By Andrew Warshaw
April 19 – Amid widespread concern about supporters being left in the dark, FIFA have confirmed that giant screens will be used at World Cup matches for replays of incidents decided by the video assistant referee – accompanied by written explanations.
Before Morocco threw its hat in the ring, there was only America. MAGA appears to be the name of the game anywhere you look these days. Make America Great Again everywhere and anywhere. As long as the US profit and their competitors eat sand (or salt water or rocks – you choose), all is good in Trump’s special democracy.
April 19 – The last 16 teams in this season’s AFC Champions League were confirmed on Wednesday following the competition’s final group stage fixtures on Wednesday.
April 19 – In a move that is viewed in many league and confederation circles as a money-motivated assault on confederation club competition revenues by the FIFA administration, plans are reportedly afoot to ditch the Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup warm-up tournament, and expand the Club World Cup.
April 19 – After years of debate and discussion, the Premier League finally looks set to follow much of continental Europe and introduce a winter break from the season after next.
April 19 – With Wolverhampton Wanderers having secured promotion to the English Premier League focus is back on the relationship between the Chinese owners Fosun and super agent Jorge Mendes’ player dealings and his Gestifute agency, which Fosun also owns a chunk of.
April 19 – In the latest crackdown on third party ownership of players, FIFA have handed out a raft of sanctions to clubs for transfer deals.
April 19 – Spurs packed in more than 80,000 for a Premier League home fixture at Wembley for the fourth time this season, their third highest league attendance of the season.
By Paul Nicholson
April 18 – Police in Congo have swooped to arrest DR Congo Football Association (Fecofa) president Constant Omari along with two Fecofa vice presidents, Roger Bondembe (finance director) and Theobad Binamungu (national team manager), Their detention comes as part of a corruption investigation looking at embezzlement of government and football funds.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 18 – The inevitable backlash over possible plans to turn the 2022 World Cup into a 48-team event has kicked into gear with the body that represents Europe’s top leagues saying it will vehemently oppose such a concept.
April 18 – UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has re-iterated his concern over video assistant referees being deployed at the World Cup.
April 18 – The broadcast rights sales process for Italy’s Serie A for the 2018-21 season has again been stalled after Sky Italia went to court in Milan requesting verification of whether Spanish rights broker Mediapro’s tender conformed to Italian law.
By Samindra Kunti
April 18 – Rogerio Caboclo has been elected as the new president of the Brazilian Football Confederation CBF. He succeeds Marco Polo Del Nero, who remains suspended by FIFA and under investigation in the United States.
April 18 – Swiss club FC Sion, which has a history of controversy on and off the field, have been a handed a two-season ban from European competition by UEFA over a transfer debt.
April 18 – The International Champions Cup has unveiled its fixtures and locations for the 2018 pre-season extravaganza that this year will feature 18 European teams across the US, Singapore and Europe.