March 20 – UEFA has slapped a mandatory one-match ban on PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic following his sending off in the Champions league victory over Chelsea. But his team mate Serge Aurier was less fortunate, receiving a three-match suspension for his abusive tweets.
March 19 – French Ligue 2 side Nimes will be relegated at the end of the season after the club’s former president Jean-Marc Conrad was found guilty of attempted match fixing, the French League (LFP) announced.
March 19 – Russia’s cabinet passed a 10% cut in the federal budget but was quick to emphasise that the cuts would not effect the build programme of the 2018 World Cup Stadia.
By Matt Scott
March 18 – Greek football is at risk of being broken up unless widespread hooliganism and corruption is tackled by the state authorities, the Panathanaikos president has warned.
By Paul Nicholson
March 18 – New data from the CIES Football Observatory shows that the average cost of a squad has risen by 24.5% between 2009/10 and the current season. The CIES research looks at transfer spend in the Big-5 leagues of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 17 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia have begun a national roadshow to sell the ‘Levski is yours’ fundraising campaign. Jointly organised by the supporters trust Blue Bulgaria and the National supporters club of Levski, the tour will include 18 two-day events around the country as the club bids to broaden its ownership base.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – A week before he is due to be re-elected unopposed as UEFA president, Michel Platini has sought to play down any suggestion that power is beginning to go to his head after two terms of office.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 16 – Serie A has extended its long-running sponsorship with Telecom Italia. The Italian top tier will partner with the company, through its mobile phone brand TIM, until 2018.
March 16 – Barcelona may be holding on to their lead in La Liga but off the field the club have become ever more deeply embroiled in the Neymar tax fraud case.
March 16 – Italian crisis club Parma, thumped again 4-1 at the weekend, have had two more points deducted by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for failing to pay their players’ salaries.
March 13 – UEFA have re-ignited their attack on football’s lawmakers for making what they say is entirely the wrong call over how to solve the triple punishment rule.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 13 – Desperate players at Belarus’ FC Dinamo Brest have taken the unusual step of writing to state authorities pleading for them to pay their unpaid wages. Belarus’ top clubs are struggling to stay afloat financially and for the Dinamo Brest player, the crisis has reached breaking point.
March 13 – Theo Zwanziger’s imminent departure from the high echelons of FIFA is getting messier still. The former head of German football, who is stepping down from FIFA’s executive committee in May, has been using every opportunity to denounce the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar as well as having a go at Wolfgang Niersbach, his successor at the German FA and soon at FIFA too.
March 13 – The Belgian Pro League, the country’s second tier, has approved a structural reform of its domestic club football. In the future there must be a strict division between professional and amateur football, according to the Pro League, with the number of professional teams being cut.
By Mark Baber
March 12 – FC Barcelona is making a push in the Chinese market via a new strategic partnership with IMG. The club will be represented in China in the areas of marketing and branding strategy, sponsorships, friendly matches and travel.