July 2 – Having looked like a team that were struggling to find any cohesion or common purpose after four straight losses, including a miserable performance in March at the Concacaf Nations League final, suddenly the USA look as though, if not the real deal, they are certainly worth a reappraisal.
July 2 – Elite football in the form of major tournament returns to Switzerland for the first time since 2008, with Euro 2025 and the quest for continental glory set to take over the Alpine nation this July with more than 600,000 tickets sold and increased prize money on offer for the 16 finalists.
August 24 – The Arena Corinthians, Sao Paulo’s main football stadium and venue for the opening of the 2014 World Cup, will not play host to Copa America matches in 2019. CONMEBOL, South America’s governing body, had envisaged the stadium as a host venue, but influential Corinthians president Andres Sanchez opposed the idea and got his way.
August 24 – Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets says the Spanish footballers’ union (AFE) is united in opposition to La Liga’s controversial plans to play a regular season game in the United States.
August 24 – Real Madrid are the most popular club worldwide based on search data, far outstripping their city rivals Athletic Madrid who were the second place Spanish team, and arch rivals Barcelona who were the third based.
August 24 – Premier League Leicester City have taken a step toward the blockchain technology business announcing a global partnership with FansUnite Entertainment. Fans Unite becomes the club’s first Official Blockchain Sports Data Partner.
August 23 – In a landmark verdict six months after he was convicted for his role in the FifaGate scandal, Jose Maria Marin, the former president of Brazil’s football federation who to the last insisted he had done nothing wrong, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
August 23 – The international players’ union FIFPro has taken UEFA to task over a two-year ban imposed for matchfixing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Maltese under-21 international Samir Arab.
August 23 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) is combining with the TEAMS ’18 Conference & Expo to launch the first Sports Betting Forum, to be held October 1-4, in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the TEAMS 18 event schedule.
By Samindra Kunti
August 23 – World governing body FIFA has rubber-stamped sweeping governance reforms for the Australian game, which are expected to be approved at next month’s general meeting of Football Federation Australia (FFA). Last week, FFA chairman Steven Lowy announced that he’d resign from his position.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 23 – Plans to stage a landmark top-flight La Liga fixture in the United States have prompted fierce opposition by Spain’s footballers union which has not ruled out going on strike, blasting the idea as based only on “money and business”.
August 23 – Not everything he touches turns to gold. Star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, now thumping goal in at the LA Galaxy in the US, has taken a hit himself and has closed his joint venture fashion label A-Z label.
August 23 – Coming just a day after the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would not be prosecuting Hillsborough police chief Norman Bettison for his part and lies in the cover-up of the disaster, Sussex police have been found to be in breach of the Freedom of Information (FoI) act.
August 23 – Kieran O’Connor has been elected President of the Football Association of Wales, succeeding David Griffiths, who will now become a Life Vice President of the Association.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
August 22 – Did he jump, was he pushed or was his departure actually entirely mutual? Whatever the real story behind Marco Villiger’s exit from FIFA immediately after his summer vacation, questions are inevitably being asked about how the organisation could afford to lose its most astute legal brain.
August 22 – In another blow to the reputation of South American football administration, FIFA have intervened to take control of the Uruguayan federation after it was plunged into chaos following the sudden resignation of president Wilmar Valdez (pictured) last month.
August 22 – Saudi Arabian pirate broadcaster beoutQ is showing no signs of easing up on its copyright theft, stealing every match of the round two of the new Premier League season for broadcast into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.