By Samindra Kunti in St Petersburg
June 17 – Russia and New Zealand open the 2017 Confederations Cup, the warm-up tournament for the World Cup in 2018. It is also a gauge of where are Russia on the playing side with an expectant country putting pressure on coach Stanislav Cherchesov to deliver on home soil. Germany, Portugal and Chile begin the tournament as favorites.
By Mark Baber
June 12 – This weekend’s qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2018 has seen all 52 teams vying for the 13 World Cup spots allocated to UEFA reach six matches completed in the first round group stage.
June 12 – Paris Saint-Germain have reshuffled their sporting directors with the arrival of Antero Henrique and the departure of Patrick Kluivert as the club seek to reboot after a season of regression.
June 12 – Fabio Capello is back in team management having signed a deal to take charge of Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning. Capello extends the Italian connection with Suning Sports, owners of Jiangsu and majority owners of Italy’s Internazionale.
By Paul Nicholson
June 9 – The CIES Football Observatory have taken a step away from their number crunching analysis of the Big 5 men’s leagues in Europe to examine the composition of playing squads in the four most developed women’s league in Europe (Germany, Sweden, France and England), as well as the Women’s National Soccer League in the United States.
June 7 – The coaching mantra of not changing a winning team has been questioned increasingly in recent seasons as increased numbers of fixtures and pressure on players has seen many managers complain of not having large enough squads to compete in all competitions.
By Samindra Kunti in Cardiff
June 4 – Real Madrid were crowned European champions for a 12th time after comprehensively defeating Juventus 4-1 in the Champions League final. Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice for Madrid to retain their European title, a historic feat.
June 5 – A survey of UK workers asking them which football manager they would most and least like to run their office on a day-to-day basis found Chelsea’s Antonio Conte top of the pile, while toxic Jose Mourinho came bottom.
June 1 – It has been very much a reign of two halves but after signing a new two-year deal, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, the longest serving manager in English top-flight football, is targeting next season’s Premier League title.
May 31 – A list of the players from Europe’s Big 5 leagues who played the most number of minutes for their clubs since 1 July 2016, shows eight having played more than 5,000 minutes.
May 31 – Arsene Wenger’s 21-year reign as the longest serving manager in English football’s top flight will continue after it was announced that he has agreed a new two-year deal.
May 30 – Will he stay or will he go? All will shortly be revealed. The future of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, by far the longest serving manager in English top-flight football, is expected to be announced this week after the Frenchman held a meeting with Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke and chief executive Ivan Gazidis on Monday.
May 30 – He is one of world football’s best-paid players, reaping the rewards of Chinese football’s import boom, yet Carlos Tevez has told a Spanish broadcaster the sport in the country of his latest employers is 50 years behind Europe.
May 25 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked big-5 league players according to their tackling skills with players from three different championships filling the top three positions: Valentin Rongier (Nantes), Carlos Casemiro (Real Madrid) and Idrissa Gueye (pictured, Everton).
By Samindra Kunti
May 21 – Venezuela won the opening match at the FIFA U20 World Cup in South Korea with a 2-0 victory over Germany. England got their campaign underway with a 3-0 win against Argentina.