October 19 – Booking.com has become the UEFA’s official accommodation booking partner for national team football competitions in a four-year global deal running from 2018 to 2022.
October 19 – Denmark risk being thrown out of the women’s World Cup after refusing to play Sweden in a qualifier on Friday because of a festering pay dispute with the Danish Football Association (DBU).
October 19 – With the UEFA Champions League group stages gathering momentum, the Champions League of South America, Asia and Africa are all coming to their conclusion with finals taking place this November. KPMG’s Football Benchmark has reviewed the status of these leagues by confederation.
October 19 – One of the MLS’s founding clubs, Columbus Crew, looks set to leave its Columbus, Ohio, home and relocate to Austin, Texas, and a new purpose-built stadium.
By Paul Nicholson
October 19 – Perform Group has bought sports technology company Scout7 adding a deeper level of sports data to its media and professional services businesses. Scout 7 will work closely with Perform’s OtpaPro, developing new “product set” of performance data and scouting solutions.
October 18 – Napoli, out gunned by Manchester City in the Champions League last night, nevertheless lead a ranking of European clubs for the highest figures for shots on target per match this season.
October 18 – Renowned Spanish newspaper Marca has backtracked after publishing an article suggesting that Tottenham Hotspur are hated by rivals fans, not least those of Chelsea and West Ham, because of its “Jewish heritage”.
October 18 – Real Madrid star Marcelo is the latest player to be accused by Spanish authorities of tax fraud, this time totalling €490,000.
October 18 – The backlash against US Soccer federation president Sunil Gulati (pictured) after the US loss to Trinidad & Tobago that saw them fail to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia has continued, and if anything increased in vitriol.
October 18 – FIFA number two Fatma Samoura hopes the criminal investigation launched by Swiss prosecutors into the sale of World Cup rights to the Qatari-owned beIN Media group will not “disrupt” Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Just how short-sighted can you get? If ever a club was the victim of its own success, that club is surely Leicester City. The season before last, Leicester upset every prediction in the book by famously coming from nowhere to win the English Premier League, perhaps the greatest miracle in team sport.
By Samindra Kunti
October 18 – Construction consortium Ghemlanco has proposed a new design and extra funding for the Eurostadium in Brussels in a last-minute effort to push ahead with the controversial project for the 2020 European Championships. UEFA has given a deadline for clarity on the stadium build of November 20.
October 18 – Sweden have arguably drawn the short straw in the European playoffs for next year’s World Cup with a mouth-watering tie against Italy who last failed to qualify back in 1958.
October 18 – Tifosy, the sports crowdfunding platform that enables supporters to invest in clubs, has raised £1 million via crowdfunding for its own rights issue.
October 17 – Players and clubs are supporting UEFA’s #EqualGame message at 58 matches across Europe as part of the Football People action week campaign run by the anti-discrimination group, FARE.