By Mark Baber
June 6 – Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced Thursday that it is taking a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande for 1.2 billion yuan ($192 million). The valuation of $284 million would put Evergrande into 20th place in the latest (2013) Forbes List of the World’s Most Valuable Clubs.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – In a move that seems bound to be viewed as highly provocative by FIFA and UEFA, Ukraine’s Crimean-based clubs have changed their names in a bid to join the Russian league following the annexation of the peninsula by Russian authorities.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 6 – Polish football club Lech Poznan has announced the signing of a new technical sponsorship deal with Nike. The US brand will replace Puma as the appareil partner in the 2014/2015 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 8 – Asia’s top Olympic official has waded into the latest corruption claims over Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid by blasting the allegations as being “racist” towards Arabs in general.
By David Owen
June 5 – Bayern Munich have retained their status as the club supplying most players for the 2014 FIFA World Cup now that the provisional squads have been trimmed to final squads of 23 players per country.
June 5 – Serbia’s first division promotion playoff between Rad Belgrade and Metalac Gornji Milanovac was abandoned on Wednesday after a fan set off a tear gas canister and forced the players to leave the pitch.
By Paul Nicholson
June 5 – Lionel Messi would be worth almost twice as much in the transfer market than Cristiano Ronaldo, while the total asset value of Barcelona’s playing squad is still worth more than €100 million than Real Madrid, and almost twice that of Manchester United, according to the CIES Football Observatory Annual Review which looks at market value of players in Europe’s Big 5 leagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – The Oceania Footbball Confederation will make no comment over its alleged role into how Qatar won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup until FIFA’s ethics committee investigator has completed his inquiries.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – The Australian football federation (FFA) has denied any wrongdoing in its failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, insisting it broke no FIFA rules.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 4 – UEFA president Michel Platini has hit back forcefully at reports linking him to corruption allegations over Qatar’s victorious 2022 World Cup bid. Hours after INSIDEworldfootball exclusively quoted a source close to Platini that discussions the Frenchman held with disgraced former Qatari powerbroker Mohamed bin Hammam were solely about bin Hamman’s efforts to secure a rival to Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency and nothing to do with 2022,
June 4 – Spanish tax authorities have re-opened the Neymar tax case by claiming Barcelona have evaded a payment of €9.2 million in the signing of Brazilian World Cup superstar.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 4 – Czech football association FACR has signed a sponsorship deal with betting operator Synot which will replace the Gambrinus beer brand as the title sponsor of the country’s top tier league.
By David Owen
June 3 – Real Madrid appear to have taken a leaf out of French rugby club Stade Français’s marketing handbook, introducing a pink change strip for the 2014-15 season.
June 3- A investigative report by FIFA has found that at least five international friendlies in South Africa just before the 2010 World Cup were fixed, according to the New York Times.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 3 – Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, whose fall from grace as one of European club football’s most influential administrators has been well chronicled, has begun serving his three years and six months jail sentence for tax evasion.