July 23 – Cristiano Ronaldo’s €117 million transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus has polarised opinion with car union protests over the ‘immoral’ size of his transfer and wages, and fan excitement at what he will bring to the Italian champions.
July 23 – Aston Villa is under new majority control after billionaire businessmen Naseef Sawiris and Wes Edens bought a reported 55% controlling stake in the club for £30 million from Chinese owner Tony Xia.
July 23 – New Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has been accused of trying to “dismantle” former club Napoli by the Italian club’s president Aurelio de Laurentiis.
July 23 – With broadcast piracy issues increasingly concerning sports rights owners anxious to maintain their TV deals and value in an increasingly disrupted marketplace, the Premier League has won a further blocking order in the UK High Court forcing pirate streams to shut down.
July 23 – Premier League club Manchester United have expanded TV channel distribution platforms to streaming services Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Xbox. The club last season launched MUTV on iOS, Android and on the web at MUTV.com.
July 23 – Roma’s American billionaire owner James Pallotta has been handed a three-month suspension by UEFA for comments after their Champions League semi-final defeat by Liverpool.
By Paul Nicholson
July 20 – Overseas fans in Russia for the World Cup spent about €1.3 billion between June 14 and July 16, according to a report by Russia’s Sberbank.
By David Owen
July 20 – The chairman of FIFA’s medical committee has described medical provision during Russia 2018 as the best he has experienced in 10 World Cups.
July 20 – US digital giant Amazon is inserting itself deeper and deeper into football’s economic foodchain with the launch by Serie A’s Napoli of its own store on the ecommerce platform.
July 20 – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says the gruelling demands of international football are getting so serious that clubs will soon be “collecting the bones” of overworked players.
July 20 – Clubs from Russia and Qatar, World Cup hosts past and future, are among six fined by FIFA and warned they risk one-year transfer bans for failing to settle debts to players.
July 20 – Hannover 96 failed in its bid to get an exemption from Germany’s 50+1 ruling to allow the Bundlesliga club’s president Martin Kind (pictured) to take control, but has said it will appeal against the German Football League (DFL) ruling.
July 20 – An Israeli lawmaker close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has sent an open letter to FIFA urging it to strip Qatar of 2022 World Cup hosting rights because of its alleged support for Hezbollah and Hamas, regarded by Israel and others as terrorist organisations.
July 20 – Asian sponsors for Premier League clubs have generally been from the betting industry unless local sponsors. Crystal Palace have expanded away from the betting sponsor focus with a global partnership with Hong Kong logistics brand Royale International.
July 19 – France’s standout forward Kylian Mbappé is the most valuable under 21 player in the world, twice as valuable as England striker Marcus Rashford, according to a new report that values Mbappé at £170.2 million.