandemic broke – has released a new calendar for the completion of its 2020 club and national team competitions.
July 9 – Disgraced former Conmebol president Juan Angel Napout has again petitioned court in the US to obtain an early release from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Paraguayan is serving a nine-year sentence for his role in the FIFAGate scandal.
July 9 – Belgian football has been plunged into chaos after the domestic sports tribunal ruled that Waasland-Beveren can’t be relegated, leaving the embattled Pro League with almost no choice but to rethink next season.
July 9 – After a one-season separation, Juventus and Cygames are back together with the Japanese video game developer taking the Italian champions’ back-of-shirt position.
July 9 – Players raised gloved right fists and took a knee before Major League Soccer’s first match in four months on Wednesday in a show of solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
July 9 – Football Federation Australia’s Head of Leagues Greg O’Rourke has admitted responsibility for failed attempts to get A-League teams out of Victoria state amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has placed the July 16 restart of top-flight football in the country into doubt.
July 9 – South Africa’s FA (SAFA) has confirmed it will oversee all procedures relating to ‘return-to-play’ protocols after the country’s Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa urged the federation and the Premier Soccer League to work together to pave the way for a resumption in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Paul Nicholson
July 8 – FIFA has blasted the ‘United TTFA’ lobby group and its lawyers who still believe they are running the Trinidad and Tobago FA despite having had their officials removed from office by a FIFA Normalisation Committee.
July 8 – Australia’s A-League has been plunged into chaos after several failed attempts to get Melbourne-based clubs out of the city amid tightening Covid-19 travel restrictions in the country.
July 8 – Football authorities in Armenia have suspended their entire second tier and handed out 45 lifetime bans after one of the biggest match-fixing episodes of recent years in Europe.
July 8 – The Belgian Pro League has confirmed a 16-team top flight format for next season with season-ending playoffs and a broadcast schedule that has incensed amateur clubs further down the pyramid.
July 8 – There have been over 50 inquiries about buying Wigan Athletic FC – including from the town’s rugby league side Wigan Warriors – after the English Championship club were plunged into administration when its Hong Kong owner pulled the plug on further funding, according to the joint administrators.
July 8 – After a long-running saga, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has cleared Barcelona of any wrongdoing when they signed Brazilian star Neymar from Santos back in 2013.
July 8 – FIFA has concluded its candidate host city workshop for the 2026 World Cup. In 2021, the world federation will name the host cities, slimming down the field of 17 contenders to 10 in the US.