By Paul Nicholson
November 26 – The UK broadcast market continues to be fertile TV sales ground for the UEFA with TEAM marketing having concluded the final parts of licensing broadcast rights for the Champions League and Europa League in the UK for the 2016-18 cycle.
By Paul Nicholson
November 25 – A new insurance product launched today is providing Europe’s top clubs with the opportunity to insure their players against illness or injury that could affect the club’s performance on the field and hence its financial performance off it. A club could protect up to £100 million of revenue with the cover.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – Football re-unification between Greek and Turkish Cypriots has moved a further step closer with the official Cyprus Football Association (CFA) approving the historic arrangement signed by the two sides at FIFA headquarters earlier this month.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 25 – The city of Wroclaw has acquired full control over local football club Slask Wroclaw. Slask currently plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of Poland’s professional football league and are currently the league champions.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – One of Russian football’s leading officials has opposed the re-establishment of an old-style Soviet league featuring teams from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states. The idea of a breakaway plan for a multi-national league of up to 16 teams was first floated a year ago but Nikolai Tolstykh (pictured), head of the Russian Football Union, says the money would be better spent domestically, not least on youth football instead.
By Alexander Krassimirov
November 25 – A 25 -year-old Bulgarian millionaire, Daniel Dimov, is in talks to buy third division French club FC Rouen. Dimov would take ownership of a club that has twice been champion of France – in 1940 and 1945.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 22 – Croatia, who this week qualified for the World Cup finals at the expense of Iceland, face a possible backlash over defender Josip Simunic’s controversial celebrations. FIFA have begun disciplinary proceedings into events that followed the playoff second leg after Simunic was fined 25,000 kuna ($4,400) by Croatian public prosecutors for apparent pro-Nazi chants.
November 22 – Six clubs are to be investigated for possible breaches of UEFA’s financial fair play regulations as European football’s governing body implements its drive to clamp down on over-spending and loss-making clubs.
By Paul Nicholson
November 21 – The remodelling of London’s 2012 Olympic Stadium in preparation for occupancy by Premier League club West Ham United started in earnest yesterday with the removal of the stadium floodlights in preparation for a cantilevered roof. At the same time a report from the House of Lords suggested that Football League Division 1 club Leyton Orient should be allowed “occasional” use of the stadium.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 20 – Poland’s Ruch Chorzow has selected the design of its new stadium. The club said that it expects to obtain planning permission in June 2014, with construction work at the 12,000-seat facility starting two months later.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 20 – All eyes may have been on the four nail-biting playoffs but the most historic European encounter Tuesday night took place in the Algarve region of Portugal where tiny Gibraltar staged their first full international since winning their 14-year battle to become UEFA’s 54th and smallest member.
By Mark Ledsom
November 20 – The head of BT TV insisted on Tuesday that the company´s audacious £897 million purchase of the UEFA Champions League broadcast rights earlier this month had been “worth every penny”, and also suggested that BT was ready to mount a similarly aggressive bid during the next round of bidding for the English Premier League TV rights.
By Paul Nicholson
November 19 – One of Europe’s most iconic clubs is undergoing a revolution, Viennese style. SK Rapid, better known to most European fans as Rapid Vienna, has a new president, plans for a new stadium and is targeting a new era as one of Europe’s top clubs in the world’s best city to live in according to Mercer’s latest Quality of Living ranking.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 18 – CSKA Moscow owner Yevgeni Giner (pictured) is reportedly in talks with Ales Rebicek, owner of Slavia Prague, to buy the Czech football club.
By Paul Nicholson
November 15 – It was a mixed bag of emotions amongst Europe’s elite clubs this week as both Bayern Munich and Manchester United announced club record financial results.