By Andrew Warshaw
July 10 – Whether Russian football will revert to its pre-World Cup domestic issues of racism and fan violence once the tournament is over remains to be seen. But for the last four weeks the country has bent over backwards to be as welcoming and accommodating to the thousands of foreign visitors attending games.
July 10 – The brutal effect of financial fair play has been exposed by the case of Aston Villa who say they are having have to sell many of those who took the club to the verge of a lucrative return to the English top flight last season.
July 10 – Reports are that Facebook has snapped up its second major European league with a live TV rights deal with LaLiga for the Indian subcontinent.
July 10 – The liaison team formed by FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to secure a road map for the future of Ghanaian football in the wake of the incriminating BBC documentary that exposed widespread corruption is to pay the outstanding salaries to Ghana Football Association employees according to local reports.
By David Owen
July 10 – Belgium will try to keep the Adidas flag flying at Russia 2018 in St Petersburg tonight.
July 10 – Vitality, already the stadium naming partner at Premier League Bournemouth, has become Chelsea’s official health insurance partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 9 – The extent of the rift within the Swiss camp following their exit from the World Cup has been widely exposed by an unprecedented outburst from their Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka in response to comments made by Swiss FA secretary general Alex Miescher.
July 9 – In the latest political row involving players at the World Cup, Croatia’s Domagoj Vida has avoided punishment from FIFA after being filmed proclaiming “glory to Ukraine” in the wake of his side’s quarterfinal victory over Russia.
July 9 – The Brazilian FA (CBF) wants to maintain Tite as head coach of the Brazilian national team until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar even though Brazil crashed out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage following a 2-1 defeat against Belgium.
July 9 – He was only a stand-in but he has already stepped down. Fernando Hierro, forced at the 11th hour into leading Spain at the World Cup, has given up the post and will not return to his former role as sporting director.
July 9 – AC Milan’s Chinese owner Yonghong Li has missed the deadline to repay €32 million of interest on the debt to US hedge fund Elliott Management which provided an estimated €335 million of the €740 million Li used to buy the club.
July 9 – The US Soccer Federation is to hold its first football-specific hackathon on Chicago, July 14-15, at the 1871 – Chicago’s Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship.
July 9 – He may be 40 and have retired from international football but Gianluigi Buffon is about to enter a new phase of his stellar career.
July 9 – One of the big success stories of the World Cup so far has been the welcome the Russians have given to visitors regardless of nationality, colour or religion.
July 9 – The rising career of Kenyan referee Aden Marwa has been terminated after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Saturday banned him for life.