By Paul Nicholson
August 13 – She has only been in the job two weeks but already Fatma Samoura, FIFA Secretary-General and General Delegate for Africa, has landed herself in a governance and conflict of interest crisis over the move to consolidate all African national federation World Cup broadcast rights under a FIFA sales arm.
August 14 – The Normalisation Committee running football in Ghana has set a new date for an Extra-Ordinary Congress, moving it from August 26 to September 5.
August 14 – Porto and Celtic were the shock losers on a dramatic night of Champions League qualifying action on Tuesday.
August 14 – Don’t mess with FIFA and you might receive less of a punishment for breaking the rules.
August 14 – The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has banned referee Josephus Torjilar for two years for accepting a bribe.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
August 13 – In a highly unusual move, FIFA has asked the 54 member associations of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to sign a one-page media rights “mandate” that gives the world governing body “an irrevocable mandate to implement a central marketing plan to market and commercialise the media rights for the FIFA African Qualifiers 2022 & 2026.”
August 13 – Brazilian club matches truncated by the intervention of VAR have stirred a nationwide debate over the pros and cons of the new technology. To remedy the situation, Sao Paulo giants Palmeiras have demanded the clubs meet the CBF’s refereeing committee.
August 13 – Aberdeen have complained to UEFA over the treatment of their fans during last week’s Europa League qualifier against Rijeka in Croatia.
August 13 – Kate Markgraf has been appointed general manager of the US women’s team and will immediately lead the search for a new head coach following Jill Ellis’ announcement last month that she is stepping down following the country’s World Cup victory last month.
August 13 – Partizan Belgrade have been slapped with a two-match stadium ban by UEFA who have clearly run out of patience with the racist element of the club’s fans. The Serbian club have been punished because of behaviour of supporters in the first leg of their third qualifying round Europa League win over Yeni Malatyaspor of Turkey.
August 13 – Argentine legend Jose Luis ‘Tata’ Brown, who scored the opening goal in the 1986 World Cup final against West Germany, has died at the age of 62.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 12 – The bitter dispute between La Liga and the Spanish FA (RFEF) over which days are eligible for league matches has been resolved with a judge ruling that Fridays are fine but imposing a blanket ban on games being played on Monday nights.
August 12 – Nigeria is in the running to host the 2020 U-20 Women’s World Cup. A FIFA inspection team visited facilities in the proposed host cities of Lagos, Benin City, Asaba and Uyo.
August 12 – Dutch top-flight side AZ Alkmaar suffered a partial roof collapse at their stadium on Saturday after strong winds hit the country.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
August 9 – Musa Bility, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee member, recently banned for 10 years, by the Adjudicatory Chamber of FIFA’s Ethics Committee, is accusing a key official of the world governing body of strong-arming him, over his refusal to accept FIFA’s direct intervention in CAF’s affairs.