Damaged image. Spanish taxman chases Ancelotti for unpaid €1m on hidden income
June 23 – Spain’s crackdown on tax evasion in football has snared yet another alleged culprit – Everton’s much-travelled manager Carlo Ancelotti.
World Football
Ligue 1 cancelled but French to allow up to 5,000 fans in for Cup games in July
June 22 – By a supreme irony, France, the only one of Europe’s major leagues to shut down the domestic league season prematurely because of Covid 19, has now become the first country to announce that a limited number of fans can attend when stadiums re-open in July.
Calendar crunch: FIFPro calls for more time between seasons to allow player recovery
June 22 – Football’s world players’ union has expressed its concern that players are suddenly being asked to play too many games and may not have enough time to fully recover between this season’s revised calendar and the start of the next campaign.
Rio mayor halts Carioca restart but Flamengo play on as Covid-19 deaths mount in Maracana field hospital
June 22 – Rio de Janeiro’s mayor Marcelo Crivella has suspended the local state championship until June 25 after Flamengo defeated Bangu and Portuguesa drew with Boavista in the middle of Brazil’s self-inflicted struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.
Platini celebrates retirement age raking over his past achievements
June 22 – Former UEFA president Michel Platini turned 65 on Sunday – retirement age in Switzerland where he still lives for most of the year.
European Leagues body shows solidarity with UEFA as football’s comeback accelerates
June 19 – If the Covid-19 crisis has had one beneficial effect on European football, it is perhaps that fact that the various stakeholders have pulled together for the common good.
Flamengo and Rio mayor push on with restart despite other clubs refusing to play
June 18 – What Flamengo wants, Flamengo gets. The Brazilian champions have pressed on with ‘Project Restart’ for weeks and on Thursday they will play Bangu at the Maracana in the Carioca championship after the city’s mayor green-lighted the resumption of play.
Ceferin suggests French league finish was premature
June 18 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has commented for the first time publicly on the decision to shut down French football while every other major league is restarting.
German authorities refuse DFB request to bump up stadium limit to 1,000 for Cup final
June 18 – Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich will play the German cup final behind closed doors after local authorities rejected a request from the German FA (DFB) for fans to attend the match.
UEFA confirm Lisbon Champions League finale with option of fans attending still open
By Andrew Warshaw
June 17 – This season’s Champions League, suspended in March at the last-16 stage because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be completed with a mouth-watering eight-team knockout tournament held in Lisbon over 12 days in August, UEFA confirmed today following a meeting of its executive committee.
With Brazil in full corona-crisis, Flamengo head to Maracana to restart Carioca
June 17 – Brazilian champions Flamengo are pressing on with ‘Project Restart’ in Rio de Janeiro, but local rivals Botafogo and Fluminense have said they will go to court to prevent the season from resuming.
Lewandowski equals scoring record as Bayern wrap up 8th consecutive league title
June 17 – Bayern Munich wrapped up their eighth consecutive Bundesliga title on Tuesday night – in near silence.
Hunger games: Boris backs down as Rashford stands up for 1.3 million children
June 17 – Already facing widespread condemnation over playing catch-up with regard to Covid-19, the British government has now been forced to bow to pressure from a 22-year-old footballer and scrap its controversial policy of stopping free meals for needy school children.
Hearts refuse to be broken over failure of reconstruction talks and issue legal challenge
By Andrew Warshaw
June 16 – Scottish professional football has been plunged into yet more disarray after Heart of Midlothian, arguably the country’s biggest club after Celtic and Rangers, announced it was taking legal action following relegation from the top flight because of the curtailed season.
Cameroon’s AFCON 2020 in Jan looks in doubt as shift to 2021 mooted
June 16 – More doubt is being cast on next year’s African Nations Cup in Cameroon because of the Covid-19 pandemic.