By Paul Nicholson
October 31 – Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa today gave a resounding message of support to FIFA president Gianni Infantino for his re-election next year, while at the same time calling on Infantino to help the AFC “protect itself from unwanted third party influences”.
October 31 – FIFA is bracing itself for another set of potentially incriminating leaks after admitting its computer systems have been hacked again.
October 31 – The AFC Congress approved changes to its statutes at its Kuala Lumpur Annual Congress today that both recognised the confederation’s regional diversity and allowed for a wider nominations process in presidential elections.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The man who was once the second most powerful official in African football has been banned for life by FIFA, the latest influential figure to dramatically fall from grace.
October 31 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who stands for re-election in June next year, was banging the drum of the success of his own regime in the backyard of the man he beat to the presidency in 2016, yesterday.
October 31 – Spanish FA vice president Andreu Subies has been arrested as part of the same police operation that also saw the federation’s former president and FIFA powerbroker Angel Maria Villar resign on corruption charges.
By Paul Nicholson
October 30 – The fledgling South-West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF), a breakaway group of federations created by the Saudi Arabians, has been cut in half with Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan all deciding to leave with immediate effect.
October 30 – Gareth Bale is the latest Spanish-based star to fall foul of the country’s tax authorities after being fined €337,000 for image rights issues.
October 30 – The executive committee of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) has taken the unusual step of dismissing the federation’s president Frans Mbidi (pictured) with immediate effect saying the “drastic action” was necessitated by Mbidi’s failure to carry out his duties.
October 30 – Real Madrid have sacked former Spanish national team boss Julen Lopetegui just three months into his first season in charge after last weekend’s 5-1 thrashing by Barcelona in El Classico.
October 30 – Real Madrid are the standout Big 5 club in Europe when it comes to training top quality players, but Ajax lead the way in terms of players trained who are competing in the top divisions across the continent.
October 30 – With Fulham owner Shahid Khan having withdrawn his £600 million offer to buy Wembley Stadium, the FA is fast looking for revenue streams to fund development of grassroots football in England and looks set to turn back to the betting industry as a source for that income.
October 30 – Funding the women’s game is still a battle for equality. FIFA announced a boost to the Women’s World Cup prize fund last week and president Gianni Infantino said that he hoped the women’s World Cup would soon generate similar income levels as the men’s competition.
By Paul Nicholson
October 29 – Ink has gone to paper on the most significant commercial rights deal in international football this year with the Asian Football Confederation and DDMC Fortis signing off on an eight-year partnership with a minimum guarantee reported to be around $3.4 billion.
October 29 – The world players’ union FIFPro says the huge increase in prize money announced last week by the FIFA Council for the women’s game is not enough to redress gender inequality.