May 23 – AC Milan look to have lost their battle to stay within UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations and have been referred to the Adjudicatory Chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) by its investigatory chamber.
By Samindra Kunti
May 22 – More than 2,000 Real Madrid fans have been forced to return their tickets for Saturday’s Champions League final in Kiev over logistics and sky-rocketing expenses. Ticket touts have ramped up ticket prices ahead of the showpiece game of the European club season, asking up to £14,000 for ticket.
May 22 – The winner of Saturday’s Champions League final, the most prestigious club competition in Europe, will walk away with €15.5 million in prize money. The winner of the EFL Championship play-off for the Premier League – that takes place earlier in the afternoon between Aston Villa and Fulham – will win the biggest cash prize in world football with a whopping revenue of boost of at least £160 million over three seasons, rising to more than £280 million if they avoid relegation in their first season in the Premier League.
May 22 – The Champions League final will kick off for the 18th consecutive final using an adidas ball this Saturday. It will continue to do so for the next three years after adidas renewed their sponsorship for another three seasons.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 22 – The all-important publication of the evaluation report into the dossiers of the two contenders bidding to stage the 2026 World Cup looks set to take place later than the May 29 date predicted by the Moroccan underdogs.
May 22 – Vahid Halilhodzic (pictured) is suing the Japanese Football Association (JFA) following his dismissal as Japan coach with just months left to the World Cup. He is seeking an apology and symbolic indemnification.
May 22 – The new Nashville MLS franchise that will start play in the 202 season has named former Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre as its chief executive officer.
May 22 – Arsenal and French legend Thierry Henry is the latest of football’s superstars to benefit from Chinese sponsorship in advance of the Russian World Cup. The World Cup winner in 1998 has been named as the official ambassador of Chinese kitchen appliance manufacturer Vatti.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 22 – No sooner has the English season finished than the merry-go round of managerial departures and sackings has begun – with two in particular illustrating the short-sighted attitude of top-flight chairman.
May 21 – Former UEFA president Michel Platini is unlikely to re-emerge as a footballing political force following his worldwide ban but that hasn’t stopped him stirring things up when the opportunity comes around.
March 21 – The two contenders to stage the 2026 World Cup are returning to southern Africa this week in a final push to secure the potentially pivotal backing of the region according to local reports.
May 21 – Concacaf is taking its expanded 16-team Gold Cup to 15 venues spanning 13 US cities in 2019, as well as taking matches to Central America and the Caribbean to venues that will be announced later this year.
May 21 – British-based German internationals Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan met German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the weekend in a series of clear the air talks after they were pictured with Turkey’s controversial president President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
By David Owen
May 20 – Unlike, say, FIFA, FEMS is not an acronym that many football fans will be familiar with. But it is a term that more switched-on supporters may soon come to recognise as global investment continues to flood into the game.
May 21 – Chelsea’s billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich, whose club won a distinctly unexciting FA Cup on Saturday to save their season, faced delays in renewing his UK visa and did not attend the game, according to reports.