By Mark Baber
January 23 – Billionaire fan of Hambrg SV, Klaus-Michael Kühne, has become an official investor in the Bundesliga club, converting his latest loan of €18.75 million ($21.8million) into a 7.5% stake and buying the naming rights for the club’s stadium which will revert to its old name of the ‘Volksparkstadion’ (People’s Park Stadium) in July 2015.
By Paul Nicholson
January 23 – The pressure on Scottish club Rangers’ board to call an extraordinary general meeting is mounting, despite the board’s resistance to convene shareholders for a vote that would determine whether they maintained their positions or not.
By Mark Baber
January 23 – The Deloitte Money League for 2013/14 shows the richest clubs are getting richer – with the top 20 clubs seeing an increase in combined revenue of €6.2 billion in 2013/14, an increase of 14% on the previous year, but also indicates the advantages of a more equal distribution of wealth within a league. All 20 Premier League teams made the top 40 globally.
January 23 – Scottish giants Rangers have organised a tribute match for their former Dutch international Fernando Ricksen at Ibrox this Sunday. Ricksen was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2013. He played for the club for six years between 2000 and 2006 – a golden time for the club that is currently embroiled in the bitterest of boardroom struggles for control.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brussels
January 21 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the Chilean who ran FIFA’s technical inspection team that examined the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup candidates, says he will press for the finals to be increased from 32 to 36 teams as part of his presidential election manifesto – if he decides to run.
January 21 – The Dutch football association (KNVB) is opening an investigation and calling for a criminal probe into detailed allegations published of alleged fixing of two matches in the top-tier Eredivisie.
January 21 – Bayern Munich have returned from a training camp in the Middle East to face a barrage of criticism over a friendly played in Saudi Arabia, with politicians and fans claiming the club had ignored the issue of human rights in the country.
By Paul Nicholson
January 21 – The pressure on the Russian Football Union (RFU) to pay its Italian head coach and team manager, Fabio Capello and Oreste Cinquini, has been mounting with criticism of the RFU coming from inside Russia from sports minister Vitaly Mutko and outside from UEFA president Michel Platini.
By Mark Baber
January 20 – Communist multi-billionaire Wang Jianlin is set to take a 20% stake in La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid, with the agreement being signed on tomorrow, according to media reports.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein will be conspicuous by his absence when a new pressure group campaigning for greater reform convene at the European Parliament for the first time tomorrow.
January 20 – The future of Leeds United, a former giant of English football and one of the country’s most iconic clubs, has suffered yet another blow after Italian owner Massimo Cellino lost his appeal against the Football League’s decision to disqualify him.
By Paul Nicholson
January 19 – The battle for control of Scotland’s Rangers Football Club continued over the weekend with angry fans protesting at Saturday’s match against league leaders Hearts (abandoned after 20 minuted due to heavy snow), and this morning the board announcing to the stock exchange that it is seeking the withdrawal of a notice for a general meeting that would seek to oust four directors.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
January 17 – The municipal authorities of Kielce have decided to bail out troubled football club Korona Kielce with an allocation of PLN7.8 million (€1.9 million) from the city’s budget for 2015. The funds will allow the club to continue competing in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Poland’s professional football league, in the current season.
January 16 – FC Schalke 04 have agreed a partnership with South Korean tyre manufacturer Kumho Tyres until the end of the season 2016/2017 including an option for further cooperation.
January 16 – Italy’s Serie B and the Estonian Football Association (EJL) have moved to improve their betting fraud protection, signing up Sportradar to deliver packages of education and match monitoring.