Belgian tax collectors swoop on FA and Pro League clubs
By Samindra Kunti
March 27 – Tax authorities in Belgium are stepping up their investigations into domestic football following unannounced inspections at the Belgian FA and the Pro League.
By Samindra Kunti
March 27 – Tax authorities in Belgium are stepping up their investigations into domestic football following unannounced inspections at the Belgian FA and the Pro League.
March 27 – CSKA Sofia, champions of Bulgaria 31 times, have issued a desperate plea to their supporters to cough up emergency funding to avoid being expelled from the country’s top division over mounting debts.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 26 – Players at Bulgaria’s Lokomotiv Plovdiv boycotted training for a second day in protest against wages. The club recently changed ownership from businessman Konstantin Dinev to supporters’ association Future for Lokomotiv.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 25 – The vote is over but the resentment lingers – and we are not talking about the FIFA presidency. David Gill may have been clear favourite to become Britain’s new FIFA vice-president on Tuesday but his trouncing of Welsh FA president Trefor Lloyd-Hughes left a sour taste in some mouths – particularly Welsh mouths.
By Mark Baber
March 25 – The infamous ability of well-to-do Italian criminals to string out court cases until the statute of limitations kicks in was again revealed this week as the top Juventus officials involved in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal escaped prison.
By David Owen
March 25 – One of Scotland’s best-known brands is becoming a sponsor of England’s Football League. Irn-Bru, the distinctive orange-coloured fizzy drink whose publicity materials once claimed it was “made in Scotland from girders”, will be the official soft drink partner of the body overseeing the second, third and fourth tiers of English football, in a three-year deal beginning during this year’s season-ending play-offs.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 25 – UEFA president Michel Platini is steadfastly maintaining his stance that he is not specifically backing any one of the three candidates standing against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 25 – Julian Indzhov (pictured), who was in the final stages of negotiation to buy Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia, has this morning withdrawn from the acquisition process.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 24 – Bundesliga chief Christian Seifert has unveiled plans for the German top tier to introduce Monday matchdays. Seifert made his comments during a recent trip to Poland’s capital Warsaw, where he met with the management of the Bundesliga’s Polish counterpart, the Ekstraklasa.
By Alexander Krassimirov
March 25 – Bulgaria’s most famous football club, CSKA Sofia, is set for a new ownership! Current majority shareholder Alexander Tomov has announced that negotiations for the transfer of a majority shareholding to the construction entrepreneur Julian Indzhov (pictured left with Tomov) are in full flow.
By Paul Nicholson
March 25 – Scottish giants Rangers have begun the process of extricating themselves financially from the influence of investor Mike Ashley with the agreement of a £1.5 million loan agreement with Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor – known locally as the Three Bears.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 24 – As the sole candidate, Michel Platini was re-elected UEFA president by acclamation today and took the opportunity to defend his organisation against claims they have become enemies of FIFA and are too powerful.
March 24 – The Spanish public prosecutor is demanding prison sentences for Barcelona’s current and previous president, Josep Bartomeu and his predecessor Sandro Rosell, and a hefty fine for the club over the alleged tax evasion case involving the now-infamous Neymar transfer.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 24 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s eagerly awaited appearance at the UEFA Congress today was greeted with polite but hardly prolonged applause by the one confederation that opposes his re-election in May.
By Andrew Warshaw in Vienna
March 24 – UEFA president Michel Platini used his keynote address to his confederation’s congress today to highlight the ills afflicting European football, with the “insidious” scourge of nationalism-fuelled fan violence at the top of the list.