By Samindra Kunti
October 8 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched another stinging attack on his successor Gianni Infantino, accusing the latter of “selling out the people’s game,” alluding to Infantino’s expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and his mysterious $25 billion investment plan.
October 8 – Premier League clubs make up six of the top 20 most commercially valuable sports rights-holders worldwide, but are behind Real Madrid and Barcelona globally, according to the newly launched POWA Index, a real-time sponsorship evaluation engine.
October 8 – Saudi Arabia has aggressively been building a portfolio and presence in football, but in Egypt the kingdom’s efforts to exert influence have backfired as the meddling of Saudi sports minister Turki Al-Sheikh hasn’t been received well by local administrators and fans.
October 8 – Facebook has expanded its live football output picking up rights to South America’s Copa Libertadores matches in a four-year package from 2019-2022 for its Watch platform.
By Paul Nicholson
October 8 – FIFA has carried out its threat and suspended the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) with immediate effect. FIFA, which has long been battling for the preservation of the incumbent administration in Sierra Leone led by president Isha Johansen, took its action despite on-going criminal investigations into the leadership.
By Paul Nicholson
October 5 – The English Premier League are entering the esports business with the launch of ePremier League with league partner Electronic Arts. The ePL will be played on the FIFA19 game and operated by esports tournament organisers Gfinity.
By David Owen
October 5 – AFC Bournemouth, the Russian-controlled south coast minnows who have become an established and increasingly accomplished Premier League force under Eddie Howe, their bright young manager, have put plans for a new stadium on hold.
October 5 – The opposition to La Liga president Javier Tebas’ plan to play a regular season fixture in the US has not stopped the mercurial Spanish leader insisting that the idea iss still alive and is their “right”.
October 5 – The Brazilian top flight will be interrupted during next year’s Copa America, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) revealed in announcing the calendar for the 2019 season.
October 5 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has moved to integrate the Video Assistant Referees, VAR, into its major club competitions. On Thursday, CAF announced that the VAR will feature in the finals of this season’s African Champions League and Confederation Cup.
October 5 – Glasgow will welcome a galaxy of football legends and three days of world-class six-a-side Football as the Star Sixes come to town in January.
October 4 – A Croatian court on Wednesday cleared against Croatia international and FIFA’s world player if the year Luka Modric of giving false testimony in a criminal trial.
October 4 – Premier League Liverpool have added insurer AXA as the club’s first Global Insurance Partner in what it describes as a multi-year deal. No value was given for the sponsorship.
October 4 – A KPMG Football Benchmark study into the possibility of re-introducing standing-only for areas in stadia in the top divisions of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain concludes that with the new safety measures available, the commercial and fan engagement opportunity for clubs merits a hard re-visitation of regulations in countries that still have a standing ban.
October 5 – FIFA’s competitions committee has proposed an increase in prize money for the upcoming Women’s World Cup in France next year. The amount of the increase has not been disclosed but the proposal has now been sent to the finance committee for review before it presented to the FIFA Council for approval.