By Samindra Kunti
September 16 – Controversial Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis tends to dream big. His latest big idea a shake-up of the European game via an alternative ‘Super League’ with entry based on merit and which he believes could generate a €10 billion investment.
By Samindra Kunti
September 14 – Chelsea open their defence of the Champions League tonight at home to Zenit St Petersburg, kicking off the European club season in earnest. The question in Europe is whether Chelsea and their English counterparts will also be kickstarting an age of Premier League dominance in the European Cup?
September 14 – European champions Barcelona were grouped with Arsenal, Hoffenheim and HB Køge from Denmark in the draw for the remodelled 16-team Women’s Champions League.
September 13 – German 2014 World Cup winner Jerome Boateng has been fined for assaulting a former girlfriend, while Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy will go on trial on for rape and sexual assault on January 24 next year.
By Samindra Kunti
September 9 – Javier Tebas once more is at the centre of the storm. This time Paris Saint-Germain and French Professional League (LFP) have attacked the boss of Spanish football after he branded the state-funded club “as dangerous as the European Super League”.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – Ajax chief executive Edwin van der Sar has warned that players will “take matters into their own hands” in the fight against racism if governing bodies don’t do enough to stamp it out.
September 8 – In a landmark move that could serve as a significant precedent elsewhere in Europe, two of this weekend’s top Spanish league games have been postponed because of players on prolonged international duty with their South American teams.
September 8 – Sweden have cancelled their annual training trip to Qatar next year after “unanimous” opposition from the Swedish top tier clubs.
September 8 – Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy (pictured) has been voted on to the executive board of the European Club Association, just five months after his club were one of 12 founder members of the aborted breakaway European Super League.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – The war of words between FIFA and UEFA over the idea of staging the World Cup every two years shows no sign of slowing down with UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin once again denouncing the concept, this time saying it would “dilute” what makes the tournament so unique.
September 7 – The head of the European Clubs Association (ECA), Nasser Al-Khelaifi, has called out the three rebel clubs still hopeful of setting up a breakaway Super League and has described those who originally backed the project as “fabulists and failures”.
September 7 – UEFA has lifted its ban on away fans attending European club matches when the group stage of the Champions League, Europa League and inaugural Conference League get under way next week.
September 7 – French international defender Jean-Pierre Adams has died, aged 73, after he had been in a deep coma since 1982 following a catastrophic error in anesthesia while undergoing knee surgery.
September 2 – The Netherlands stumbled to a disappointing 1-1 draw against Norway in World Cup qualifying on Louis van Gaal’s return to the Dutch dug-out, prompting the veteran coach to call his own team “sloppy” with pressure growing on Oranje.
September 1 – Clubs participating in the group stages of UEFA’s three club competitions may be forced to play their home matches at the away team’s venue if Covid restrictions prevent opponents from travelling.