By Paul Nicholson
September 14 – Just one month after the candidates have to confirm their nominations for the FIFA Presidential race, and three months before the election itself, the International Football Arena (IFA) Conference will take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, November 19.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 11 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia will have to declare themselves bankrupt if the club want to return to professional football. The statement was made by the chief executive director of the club Alexander Todorov (pictured).
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The Israel Football Association (IFA) announced on Wednesday that “all professional league and youth league games will take place as planned this weekend,” after Israel’s Attorney-General issued a ruling that the 1951 law mandating permission from the Ministry of Economy in order to work on the Sabbath need not be applied.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 10 – Gigi Becali, the controversial owner of Romanian football club Steaua Bucharest, is reportedly planning to leave the troubled side and purchase a new club competing in the country’s top tier Liga 1.
By Mark Baber
September 10 – The failure of Barcelona to comprehend that they are in any way at fault for flouting the FIFA regulations designed to stop the exploitation and trafficking of children in football is once again apparent, even as the club, faced with the real possibility of a new transfer ban, decide to treat the issue as of “extremely high priority,” according to reports in the Spanish press.
By Alexander Krassimirov
September 10 – The leader of the Bulgarian political party ‘Movement 21’ Tatyana Doncheva announced on TV that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Delyan Peevski, member of the parliamentary group of the liberal ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), are the real owners of top league club Levski through front men. According to her, Levski is most obvious example of political dependence in Bulgarian football.
September 9 – The head of the European Club Association (ECA) has urged football’s world players’ union FIFPro not to carry out its threat to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in its bid to rip up the existing transfer system.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 9 – Outspoken Spanish league chief Javier Tebas, not content with taking on the authorities over Third Party Ownership, has now ignited the controversy over FIFA’s decision to switch the 2022 World Cup to winter.
September 9 – The European Club Association, which represents the bulk of Europe’s clubs, says it would support Michel Platini if it were able to vote in next February’s FIFA presidential election.
September 9 – Wayne Rooney entered the record books of world football by becoming England’s all-time leading goalscorer on Tuesday when he hit his 50th goal for his country in the 2-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over Switzerland at Wembley.
September 8 – All clubs in the Champions League and Europa League are to make a donation to support the thousands of migrants fleeing war-torn countries for Europe. The European Club Association announced today that 80 clubs have agreed to give €1 for every ticket sold during their first home games in the group stages of the two competitions.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Spanish league boss Javier Tebas has once again defended the use of Third Party Ownership, this time blasting FIFA and UEFA for dictating to clubs how they should behave and lambasting the English Premier League for buying up all the best players.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex in Manchester
September 8 – Video technology, arguably the biggest ever law change to football, must be given the green light sooner rather than later to pull the game into the modern age, according to Dutch pioneers of the idea.
September 6 – Real Madrid, the world’s richest club, has become the latest side to join the drive to aid Europe-bound refugees after announcing it will donate €1 million to help those arriving in Spain.
By Tom Parsons
September 3 – Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are to set up a camp for refugees coming into Germany and will donate €1 million towards refugee projects in the country.