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because of an ongoing ethics investigation, attention has switched to Africa where another candidate has suddenly withdrawn from that region’s Council election being held today.
September 29 – The cash-strapped Nigerian Football Federation has dismissed reports that it is too broke to send a team to Zambia for a forthcoming World Cup qualifier.
September 27 – England’s new manager Sam Allardyce has been caught up in a newspaper sting which threatens his position just weeks into the job and which could potentially plunge the reputation of the national team, desperate to get back on an even keel following the debacle Euro 2016, back into crisis.
By Samindra Kunti
September 27 – The International Football Business Institute (IFBI), and the Free University of Brussels, the VUB, have launched the first full-time postgraduate football course with the aim of preparing new future executives for the football industry.
September 26 – One of the world’s leading human rights groups has urged FIFA to put a stop to Israeli league games being played by teams stationed in the occupied West Bank in what is becoming an increasingly thorny dispute.
September 23 – The 72 clubs immediately below the English Premier League have ended prospect of Premier League B teams joining them and have also ruled out Scottish giants Rangers and Celtic being included as part of a widespread revamp.
September 23 – UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against the Scottish Football Association after the country’s under-19s women’s team pulled out of a European Championship qualifier against Serbia, with nine players and eight members of the backroom staff reportedly being hit by a sickness bug in what the federation described as an “exceptional situation.”
By Andrew Warshaw
September 22 – New UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin, in the job for a matter of days, has unwittingly been dragged into a dispute over whether his predecessor Michel Platini is to receive a special financial handout despite his presidential term being cut short by his FIFA ban.