By Samindra Kunti
December 5 – France’s Paris Saint-Germain will open a football academy in Indonesia in co-operation with local club Bali United. Bali will run the academy and tire maker Multistrada Arah Sarana will be the main sponsor.
December 2 – The president of the German Football Federation (DFB), Reinhardt Grindel (pictured), says it is time to do away with the Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup warm-up tournament, to ease fixture congestion and allow elite players to have a decent rest the summer before the World Cup itself.
December 2 – The UEFA executive committee holds its final meeting of the year next Friday and is scheduled to address European football’s most burning issue: the proposed new Champions league format.
By Samindra Kunti
December 2 – Dutch club Feyenoord has unveiled ambitious plans for a new stadium, part of a larger Feyenoord City campus in the south of Rotterdam. The future venue has a projected price tag of €400 million.
December 2 – The 55-player shortlist for the FIFA/FIFpro world eleven for 2016, to be announced in early January at a gala ceremony in Zurich, is as expected dominated by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich players with England captain Wayne Rooney left off the list for the first time in the award’s history.
December 2 – British football’s child abuse scandal has taken another unsavoury twist with reports that a former Chelsea player was paid £50,000 by the Premier League club not to go public with allegations that he was sexually abused by the club’s former chief scout Eddie Heath.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 2 – Six months after making his final appeal against being punished for ethics violations, Sepp Blatter will learn on Monday whether he has successfully cleared his name or will for ever be tarnished by his ban from the game.
December 2 – New Instagram followers to Premier League clubs increased again this week, though only marginally to 282,000 from 276,000. There are now more than 42.8 million Instagram followers to Premier League clubs.
December 2 – Manchester City have added Chinese-based mobile phone brand, TECNO Mobile, as a new global partner. Described as a multi-year deal, no amount for the sponsorship was announced.
December 1 – British football’s historical child sex abuse scandal has taken a “staggering” turn for the worse, with 15 police different regional police forces now pulled in as part of nationwide inquiries after several former players made allegations of abuse against one-time coaches.
December 1 – The chartered plane that tragically crashed in Colombia wiping out virtually an entire Brazilian football team was running out of fuel, according to the pilot’s final words.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 1 – The Swiss criminal investigation into corruption allegations over the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany has been broadened to include former FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi (pictured) who served under Sepp Blatter.
By Samindra Kunti
November 30 – Belgium’s proposed Brussels-based stadium for EURO2020 has landed in the middle of another storm of controversy after the city of Brussels gave the projected building site of the stadium in leasehold to building consortium Ghelamco for a symbolic euro.
December 1 – USL team Arizona United SC are renaming themselves Phoenix Rising FC and preparing to play the 2017 season in a brand new stadium, part of a 15.8 acre soccer complex being developed in the Valley of the Sun.
December 1 – Spain’s LaLiga has added another new global sponsor. Although no amount was announced for the deal, La Liga said it now expected to earn €70 million from sponsorship this year, more than double its annual sales of previous years.