By Paul Nicholson
October 2 – Amsterdam ArenA, the home of Dutch giants Ajax and which will host four matches at the 2020 European Championships, has unveiled a major €50 million renovation project that will radically alter the look of the stadium and upgrade spectator facilities.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – England’s Football Association says it will continue to back Michel Platini’s bid to become FIFA president despite the Frenchman being drawn into the FIFA corruption scandal with last week’s revelation that he received SFr 2million for carrying out work on behalf of Sepp Blatter at the time he was his special adviser.
September 30 – Barcelona’s Argentine international Javier Mascherano has been charged with two counts of tax evasion in the latest fraud case to hit Spanish-based players.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – English FA officials meeting today are expected to discuss whether to stick by their decision to support embattled UEFA boss Michel Platini in next February’s FIFA presidential election.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 29 – The financial woes of Romanian top tier club Astra Giurgiu are set to continue as an application for an early release filed by its jailed owner, Romanian businessman Ioan Niculae (pictured), was recently rejected by a local court. Niculae is currently serving a sentence of 914 days, and, under Romanian law, to be granted an early release, he must serve at least 304 days.
September 29 – The Volkswagen emissions scandal will not affect the status of Wolfsburg, the Bundesliga club owned by the embattled car manufacturer, according to sporting director Klaus Allofs.
By Paul Nicholson
September 28 – The struggle that Barcelona’s star players have with paying their taxes has continued with Neymar being the latest to fall foul of the authorities with a Brazilian judge freezing 188.8m reais ($47.6 million) of his assets in a tax evasion case.
By Mark Baber
September 25 – The extent of the fall-out for football from the Volkswagen emissions scandal has been the subject of speculation with analysis focusing on the extent of VW’s involvement in football, the depth of the crisis facing the company, the identities of the company’s top management and the role of football sponsorship in VW’s marketing mix.
By Samindra Kunti
September 25 – Deep into the second half of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup qualifier away to Malaysia in September, the Ultras Malaya, a group of hot-headed home supporters, threw flares and fireworks on to the pitch of the Shah Alam Stadium in Selangor, a province on Malaysia’s east coast. Smoke rapidly began to fill the ground and left referee Liu Kwak Man from Hong Kong with little choice but to abandon the game.
September 24 – Social media sites are still buzzing with the sheer incredulity of it all. Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski was already regarded as one of Europe’s most dangerous strikers but even he could not have anticipated what would happen when he stepped off the bench at half-time against Wolfsburg on Tuesday.
By Mark Baber
September 23 – Barcelona, have asked the Spanish football federation and FIFA to allow them to play their summer acquisition Arda Turan, a player who was signed during their transfer ban, on the understanding he would not play until January, as soon as possible.
By Paul Nicholson
September 23 – A breakdown of where the money went from the last transfer window finds that the overwhelming bulk of it – 70% – stayed within the Big 5 European leagues of England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. And keeping it in the family proved particularly good for AS Monaco who took in €202 million in transfer fees and topped the list of clubs who profited from the summer trading window with a €121 million positive balance.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 22 – Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has launched an investigation to determine whether Gheorghe Ciuhandu, the former mayor of Timisoara, and two other local officials illegally funded local football club Politehnica Timisoara, which was privately-owned, between 2008 and 2011.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 21 – UEFA has been quick to play down reports in Germany and England that it has unearthed a potentially serious doping issue in its competitions.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – Citing what it described as the “shocking imbalance” between the respective rights of clubs and players, the international players’ union FIFpro has lodged an official legal complaint with the European Commission in a move that could overhaul the entire transfer system.