By Paul Nicholson
March 18 – The Russian ban on selling alcohol in stadiums looks to have been lifted, with drinks companies saying they have bought licenses to sell beer in stadiums from 2018, in time for the FIFA World Cup 2018.
March 18 – A top-flight Greek footballer has been handed a life ban from the national team for making a Nazi salute to fans. AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis (pictured), former captain of Greece’s under-19 team, conceded the “stupidity” of his actions after making the gesture in celebrating his winning goal in a 2-1 win over lowly Veria on Saturday.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 15 – Third party ownership, the process by which professional footballers’ ‘rights’ and careers are controlled by outside parties, is one of the most serious issues facing the European game, according to UEFA, and could be banned from all its competitions.
March 15 – UEFA seem likely to investigate yet another instance of racism following complaints by Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas that the club’s Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor suffered abuse during last night’s Europa League game at Inter Milan.
By Mark Baber
March 14 – AS Roma have signed a 10-year kit supply deal with Nike as part of its plans to return it to the top tiers of European and world fotball.
By Mark Baber
March 12 – The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into the financial affairs of Valencia, Hércules and Elche after their recent bail-outs from local government.
By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 11 – Financial figures released by the Premier League’s bottom club, Queens Park Rangers, in their bid to remain in the top flight of English football will have raised eyebrows throughout Europe, not least at UEFA’s Swiss headquarters.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 11 – The biggest fan ownership scheme in English football has moved a vital step closer after the group hoping to buy stricken Portsmouth exchanged contracts to buy the club out of administration.
By Mark Baber
March 8 – UNICEF have written to FC Barcelona following a report by insideworldfootball that Barcelona may have breached FIFA regulations on the transfer of young players from abroad.
March 8 – Bloomberg Sports has launched an update to its match prediction software that will update its projections in-play and every minute across five major European football leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Football’s use of the London 2012 Olympic stadium has been plunged into uncertainty once again – just when it seemed on the verge of being resolved.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – After more than a century without a commercial sponsor, Barcelona will break new ground next season by sporting the logo of Qatar Airways on its shirts – the starkest illustration yet of the club needing to embrace commercial reality as Qatar continues its drive to make inroads into European football.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 5 – The idea of the two Glasgow giants abandoning Scottish football and being integrated into the English league has once again been raised – this time by Rangers chief executive Charles Green.
March 4 – Former French club giant Auxerre, currently in Ligue 2, is under scrutiny by French football’s financial watchdog and has until the end of the season to recapitalise or face possible relegation.
March 1 – In a world first, a club TV channel has bought the broadcast rights to an international football league. Benfica TV has been awarded exclusive audio visual broadcast rights for all Barclays Premier League matches per season for from 2013/14 – 2015/16 in Portugal.