June 1 – Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s Russian billionaire owner, has decided to put on hold a new 60,000-seater stadium following delays over the renewal of his UK visa.
June 1 – A member of Russia’s World Cup squad could be guilty of a doping violation according to famed whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.
June 1 – Timed just two weeks before the FIFA Congress in Moscow, FIFA has lifted its suspension imposed on Guatemala 18 months ago over its failure to comply with anti-corruption rules.
June 1 – The French Football Federation and Coca-Cola have agreed a five-year extension of their long-standing partnership taking them through to June 2023.
June 1 – It came as a bombshell to both players and fans. The intriguing question now is who takes over at Real Madrid following Zinedine Zidane’s shock decision to step down just days after clinching a third consecutive Champions League title.
June 1 – Just two weeks before the start of the World Cup, a report released by European football’s leading anti-discrimination body warns of a rise in racist and homophobic chants at Russian matches this season and claims FIFA and the Russian authorities have missed “valuable opportunities” to change attitudes.
June 1 – A month after co-hosting a sports integrity conference in Porto, Portugal, the Portuguese sports journalists’ representative body, CNID (National Club of Sports Press) has given the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) a ‘Recognition Award’.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 31 – None of the players are household names and there are no millionaire superstars or over-inflated egos. But there is no doubting the passion and patriotism of everyone involved.
May 31 – Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has slammed French Football Federation chief Noel Le Graet, who has claimed that the French national team has moved on from the striker.
May 31 – The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has hailed the decision to award the final of the 2020 Champions League Final to Istanbul as a positive move in the build-up to the September ballot to choose the 2024 Euro hosts.
May 31 – The Saudi referee appointed by FIFA for the World Cup has been dropped after he was handed a life ban in his homeland for match-fixing.
May 31 – The English Football League’s title sponsor Sky Bet is spending £1 million on delivering a responsible gambling series of education workshops to all 72 of its clubs next season.
May 31 – The UEFA Europa League is getting a new look for next season that UEFA says will emphasise the “scale and dynamic nature of the competition.”
May 31 – A ‘production index’ developed by the CIES Football Observatory using InStat data shows that the top teams in the Big 5 European leagues all have similar performance data characteristics that correlate to their league positions.
May 30 – He may still be suspended over that infamous CHF 2 million “disloyal payment” to Michel Platini but that hasn’t stopped former FIFA president Sepp Blatter from speaking his mind when it comes to the injustices he feels he has suffered.