December 17 – Less than three weeks after Serie A clubs in Italy pledged collectively to combat the “serious problem” of racism, further criticism has rained down from anti-discriminatory bodies following a totally ill-judged campaign featuring paintings of apes.
By Paul Nicholson
December 16 – CAF has won the first round of the legal battle over the cancellation of its contract with Lagardère Sports. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Geneva ruled Friday rejected Lagardère’s application for emergency measures that would have allowed the agency to continue as per the contract.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 10 – Quick to point the finger at football-fuelled racism elsewhere in Europe, the English game is going through a period of intense soul-searching following a spate of instances over the weekend from the Premier League to the fourth tier, one of the alleged culprits being as young as 13 years old.
December 9 – Police have arrested a man in connection with alleged racial gestures and chanting in Saturday’s Premier League derby between Manchester City and Manchester United.
December 6 – Chelsea have been cleared to re-enter the transfer market in the January window after a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling halved the transfer ban to just one window from the original two-window ban imposed by FIFA.
December 5 – A leading Italian sports daily has been widely criticised for a headline reading ‘Black Friday’ featuring two leading black Serie A players.
December 6 – The final decision on whether Cardiff City have to pay the first instalment of €6 million to Nantes for €17 million striker Emiliano Sala will not taken until June 2020.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 4 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has re-iterated his long-held view that more needs to be done to combat racism in European football following an unwelcome resurgence of discrimination across the Continent, from Bulgaria to Italy.
December 2 – Not before time, all 20 Serie A clubs in Italy have made a united pledge to combat the “serious problem” of racism which, they say, “shames us all”.
December 2 – In what has become an almost farcical situation, the English Premier League’s search for a new boss is back on after David Pemsel resigned as chief executive two months before he was even due to start.
November 29 – In a ruling that prompted outrage among relatives of the victims, the police commander in charge of operations at Britain’s worst sporting disaster, the Hillsborough stadium tragedy, was acquitted Thursday of gross negligence manslaughter.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
November 28 – The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has reacted to Insideworldfootball’s interview with Gernot Rohr (pictured left), head coach of that country’s national team, by issuing him with an official reprimand.
November 27 – A sports integrity whistleblower hotline is reporting that 85% of the crimes reported to date have been in football, with 23% of the crimes being match-fixing offenses and 12% being laundering.
November 26 – Not so long ago he was a special adviser to Gianni Infantino as FIFA’s head of technical development. Now, as a television analyst, Marco van Basten has been suspended for making a Nazi remark.
November 26 – The controversial president of Italian club Brescia is facing accusations of racism after wading into the debate over striker Mario Balotelli who earlier this month briefly walked off in protest at being targeted by Hellas Verona fans.