March 8 – Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will be a pundit for Russia Today (RT) during this summer’s World Cup. The international broadcast network is funded by the Kremlin and often perceived as a controversial mouthpiece of Vladimir Putin’s regime.
March 7 – Boris Johnson, the UK’s colourful foreign secretary with a reputation for outspoken – occasionally outlandish – comments, has caused something of a diplomatic storm by appearing to suggest that England could withdraw from the World Cup in retaliation for Russia’s suspected poisoning of a former double agent on British soil.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – The humiliation of Vitaly Mutko, for years one of FIFA’s most influential administrators, is complete after it was confirmed that the once all-powerful Russian football supremo has been forced to relinquish his last remaining role with the World Cup this summer.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – Cyprus Football Association president Costakis Koutsokoumnis, who fought to build bridges on the divided island by trying to unify football and sought to eliminate matchfixing, has died aged 61 after a long battle with cancer.
March 7 – UEFA’s investigation into claims of racism towards Liverpool England Under-17 striker Rhian Brewster has failed to find any conclusive evidence.
March 7 – Money, it seems, has once again has failed to buy success for Paris St Germain who continue to wait to land Europe’s biggest club prize.
By David Owen
March 7 – The sale of the Boleyn Ground and of Dimitri Payet, the club’s one-time talisman, have helped West Ham to become the latest Premier League outfit to report a thumping profit.
March 7 – Manchester City have signed former Premier League naming rights partner Barclays as the Club’s Official Banking & Credit Card Tour Partner in a regional deal. The Barclays logo will feature on the back of the team’s shirt during pre-season matches in the US this summer.
March 7 – International football investors into the UK aren’t just looking for top tier Premier League deals. Two Canadian investors, Dr. Jason Neale and R. Stewart Thompson, have acquired 50% of League 1 Peterborough United for an undisclosed sum.
March 6 – CONCACAF has unveiled its first ranking of national teams in the North, Central America and Caribbean region. Mexico are ranked top, the USA, despite not qualifying for Russia 2018, are second, and Costa Rica third.
March 6 – Just when English football authorities appeared to have learned from the lessons of the past in terms of embarrassing gaffes, so another one has hit the headlines, this time involving Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn.
March 6 – Italian football is breaking with tradition and going down the English road of playing over Christmas and New Year.
March 6 – Now that FIFA have changed the rules on what the two bidders for the 2026 World Cup can and can’t do to promote their credentials, Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) President Fouzi Lekjaa has wasted no time rallying support from within his own confederation.
March 6 – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has accepted a Football Association charge over “wearing a political message” during matches, specifically a yellow ribbon in support of jailed pro-independence politicians in his native Catalonia.
March 3 – Tributes will be paid before Champions League and Europa League games this week in honour of Davide Astori, the Fiorentina defender and former Italian international who died tragically at the weekend aged 31.