By Samindra Kunti
May 1 – Vitesse Arnhem won their first ever major trophy with a 2-0 win in the Dutch Cup final against AZ Alkmaar. Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored both goals.
April 2 – After a year-long pilot project, the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has launched its Bundesliga Football School as a “new partnership model” to develop young talent and promote competitive football in the Bundesliga’s target markets worldwide.
April 24 – Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante was named the PFA Player of the Year at an awards dinner in London on Sunday. He held off competition from fellow Chelsea player Eden Hazard and Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
April 20 – Spare a thought for Borussia Dortmund’s players, staff and supporters after their Champions League elimination in the most unfortunate of circumstances.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 17 – It’s hard enough to beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu at the best of times, even harder when you go into a game against them a goal down from the first leg.
April 18 – OGC Nice have booked a ticket for next season’s Champions League after a comfortable 3-1 win against Nancy, guaranteeing a top three finish in Ligue 1.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 13 – Handed a rare home defeat in their re-arranged Champions League quarterfinal first leg, Borussia Dortmund have thrown the book at UEFA claiming European football’s governing body “totally ignored” the players’ state of mind following the previous day’s explosions near the team bus that led to the fixture being postponed for a mere 24 hours.
April 11 – The issue of competitive balance in European competition was brought into political focus recently with UEFA’s new Champions League qualification criteria which sees four teams from the top four nations automatically qualify for the group stages. Not only does this reduce the opportunity of other teams from smaller leagues to challenge but it will likely concentrate more of the revenue towards the biggest teams.
April 11 – Just days after being given the dreaded vote of confidence, Edgardo Bauza has been sacked as Argentina coach, with the team outside the automatic qualifying places for next year’s World Cup.
April 11 – Claudio Ranieri has finally broken his silence over his controversial sacking at Leicester City by hinting he had been betrayed by an unidentified party – but denied his players contrived to force him out.
By Samindra Kunti
April 7 – The Argentine FA (AFA) has given its under-fire coach Edgardo Bauza a vote of confidence in spite of Argentina’s precarious World Cup qualifying position.
April 7 – English Football League (EFL) teams will have to increase the minimum number of home-grown players in their match-day squads from next season and from 2018-19 will have to make way for at least one ‘club-developed’ player.
April 6 – Liverpool have been fined £100,000 by the Premier League and handed a two-year ban on signing academy players from other English clubs for breaking strict recruitment rules.
April 4 – The Mediterranean International Cup (MIC) kicks off this week, a friendly tournament for leading youth teams played on the Spain’s Costa Brava, this year it will feature a team from US Club Soccer’s id2 programme for the first time.
April 3 – If it is goals you want to see then the Swiss Super League is the place to watch football with an average 3.33 goals per game. The Big 5 leagues don’t fare too badly with Spain’s La Liga ranking third (2.9), the Premier League sixth (2.84) and Serie A seventh (2.82).