By Paul Nicholson
August 17 – Manchester City owners City Football Group (CFG) look poised to complete the acquisition of their sixth club. La Liga’s Girona, promoted to Spain’s top flight this season, are currently hosting Man City and their management in a four-day training camp that ends today.
The open proceedings in Spain regarding the tax cases of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr.[1], are too often believed to be the same, or at least, very similar cases. Alexander Guede in this column clarifies the different cases and their implications for the individuals and Spanish football.
By Mark Baber
August 17 – Nigerian international Qgenyi Onazi (pictured) has seen his transfer to Birmingham City from Trabzonspor scuppered after he failed to meet the requirements for governing body endorsement and an FA Exceptions Panel failed to rule in his favour.
By Samindra Kunti
August 17 – The president of the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) Marco Peredo resigned on Wednesday, citing “the carnival” that persists in Bolivian football and the resistance to his presidency as his motives.
August 17 – After losing his appeal against a five-match ban for pushing a referee during Sunday night’s Spanish Super Cup 3-1 first-leg victory over Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo, used his Instagram account to claim “This is what you call persecution.”
August 17 – French Ligue 1 side OGC Nice has dipped into its investor pool and pulled out a shirt sleeve sponsor. Chinese hotel brand 7 Days will take the position on the shirt for the start of the Ligue 1 season this weekend.
August 17 – Argentine FA President Claudio Tapia has told the press that it won’t just be him speaking to them in future but that the that national team players will return to doing media interviews and end their boycott.
August 17 – Online bookmaker Betway has signed a three-year deal to become the official betting partner of German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen.
By Mark Baber
August 16 – After analysing transfer activity at Europe’s top 20 clubs, global accountancy network price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) has forecast transfer fees for individual players could surpass £100 million on a regular basis by 2025, with Neymar’s record fee of £198 million coming 5-7 years before trends would have suggested.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – FIFA has again stepped into the Sierra Leone row to protect Isha Johansen, the SLFA president that the world governing body recognises but who football stakeholders and government officials in Sierra Leone argue is holding the position in an unelected capacity after her mandate ended August 3.
August 16 – The new season roll-out of the video assistant referee (VAR) system has been met with criticism in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium after a series of errors. But FIFA is determined to push through the referral system in time for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
August 16 – The Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) has brought in Sportradar to implement its Fraud Detection System across all matches in the country’s national leagues. At the same time the CBF has also launched its own in-house Integrity Department, putting in place an Integrity Officer who will work closely with Sportradar.
August 16 – Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), and Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) are the final three nominees for the 2016/17 UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Awards.
August 26 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has announced a record attendance figure for the league after the first two rounds of fixtures with 230,204 fans attending matches across the league’s four divisions.
August 16 – After two years of suspension, the Libyan Premier League kicked off yesterday (Tuesday) with four matches successfully completed, albeit without spectators officially attending.