October 20 – UEFA president Michel Platini, not averse to coming up with fresh ideas for enhancing the game – some of which have their critics as well as their supporters – has thrown out another proposal: white cards to mean sinbins for players who harass referees to protest decisions.
By David Owen
October 19 – The French Professional Football League (LFP) intends to set up a commercial support department to spread best practice among the country’s leading clubs. Mathieu Ficot, the LFP’s chief commercial officer, made the disclosure in an interview with INSIDEworldfootball.
Has Europe given up on FIFA? The question is raised by what seems to have been a particularly productive month for Michel Platini, President of UEFA, the European football body.
By David Owen
October 18 – UEFA President Michel Platini will go to Rome next week to discuss the body’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative with European Union (EU) sports ministers.
By David Owen
October 17 – The new Stade Vélodrome, complete with undulating white roof, has been inaugurated in front of the new French Sports Minister in the southern French city of Marseille.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 17 – Pandurii Targu Jiu has announced plans to invest about €15 million to expand and modernise its stadium. The Romanian club is aiming to launch the project in 2015, and carry out the construction over the following 18 months.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Albanian football authorities have hit back powerfully at Serb accusations that they were responsible for the politically-fuelled melee that caused this week’s Euro 2016 qualifier between the Balkan rivals in Belgrade to be abandoned after descending into chaos.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 17 – Michel Platini, who has openly admitted he voted for Qatar to stage the 2022 World Cup, says he would have no problem with a revote if proof emerged, as a result of FIFA ethics committee investigator Michael Garcia’s report into possible corruption, that there was any wrongdoing during the bid process.
By Mark Baber
October 16 – According to a BBC study of 207 clubs, the average price of the cheapest tickets across English football has risen at almost twice the rate of the cost of living since 2011 with the average price of the cheapest match-day ticket from the Premier League to League Two now at £21.49, up 4.4% since last year, over treble the 1.2% rate of inflation.
October 16 – The International Football Arena (IFA) has released details of October 30 Berlin conference programme, themed ‘Football’s Digital Transformation’.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Amid the furore of claim and counter-claim following one of the worst outbreaks of politically-motivated trouble in recent European football history, UEFA as expected have charged both the Serbian and Albanian federations – and will almost certainly come down hard on both of them.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
October 15 – In a move aimed to overhaul the finances of the troubled football club, Red Star Belgrade is in talks with Russia’s natural gas company Gazprom to sign a new sponsorship deal.
By David Owen
October 15 – UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative has received an important boost to its credibility, with the European Commission formally accepting that the programme contributes to the “healthy growth” of sport in the continent.
October 15 – The Freestyle Football Federation (F3) is launching a series of animated characters from Northern Creative Studio to promote the sport in digital media ahead of the World Freestyle Football Championships taking place in London on October 22.
By Paul Nicholson
October 14 – Italy’s Lega Pro are the latest to renew their match-fixing monitoring and prevention partnership with Sportradar. The league has also taken their commitment to fight match-fixing a step further with a logo emphasising ‘Lega Pro-Integrity’ being carried on the league’s official match ball.