By Paul Nicholson
June 5 – Lionel Messi would be worth almost twice as much in the transfer market than Cristiano Ronaldo, while the total asset value of Barcelona’s playing squad is still worth more than €100 million than Real Madrid, and almost twice that of Manchester United, according to the CIES Football Observatory Annual Review which looks at market value of players in Europe’s Big 5 leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – UEFA president Michel Platini has hit back forcefully at reports linking him to corruption allegations over Qatar’s victorious 2022 World Cup bid. Hours after INSIDEworldfootball exclusively quoted a source close to Platini that discussions the Frenchman held with disgraced former Qatari powerbroker Mohamed bin Hammam were solely about bin Hamman’s efforts to secure a rival to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency and nothing to do with 2022,
June 4 – Spanish tax authorities have re-opened the Neymar tax case by claiming Barcelona have evaded a payment of €9.2 million in the signing of Brazilian World Cup superstar.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 4 – Czech football association FACR has signed a sponsorship deal with betting operator Synot which will replace the Gambrinus beer brand as the title sponsor of the country’s top tier league.
By David Owen
June 3 – Real Madrid appear to have taken a leaf out of French rugby club Stade Français’s marketing handbook, introducing a pink change strip for the 2014-15 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 3 – Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, whose fall from grace as one of European club football’s most influential administrators has been well chronicled, has begun serving his three years and six months jail sentence for tax evasion.
By Alexander Krassimirov
June 3 – After its failed attempt at becoming a publicly-owned company on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, CSKA Sofia looks to have dragged itself away from the possibility of bankruptcy with the appointment of one of Bulgaria’s biggest businessmen, Petar Mandjukov (pictured), to the board.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 30 – Zulte-Waregem has launched a construction project to modernise and expand its Regenboogs stadium in the Belgian city of Waregem. Zule-Waregem finished the Jupiler League in fourth place, beaten by RSC Anderlecht, Standard Liege and FC Bruges.
May 30 – Disagreements concerning over-age players is nothing new but to suggest a player is 25 years older than he actually is is surely unprecedented.
By Mark Baber
May 29 – The Legal Affairs Commission of the lower house of the Swiss parliament has proposed a draft law which, if passed by the legislature, will impose stricter rules against money laundering.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – In what is being flagged up as the end of an era, Italy is set to outlaw co-ownership of players from next season, falling into line with the rest of Europe. Italy is the last main footballing nation in Europe under which two teams can effectively share half a particular player’s contract and economic rights.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 29 – The Bulgarian Football Union has signed a new multi-year contract with the Spanish sports appareil firm Joma. The company will kit out all of Bulgaria’s national teams and replaces Italian sportswear brand Kappa, whose contract was terminated terminated by mutual consent.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 29 – Almost two years after the original sanction, former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut has had his life ban reduced to 10 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but his career is still effectively over.
By Ben Nicholson
May 29 – International footballers’ association FIFPro and UEFA and Birkbeck, University of London, have combined to produce a ‘Good Practice Guide’ which will be presented at the closing conference of Don’t Fix it in Slovenia next week.
May 28 – UEFA’s relentless crackdown on match manipulation has seemingly gone one step too far after the organisation itself was sanctioned for wrongly accusing a Croatian referee. But whether Europe’s governing body rules the punishment binding and pays up is a different matter.