By Samindra Kunti
October 20 – The hosts Gabon have been handed a favorable draw for the 2017 African Cup of Nations alongside Cameroon, Burkina Faso and the debutants Guinea-Bissau in Group A. Group B has been dubbed the group of death, comprising Algeria and Senegal, two of Africa’s strongest teams.
By Paul Nicholson
October 20 – Arsenal topped Manchester United in the weekly Twitter followers table for the second week running. The Gunners’ 52,900 new followers is a marked jump for the club, in comparison to the tail off in growth Man Utd are experiencing.
October 19 – Manchester City turned British media heads when they travelled to Barcelona for their Champions League match. Gone was the (often) scruffy suit and tie look of overgrown schoolboys on tour and in came a modern, casually smart denim look. Even assistant manager Brian Kidd managed to carry off the style change.
October 20 – History was been made in Djibouti this week with the first official football final being played outside the capital. The 35th edition of the Djiboutian Super Cup was hosted at the sports complex in the Ali Sabeih region.
October 20 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspurs ground redevelopment and associated regeneration of the local area is starting to win awards. The Cannon Road development has been named Affordable Housing development of the year by Inside Housing magazine.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – Yet another of those arrested in the US-led corruption probe into football corruption has agreed to plead guilty. Agency reports citing court papers say Aaron Davidson, who headed Traffic Sports USA, the Miami-based business of Brazilian sports marketing group Traffic, is due to enter his plea on Thursday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – Time and again he fought off his accusers and protested his innocence while other FIFA powerbrokers around him were plunged into shame. But the net has finally closed in on Thailand’s Worawi Makudi who has been banned by FIFA’s ethics committee for five years for election forgery.
October 19 – As footballing stories go, few are more uplifting. Two years ago, Gambian refugee Ousman Manneh fled his dictator-led country, leaving behind his entire family, to seek asylum in Germany.
October 19 – Arsenal and Chelsea have filled more than 99% of the capacity of their stadium for every Premier League home fixture this season (they have each played four), but for efficiency Stoke topped the weekly stadium capacity table with just 42 unfilled seats and a stadium capacity of 99.85%.
October 18 – UEFA’s ‘No to Racism’ campaign is again under way with the backing of star names, top clubs and – for the first time ever – the Women’s Champions League.
October 18 – The English Football Association has been accused of “institutional failure” by a group of parliamentarians for failing to conduct proper due diligence into Sam Allardyce, the England manager who lasted only 67 days and one game in charge following a newspaper sting that led to him stepping down but which he described as entrapment.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – The sensitivities of FIFA’s task in trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian impasse in the occupied territories have been underlined by reports that a Palestinian league team posed for a picture with a banner praising a terrorist who killed two Israelis last Sunday.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Greek football, for months in turmoil on and off the pitch, has been plunged into further disarray after FIFA announced it is temporarily taking over the running of the Hellenic Football federation.
October 18 – Adidas vs Nike or Man Utd vs Chelsea. The apparent ease with which Adidas let Nike takeover at Chelsea in a new £60 million per year, 15-year deal, suggests an even greater concentration by the sportswear sponsors on the mega club brands.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – North America seems virtually certain to host an expanded World Cup in 2026 after FIFA essentially barred Europe and Asia from bidding. FIFA’s new-look Council has agreed that the next two host confederations should not be allowed to bid again so soon, leading US Soccer federation president Sunil Gulati (pictured) to remark: “That has changed the landscape a little bit.”