USA 1 Saudi Arabia 0
June 19 – American comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to say, “I don’t get no respect.” The same could be said for the United States Men’s Soccer Team as barely 10,000 fans showed up for a supporter friendly 8.15 pm kickoff versus Concacaf Gold Cup, Group D opponents, Saudi Arabia in a 1-0 win that again raised more questions than answers.
May 10 – Premier League Southampton have secured Virgin Media as the club’s sleeve sponsor in a three-year deal taking the partnership through to the end of the 2021/22 season.
May 10 – Genius Sports, via its Betgenius division, has been won the exclusive rights from Football Dataco to collect and distribute official betting data for all the professional league and cup competitions in English and Scottish football, including the Premier League and English Football League.
May 10 – Facebook, which is gradually becoming a broadcast rights competitor for premium tier live football rights, has signed a content deal with Conmebol for this Summer’s Copa America in Brazil.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 9 – Never in the modern era of European football’s greatest club competition have there been two back-to-back semi-finals quite like it.
May 9 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has issued a call for all relevant stakeholders not to jump to conclusions amid ongoing heated debate over proposed radical changes to the Champions League post-2024.
By Paul Nicholson
May 9 – The unrelenting piracy of TV rights in the middle east by Saudi Arabia-based broadcaster BeoutQ has ultimately forced a radical rethink of broadcast rights sales in the region with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) having announced it is retendering media rights for the country for the 2021-24 period.
May 9 – Banned former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, out of the spotlight in recent months, has revealed he plans to sue world football’s governing body and his successor Gianni Infantino for allegedly spreading “false information” and damaging his reputation, according to reports in Switzerland.
May 9 – Barcelona, who have plans to enter a professional team in the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), have hit a stumbling block over their kit supply deal with Nike.
May 9 – Concacaf have unveiled details of their restructured 2020 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Championship which will be played over three rounds by 32 nations.
May 9 – Arsenal have added a content layer to their ‘Visit Rwanda’ sleeve sponsorship via a deal with National Geographic.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – A “vast majority” of European clubs are against the idea of overhauling the Champions League and introducing a system of promotion and relegation.
May 8 – Nigerian FA chief Amaju Pinnick, a strong ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and a constant figure of controversy, has been charged along with four others by a federal court on allegations of corruption and suspended, according to local reports.
May 8 – Chelsea have had partial success with their appeal against the two-window transfer ban given to them by FIFA but not enough to allow them to buy new players in either of the next two transfer windows.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 8 – Impossible, unthinkable, sensational, miraculous. The superlatives are still pouring out of every footballing corner of the world to describe arguably the greatest comeback in European football history as Liverpool beat mighty Barcelona 4-0 on Tuesday to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit and advance to their second successive Champions League final.
May 8 – The enmity of the economic blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia has spilled over on to the football pitch again with the AFC this time forced to intervene over the behaviour of Venezuelan striker Gelmin Rivas in an Asian Champions League group game for Qatar’s Al Rayyan SC against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad.