By Samindra Kunti in Paris
May 23 – Paris Saint-Germain and a departing Zlatan Ibrahimovic won a 10th French Cup against Marseille at the Stade de France in a final that descended into ugly scenes after the final whistle as Marseilles fans stormed the pitch and set fires in the stands.
May 23 – Scottish football authorities have launched an urgent inquiry into Saturday’s mass pitch invasion that marred Hibernian’s first Scottish cup triumph for 114 years.
May 23 – UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Liverpool and Sevilla for “crowd disturbances” at last week’s Europa League final.
May 20 – With league seasons over in Europe and Cup finals being played, attention is rapidly switching to the big international tournaments of the 2016 Euros, Copa America Centenario and the Olympic Games in Rio. One tournament that kicked off in Euros host nation France this week was the 2016 Toulon Tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 20 – In a trouble-shooting exercise to offset the resignation of one of his most important anti-corruption watchdogs, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has sought to claim the moral high ground by denouncing what he described as “premature conclusions and speculation”.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 20 – The career of Wolfgang Niersbach (pictured), for so long the rising star of German football administration who was touted as a potential leader of UEFA, has suffered a potentially fatal blow with FIFA’s ethics committee recommending a two-year ban and a SFr30,000 fine be imposed on him following an investigation of Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid.
May 20 – The biggest shake-up in the English professional football pyramid since the Premier League was set up in 1992 has been proposed, with a new fifth division of 20 clubs from 2019-20.
By Samindra Kunti
May 20 – France has extended a nationwide state of emergency to cover EURO 2016 and the Tour de France this summer. German intelligence has warned that the tournament’s opening match and final are major terrorist targets.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Dutch football chief Michael van Praag says he is running for UEFA president to put the organisation back on an even keel before handing over to someone younger.
By Samindra Kunti
May 19 – The Dutch FA, the KNVB, has relegated FC Twente from the domestic top flight, the Eredivisie, as punishment for breaching financial regulations. Twente will, however, maintain their professional license.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – Having taken FIFA’s membership completely by surprise with the announcement of Fatma Samoura as his new general secretary, Gianni Infantino’s team building has continued with Norwegian football federation official Kjetil Siem being hired in the new role of director of strategic matters.
May 19 – UEFA are to set up a special task force to determine how to accommodate Kosovo in their various competitions. Kosovo were accepted as a full member of FIFA last Friday, a week after being admitted to UEFA despite fierce opposition from Serbia.
May 19 – China’s influence as an emerging new global commercial player in football has been further underlined with businessman Tony Xia agreeing to buy Aston Villa, the historic English club just relegated from the Premier League, for a reported £60 million.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 19 – UEFA have defended the choice of Basel’s St Jacob stadium for Wednesday’s Europa League final between Liverpool and Sevilla.
May 19 – The Premier League may have finished slightly later than planned with the forced shift of Manchester United’s final home game against Bournemouth to Tuesday night because of security concerns, but fans set a record attendance across the country for the Sunday 3pm kick offs.