Scotland have followed Wales in voicing their opposition to a combined British football team for the 2016 Rio Olympics as the dispute between the individual British associations intensifies.
By David Owen
March 5 – A new YouGov poll suggests that football fans have a better reputation than is sometimes suggested – in London at least. The poll indicated that Londoners had a broadly positive impression of fans of all but three of the UK capital’s top teams – West Ham, Chelsea and Millwall.
By Paul Nicholson
March 5 – The bitter battle for control of Scottish giant Rangers took another twist today as shares in the company were suspended on the AIM stock exchange when Rangers’ nominated advisor WH Ireland resigned the account.
March 4 – England’s demand for a combined British team at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio has prompted a furious reaction from the head of Welsh football who says his country has been taken completely for granted.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 4 – Red Star Belgrade is being threatened with automatic relegation to the Serbian second tier as a result to its continuing financial woes. Sources close to the club’s management say that such a decision could be taken by the country’s football federation which is monitoring the situation at the club.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 3 – The BBC and Sky have officially invited all four candidates for the FIFA presidential election, including Sepp Blatter, to take part in a political-style live TV debate.
By Denis de Haas, Sport1
March 3 – As the Bundesliga currently stands both VfB Stuttgart and SC Freiburg need to stay focused on the relegation battle. But now the clubs are haunted by their past.
By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – Buying the wrong player at the wrong price is the biggest mistake a club can make financially. CIES statistics show that the clubs who traded best in the transfer window for the start of the season (in terms of number of best performing players) are Real Madrid and Hoffenheim, followed by Barcelona, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Southampton, Leverkusen and Napoli.
By David Owen
March 2 – The Football Association is keen for Great Britain teams once again to participate in the Olympic football tournament at next year’s Games in the football-besotted city of Rio de Janeiro. This follows the appearance of both men’s and women’s teams at London 2012, when it was felt desirable that the host nation should be represented if possible in every sport. Prior to that, no British team had played at any Olympics for more than half a century.
By Samindra Kunti
March 2 – Royal Antwerp F.C. has taken another step in the process of obtaining a license for the Belgian second division after entrepreneur Patrick Decuyper settled €600,000 of debts.
March 2 – The crisis at cash-strapped Parma has intensified after the Serie A club had a second match called off at the weekend, this time after the players threatened to go on strike over unpaid wages.
By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Dutch fans of Feyenoord are desperately taking to social media to insist that the inflatable plastic banana thrown on to the pitch during the Europa League match against Roma was not a racist act. Just an unfortunate choice of fruit? Equally unfortunate that it appeared to be aimed at Roma’s Gervinho?
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 27 – Fox Sports is continuing its TV rights acquisition march across Europe into Poland where it is considered as one of the leading contenders to acquire the TV rights for Poland’s top tier Ekstraklasa. If Fox were win the domestic rights the broadcaster would replace Polish direct-to-home platform nc+ for the 2015/2016 season.
February 27 – This weekend’s Serie A games will kick off 15 minutes late as the players show solidarity with financially-stricken Parma. Twice former winners of the old UEFA Cup but currently bottom of the league, Parma took the dramatic step of calling off last Sunday’s league game against Udinese. Players and staff have not been paid all season and stewarding costs were unable to be met to stage the fixture.
February 27 – A pipe bomb exploded outside the home of a Cypriot referee early today, the latest in a string of threats and attacks against officials and their families.