By Paul Nicholson
August 13 – She has only been in the job two weeks but already Fatma Samoura, FIFA Secretary-General and General Delegate for Africa, has landed herself in a governance and conflict of interest crisis over the move to consolidate all African national federation World Cup broadcast rights under a FIFA sales arm.
August 14 – The Normalisation Committee running football in Ghana has set a new date for an Extra-Ordinary Congress, moving it from August 26 to September 5.
August 14 – Porto and Celtic were the shock losers on a dramatic night of Champions League qualifying action on Tuesday.
August 14 – The head coach of an MLS team has been sacked for using profane homophobic language.
August 14 – Don’t mess with FIFA and you might receive less of a punishment for breaking the rules.
August 14 – The on-going survival saga of English League One club Bury has seen the English Football League (EFL) suspend another of their fixtures – this weekend’s home league match against Gillingham.
August 14 – The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has banned referee Josephus Torjilar for two years for accepting a bribe.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
August 13 – In a highly unusual move, FIFA has asked the 54 member associations of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to sign a one-page media rights “mandate” that gives the world governing body “an irrevocable mandate to implement a central marketing plan to market and commercialise the media rights for the FIFA African Qualifiers 2022 & 2026.”
August 13 – Brazilian club matches truncated by the intervention of VAR have stirred a nationwide debate over the pros and cons of the new technology. To remedy the situation, Sao Paulo giants Palmeiras have demanded the clubs meet the CBF’s refereeing committee.
August 13 – Atlanta United coach Frank de Boer has weighed in on the equal pay debate, controversially claiming that “equal pay at international level now would be ridiculous”.
August 13 – Aberdeen have complained to UEFA over the treatment of their fans during last week’s Europa League qualifier against Rijeka in Croatia.
August 13 – Kate Markgraf has been appointed general manager of the US women’s team and will immediately lead the search for a new head coach following Jill Ellis’ announcement last month that she is stepping down following the country’s World Cup victory last month.
August 13 – Ambitious Championship club Leeds United have secured US e-commerce platform Wish as the club’s Official Presenting Partner for the 2019/20 season.
August 13 – Paris Saint-Germain have renewed their partnership with video game developer EA Sports that will see new club features and enhanced PSG graphics introduced for the FIFA 20 game launching next month.
August 13 – Partizan Belgrade have been slapped with a two-match stadium ban by UEFA who have clearly run out of patience with the racist element of the club’s fans. The Serbian club have been punished because of behaviour of supporters in the first leg of their third qualifying round Europa League win over Yeni Malatyaspor of Turkey.