By Paul Nicholson
January 23 – Manchester United have kept the title as the world’s highest revenue generating club, again beating Real Madrid in a year in which the Spanish giants won La Liga and the Champions League.
January 23 – Newcastle United has removed online betting firm FUN88 from the club’s youth team shirt. The sponsor’s logo was deemed by the club as a potential breach of FA regulations and comes after growing pressure on the UK government to look harder at the gambling advertising from betting companies in broadcast media and club sponsorships.
By Paul Nicholson
January 22 – Allegations of match-fixing are still blighting Greek football with clubs complaining that the promised clean-up has not happened and that referees appointments are being influenced and that in turn is manipulating results.
January 22 – With US Soccer president Sunil Gulati and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani about to begin their charm offensive in Europe for the North American bid for the 2026 World Cup, Gulati has been hit with new problems.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 22 – The head of Norway’s FA has called on FIFA to step up its investigation into the Russian doping scandal and even consider a ban, comments that have prompted a furious response from his Russian counterpart.
January 22 – In a ground-breaking agreement between Spanish football and authorities in Saudi Arabia, nine Saudi players will dispute the remainder of the season in La Liga, according to local reports.
January 22- The newly-elected head of the Kuwait Football Association has welcomed the appointment of a normalisation committee to oversee the county’s re-entry as a FIFA member following its suspension in 2015.
July 19 – The confirmed speaker line-up for the Tackling Matchfixing conference, March 9-10, has been released. The conference, to be held at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel with a Gala Dinner at Stamford Bridge on March 9, is now open for registration.
FIFA released the full transcript of the Court of Arbitration for Sport Panel’s decision and reasoning this week, outlining why the Panel dismissed referee Mr Joseph Lamptey’s appeal against the decision by the Appeal Committee of FIFA dated 27 April 2017 (CAS 2017/A/5173 Joseph Odartei Lamptey or “Lamptey” from here on in).
By David Owen
January 22 – UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has followed up the body’s latest Club Licensing Benchmarking Report, which documented growing disparities between Europe’s super-elite and the rest, by floating the idea of a “luxury tax”.
January 20 – Korea Republic’s Cho Jae-wan etched himself into the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship record books on Saturday after scoring the fastest goal in the three editions of the tournament’s finals, and the second quickest in Asian Football Confederation history.
January 19 – The North American Soccer League has confirmed it is backing former US international Eric Wynalda in the U.S. Soccer presidential election race which climaxes on February 10.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 19 – The global perception of the United States under Donald Trump could pose a direct threat to the country’s bid to jointly stage the 2026 World Cup with Canada and Mexico according to bid leader Sunil Gulati (pictured).
How many 19th century industries can say they have more than tripled revenues over the first 16 years of this millennium? My hunch would be only one: European club football which, according to the latest UEFA Club Licensing Benchmarking Report, generated revenues of €18.5 billion in 2016, up from €6 billion in 2000.
January 19 – Football’s lawmaking body, the International FA Board, has confirmed that video assistant refereeing will be the main focus of attention at Monday’s interim business meeting in Zurich.