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.
January 19 – FIFA are again reported to be investigating Chelsea over possible breaches surrounding signing under-age players. And once again the club are denying any wrongdoing.
January 19 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS has lifted a five-year ban imposed on Senegalese club US Ouakam. In July 2017 eight people were killed by a stampede at the game US Ouakam – Stade de Mbour during Senegal’s cup final.
January 19 – With the Winter transfer window open but the market relatively cold in comparison to the last overheated Summer transfer window bonanza, the CIES Football Observatory has produced an analysis of the destinations of the players from the three main exporting countries of Brazil, Argentina and France.
January 19 – Manchester United have signed a new three-year deal with Lancashire-based sports nutrition company Science in Sport plc (SiS). Beginning immediatedly the deal will run thorough to end of May 2021.
By David Owen
January 18 – Manchester United has by far the highest net debt among European football clubs, according to the latest UEFA Club Licensing Benchmarking Report, published this week.