By Mark Baber
April 7 – Nissan confirmed it has agreed a four-year global partnership with the UEFA Champions League including the UEFA Super Cup. The agreement represents the Japanese manufacturer’s largest ever sponsorship deal and will establish Nissan as an official partner worldwide from 2014/15 to and including the 2017/18 seasons.
By Mark Baber
April 4 – A bill passing its way through the British Parliamentary system will increase transparency in football club ownership and remove the protection so-called ‘football creditors’ have when clubs fall into financial difficulty.
By Tom Parsons
April 4 – Following Liverpool’s move last year to introduce Wi-Fi to its 12,000 seater Centenary Stand, Manchester City has become the first Premier League Club to install free Wi-Fi throughout their whole stadium.
April 4 – The spot-fixing scandal that rocked English football at the back end of last year has escalated with the revelation that seven more professional players, all from the north of the country, have been arrested taking the number suspected to 13.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu (pictured) says the transfer ban imposed by FIFA for signing under-age players is “unjust” and is standing firmly behind the Catalan giant’s system of nurturing some of the world’s biggest stars.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 4 – Players at Bulgaria’s Lokomotiv Plovdiv refused to train yesterday in a protest against unpaid wages. Meanwhile the club’s honorary president Hristo Bonev said publically that the future of the club was in doubt.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
April 3 – Wisla Krakow has inked a cooperation deal with German company UFA Sports in a bid boost its marketing efforts and stabilise its financial situation.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 3 – Barcelona have confirmed they will appeal against the 14-month transfer ban, covering two transfer windows, slapped on them by FIFA for signing up under-age players. And if it fails, they will take their case even further.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 3 – Zenit St. Petersburg and the clubs former players have strongly denied allegations of match fixing made by Erik Hagen. The Norwegian defender, who played for Zenit between 2005 and 2008, claimed that players bribed an official in a UEFA Cup group stage tie against Vitória de Guimarães on 20 October 2005 in St. Petersburg.
By Paul Nicholson
April 2 – FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee has handed FC Barcelona a two term transfer ban, fined the club CHF450,000 ($509,000) and given it 90 days to “regularise the situation of all minor (under 18) players”. The Spanish federation (RFEF) has also been fined CHF450,000 for breaking transfer and first registration rules for a number of ‘minor’ players.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 2 – Former Zenit St. Petersburg defender Erik Hagen has admitted he bribed a referee during his playing career in Russia. The former Norwegian international said he and his teammates each paid an official $3,000 who took charge of a European club match.
April 2 – English football fans have taken to social media to slam the cost of the national team’s new World Cup replica shirt.
April 2 – More than one in four professional footballers suffer depression and anxiety according to a new mental health study released today by the world footballers’ association FIFPro. That figure rises to a massive 39% amongst retired footballers.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – Dutch football authorities are launching an investigation into Chelsea’s links with one of their top-flight clubs, Vitesse Arnhem, following sensational – some might say fanciful – allegations in the Dutch press. Chelsea have been using Vitesse as a training club for their emerging players in recent seasons, with four of their younger players currently on loan there.
By Richard van Poortvliet
April 2 – Former Russia head coach, Valery Gazzaev (pictured) has hit out at the lack of Russian football fans passing through the turnstiles to watch domestic Premier League games.