By David Owen
January 9 – Roman Abramovich pumped a further £33.8 million into Chelsea in the Premier League champions’ last financial year. The figure is included in the West London club’s accounts for the year to 30 June 2017 which have now arrived at Companies House.
January 9 – German prosecutors have opened an attempted murder investigation after a German-Turkish player known for his pro-Kurdish views was shot at on a motorway.
January 9 – The suspect in the attack on Borussia Dortmund’s team bus that led to last season’s Champions League quarter-final with AS Monaco being postponed for 24 hours has admitted to carrying out the attack but says he did not intend to kill or injure anyone.
January 9 – Swansea City’s majority owners have suspended talks to acquire a further 10% of the club’s shares – they currently hold 68% – while they focus “time, energy and resources” into battling relegation. The club are currently bottom of the Premier League.
January 9 – Chelsea’s redevelopment of their Stamford Bridge stadium has been put back another year with the club now unlikely to move into the new ground until 2024, but perhaps even in 2025.
January 9 – In a move that western human rights groups – and perhaps others closer to home – may view with some scepticism, Saudi Arabian women are being allowed to attend major domestic football matches for the first time.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 8 – When the draw is made for the last 32 of the world’s oldest and most revered domestic cup competition this evening, the name of one club will be conspicuous by its absence in the famous velvet bag.
January 8 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has boosted its anti-matchfixing armoury via a renewed deal with Sportradar that will see the sports integrity specialists expand their servies to include investigations beyond just identifying fraud on the pitch.
January 8 – Zimbabwe’s, under the oversight of new Sports Minister Raymond Kazembe, is working to put the sport’s finances on a more solid footing, with an extraordinary general meeting of ZIFA having been arranged and a new sponsorship for key teams in the offing. Meanwhile it has emerged ZIFA President Philip Chiyangwa earned $72,000 in 2017 from renting out his offices to the association.
January 8 – Mind games between managers are nothing new. Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson was a past master at it.
January 8 – The non-FIFA Confederation of International Football Associations (CONIFA) ratified the membership of Yorkshire on Saturday. Yorkshire will play its first friendly against the Isle of Man in January.
January 8 – Oman is celebrating only its second ever Gulf cup title but last Friday’s victory over the United Arab Emirates was marred by at least 40 fans being injured after a glass barrier collapsed.
January 8 – Manchester City’s holding company City Football Group (CFG) is exploring further club expansion with India, the world’s second most populous nation, looking like the next market for acquisition.
January 8 – Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger may be enduring arguably the toughest period of his Arsenal career but he has friends in a number of high places not least Liberia where newly elected George Weah, who has made the remarkable transition from world-famous footballer to president, has invited him to his inauguration later this month.
January 8 – The protracted transfer of Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool to Barcelona has finally gone through with the Catalan giants paying what will effectively amount to the third highest fee of all time to land the coveted Brazilian playmaker.