June 7 – Manchester City, one of the first English Premier League clubs to embrace esports with the signing of professional gamers to play under the club banner in tournaments, have taken a step deeper into the competitive video gaming sector with the set up of an EA Sports FIFA Online team in Beijing, China.
June 6 – Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos, whose arm wrestle on Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah put the Egyptian striker out of the Champions League final, has hit back at widespread criticism of his action and says Salah could have played on instead of leaving the field in tears.
June 6 – FIFA has filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against the ticket website Viagogo on the eve of the World Cup as part of a crackdown on unauthorised sales.
June 6 – When European clubs complain about their highly paid players being stretched to the limit by too much international competition, they often receive scant sympathy.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – It has taken a tournament for unaffiliated nations, stateless peoples, breakaway diasporas, indigenous communities and ethnic minorities to launch what is being hailed as one of football’s most refreshing innovations to cut down on dissent and improve respect for officials.
By Samindra Kunti
June 6 – Argentina has cancelled a World Cup warm-up match with Israel following political pressure from Palestine. The cancellation of the highly controversial friendly has thrown Argentina’s World Cup preparations further into disarray.
June 6 – Iran were the first team to arrive in Russia ahead of the 2018 World Cup, which kicks off next week. The Iranians have been paired in group B with Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but their preparations have been blighted by logistical problems.
June 6 – Italian giant Internazionale have opened three new academies, one in Slovakia and two more in China taking the number of Inter Academies in the world’s largest country to six.
June 6 – Veteran Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been suspended for three games by UEFA in the wake of his red card and behaviour during Juventus’ Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
June 6 – UEFA will give a record €2.04 billion to clubs playing in the Champions League and Europa League next season, a more than €800 million increase on last season.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid leaders have been refused permission to make a final presentation to FIFA’s South American voters ahead of the all-important ballot on June 13.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino suddenly appears to be backtracking on bringing forward plans for a 48-team World Cup to the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
June 5 – Tony Xia (pictured), Aston Villa’s Chinese owner who bought the club from American Randy Lerner for £62 million in 2016, is looking for new funding for the club after failure to win the Championship play-off against Fulham that would have returned the club to the monied land of the Premier League.
June 5 – The financial crisis that has hit Yonghong Li’s ownership of AC Milan has seen the Chinese owner reportedly in secret emergency meetings in Italy attempting to refinance the club’s debt and potentially bring in new ownership partners.
June 5 – So do we now know the real reason for one of most calamitous goalkeeping displays of recent years or is it too cynical to suggest we are just being fed convenient excuses?