By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – For the regular season just finished, the USL, the third tier of the US professional leagues, hit record aggregate attendances of 1.5 million for the season, a 40% increase on previous years. But it is not just attendances that are growing for this challenger league in the US.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – Leading leagues across Europe say they have won vital concessions from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin over plans to revamp the Champions League.
October 7 – Sadly the result did not match the anticipation. Kosovo’s first competitive home fixture since being admitted by FIFA and UEFA ended in a 6-0 defeat by Croatia that leaves them bottom of their World Cup qualifying group.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 6 – The boss of one of Italy’s major top-flight clubs has issued a scathing attack on the role of agents in the wake of the English newspaper sting that saw Sam Allardyce lose the national manager’s job after just 67 days and which quoted agents boasting about how many managers had been paid off in transfer deals.
October 6 – Two players with Czech side Sparta Prague who caused outrage with their sexist comments have been told to train with the women’s team.
By Paul Nicholson
October 5 – One of the leaders of football’s brave new world, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani, has suggested that Russia and Qatar hosting the 2018 and 2022 World Cups could be the best thing to have happened to football in that it provided an accelerant for the clean-up of the game globally, and particularly in his region.
October 4 – The Jersey Football Association (JFA) have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in an attempt to overturn UEFA’s rejection of their membership bid.
Jersey believe they have just as strong a case as the likes of new members Gibraltar and Kosovo and are testing this at sport’s highest court.
The JFA say they have been told by UEFA that the Channel island fails to meet the criteria for affiliation because Article 5 of the UEFA Statutes,
By Samindra Kunti in Amsterdam
October 3 – This year’s Italian Supercup between Juventus and AC Milan will be played in Doha, Qatar. The announcement was made at the Aspire4sport Global Summit on Football Performance & Science in Amsterdam today.
October 4 – An English Premier League club has been accused of gender discrimination – by the chairman of its own ladies’ team. Stephen Hunt has launched a scathing attack on West Ham United and has lodged a formal complaint with the Football Association following a prolonged row over funding and facilities.
By David Owen
October 3 – Management of one of the world’s most iconic football stadia – Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã – looks set to change hands. Brazilian media reports state that the Government of Rio de Janeiro and the concessionaire of the venue, opened in 1950 and partly rebuilt ahead of the 2014 World Cup, are negotiating termination of the current management contract.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 30 – Issa Hayatou (pictured), the all-powerful, old-school and often controversial ruler of African football who was in temporary charge of FIFA until the election of Gianni Infantino, has won another significant victory in his bid to retain control of the region he has run for the last 28 years.
September 30 – The third tier of US professional football is reporting an increase in attendances of 33% for the 2016. The figures show the boom in interest in the game is filtering through the whole football pyramid and is not confined to MLS teams or high-profile international friendlies between the world’s giant clubs.
September 30 – UEFA have run out patience with fans of Polish club Legia Warsaw and have ordered them to play their next Champions League game, against holders Real Madrid on November 2, behind closed doors.
September 29 – Scottish giants Celtic have received their ninth UEFA sanction in five years in after the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) decided to fine the club €10,000 for flying pro-Palestinian flags at their Champions League play-off, first leg tie, against Israel’s Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – Following the stunning abandonment of the Asian Football Confederation’s extraordinary congress in Goa, sparked by FIFA’s ban of Qatari Saoud Al-Mohannadi from standing for election to join its new ruling council because of an ongoing ethics investigation, attention has switched to Africa where another candidate has suddenly withdrawn from that region’s Council election being held today.