September 11 – Footballing history was written on Sunday when Bibiana Steinhaus became the first ever female referee to take charge of a top flight match in Germany or any of Europe’s five major leagues.
September 8 – Bibiana Steinhaus has been announced as the referee for the game between Werder Bremen and Hertha Berlin on Sunday. She will be the first female referee to officiate in the Bundesliga.
September 8 – Edwin van der Sar, the former Dutch and Manchester United goalkeeper and now CEO of his beloved Ajax, says something has to be done about the European loan system which, he says, is stifling the first-team development of the brightest young talent.
September 8 – England’s Women’s Super League could switch from two divisions of 10 teams to one division of 8-14 teams with full time professional players, and a second tier of 10-12 teams. The two divisions would operate independently, according to a report by the BBC.
September 7 – Ten months after South Africa beat Senegal in a World Cup qualifier, FIFA has taken the unusual step of ordering the match to be replayed after the official who refereed the game was banned for life.
By Paul Nicholson
September 7 – David Chung, president of the Oceania Football Confederation and the second highest official at FIFA as senior vice president, is under increasing pressure from football stakeholders in his home country Papua New Guinea, where a breakaway group of top clubs is running its own league and development programmes already with greater numbers and participation than Chung’s FIFA-backed organisation.
By Paul Nicholson
September 6 – He failed FIFA’s integrity test that prevented him running for the presidency of the world governing body, but Liberian FA president Musa Bility is considered to have high enough moral standing to lead FIFA’s Sierra Leone Task Force that has the job of preparing the way for new elections in the country’s football association.
By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex, Manchester
September 6 – The election of two new club representatives as members of UEFA’s inner sanctum has not been lost on Europe’s major leagues who are now anticipating similar treatment.
September 6 – The new boss of Europe’s top clubs is expecting “no more soap operas” when it comes to Champions League allocation and has played down all talk of a breakaway super league under his leadership.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – European club football entered a new era today as Juventus president Andrea Agnelli (pictured) took over from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as only the second ever head of the European Clubs Association, bringing to an end the German’s nine-year reign.
By Paul Nicholson at Soccerex, Manchester
September 5 – CONCACAF wants three automatic places at the 2026 World Cup if the US, Mexico and Canada bid wins the hosting rights, said general secretary Philippe Moggio (pictured right). He also said that the confederation’s blue riband Gold Cup may be expanded to 16 teams in future editions as well as potentially being hosted outside the US.
September 5 – European club football may now have a voice at UEFA’s top table but that hasn’t prevented UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin warning that the gap between the haves and the have-nots remains the most challenging issue facing the sport.
September 5 – The Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) has postponed presidential elections originally scheduled for September 10th following a request from FIFA.
September 4 – For the second time in a matter of days, The Confederation of African Football (CAf) has called off an inspection visit to Kenya, hosts of the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
September 4 – German coach Joachim Low and his players have denounced a hardcore section of fans for their disgraceful pro-Nazi chanting during Friday night’s World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic.