By Paul Nicholson
May 15 – The battle for premium broadcast football rights continues in the UK with ITV picking up the rights to England Euro 2016 and 2018 World Cup qualifying competitions.
By Monica Villar
May 14 – Calls for an overhaul of the Spanish refereeing system are becoming louder. Spanish referees have come under fire as the season comes to a close and poor decisions potentially mean life or death in the race to survive in la Liga’s top division.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has once again reacted to the latest incident of racial abuse by fans, denouncing the Italian authorities for being too weak and saying lessons have still not been learned.
May 14 – FIFA has extended worldwide a raft of bans imposed on eight players by the Estonian FA and one player by the Lebanese FA following matchfixing and fraud inquiries.
By Mark Baber
May 14 – A Rio court has stayed the execution of an injunction preventing the controversial handover of the Maracana stadium to a private consortium.
By Mark Baber
May 14 – News International is to use Premier League football clips to drive subscriptions to its Sun+ service, the digital offering of the UK’s highest circulation tabloid newspaper. The subscription will cost £2 a week in the UK.
May 14 – Three-quarters of European football fans interviewed in a new survey want the option to stand while watching games.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – With goalline technology on the horizon, FIFA has selected the 10 referees for the forthcoming Confederations Cup in Brazil – with all of them in pole position to be sent to the World Cup next year unless they mess up.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Even before the Premier League season has ended, the sack race has begun – with Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini the most high-profile victim.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 14 – Italian authorities have wasted no time punishing Roma for the racist chanting of their fans by slapping them with a €50,000 fine – but nothing stronger.
By Paul Nicholson
May 14 – After a two-year wait, the Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) has finally ruled in favour of Sky Italia that there is no evidence the broadcaster abused its dominant position in its acquisition of Champions League TV rights (2012-15) and FIFA World Cup rights for 2010 and 2014.
By Mark Baber
May 13 – FTBpro has raised $5.8 million from Israeli investors, Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures to expand its “fan-generated” content offering into new markets.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 13 – Leaders of Russia’s 2018 World Cup Organising Committee have given a ringing endorsement of progress but have stayed clear of controversial subjects like racism and hooliganism.
By Mark Baber
May 13 – The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has re-set the date for elections to September 29 and will allow all candidates to stand following intervention by FIFA.
By Monica Villar
May 13 – UEFA President Michel Platini has suggested that the time has come to record conversations between referees during Champions League matches. He spoke during a visit to Lille in preparation for the 2016 European championship.