By Andrew Warshaw
May 4 – Two months after football’s lawmakers gave the green light to experiment with a new tennis-style penalty shootout system, UEFA are employing it at the European under-17 championship, which began in Croatia today.
May 5 – The English Football Association has agreed to trial rugby-style ‘sin bins’ in lower part-time leagues from next season.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – How short-sighted can you get? Pescara’s former Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari has been banned for one game by the Italian FA for walking off the pitch complaining of racist abuse despite being praised by the United Nations’ top human rights official.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 2 – Turkey’s chances of ending years of disappointment by finally landing the European Championship finals in 2024 could be scuppered by a new human rights provision in UEFA’s hosting guidelines.
By Samindra Kunti
May 1 – OGC Nice have all but ended Paris Saint-Germain’s title aspirations in Ligue 1, winning an ill-tempered game 3-1. Thiago Motta and Angel Di Maria were both send off. PSG trail Monaco by three points with three match days left. PSG have been Ligue 1 champions for the past four seasons.
By Samindra Kunti
May 1 – Vitesse Arnhem won their first ever major trophy with a 2-0 win in the Dutch Cup final against AZ Alkmaar. Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored both goals.
April 28 – As expected, China’s Guangzhou Evergrande have been charged by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after the club’s fans unfurled a provocative banner in an Asian Champions League match describing Hong Kong’s independence movement as ‘poison’ and carrying the words: ‘Annihilate British Dogs’.
April 28 – FIFA’s former general secretary Jérôme Valcke, number two to Sepp Blatter before spectacularly falling from grace, has suddenly re-surfaced in Spain where he has set up an events business.
April 28 – The Belgian FA (KBVB) has offered eight referees a two-year semi-professional contract in a move to modernise and upgrade refereeing in Belgium.
By Paul Nicholson
April 27 – The African race for a position on the FIFA Council has a new competitor. Former FIFA senior development manager for Africa, Zelkifili Ngoufonja (better known in football circles as Zul), has put himself and is campaigning on a platform of transparency, youth development and a good deal for Africa at FIFA.
April 27 – The 2019 Copa America in Brazil will be expanded to 16 teams. South American regional governing body CONMEBOL approved the increased number of countries for their regional championship at their annual congress in Santiago, Chile.
By Paul Nicholson
April 26 – Five days after CONCACAF filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, claiming $20 million in damages against former executives Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, Warner has responded by saying he will file a suit against CONCACAF for $40 million claiming “persistent defamation” of character. He also says he is suing US Soccer Federation president and FIFA Council member Sunil Gulati personally.
By Paul Nicholson
April 26 – French league president Nathalie Boy de la Tour and general secretary Didier Quillot have unveiled a new strategic plan for the French Football League (LFP) that will take them through to 2022 and close the gap on the English, Spanish, German and Italian leagues.
By Samindra Kunti
April 26 – CONMEBOL’s internal audit has revealed an unaccounted gap of $150 million as the organisation seeks to establish the full-scale damage of corruption.
April 26 – Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam will rename their stadium in honor of their greatest player Johan Cruyff, who died in 2016. Cruyff passed away on March 24 last year following a battle with lung cancer, he would have turned 70 yesterday.