By Samindra Kunti
May 4 – In what must be one of the most bizarre football threats of all time, newly crowned Indian champions Aizawl FC – who have fallen out with the All India Football Federation over the proposed merger between the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League – have threatened to go on a hunger strike.
May 4 – The Czech football federation says it has been raided by police and its chairman Miroslav Pelta detained in the presence of his lawyer.
May 4 – Australian A-League club owners have rejected the annual A$3.25 million per club financial offer from the Football Federation Australia (FFA) saying that they should receive more money from the new A$56 million per season broadcast deal agreed with Fox Sports.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 4 – Two months after football’s lawmakers gave the green light to experiment with a new tennis-style penalty shootout system, UEFA are employing it at the European under-17 championship, which began in Croatia today.
May 5 – The English Football Association has agreed to trial rugby-style ‘sin bins’ in lower part-time leagues from next season.
May 4 – Tottenham Hotspur have released their SPVRS app for iOS and Android devices that takes users on a tour of the club’s currently being constructed new stadium using Virtual and Augmented Reality technology.
May 4 – China’s Guangzhou Evergrande have been fined US$22,500 and handed a suspended two-match stadium ban by the Asian Football Confederation after their fans unfurled a provocative banner in an Asian Champions League match describing Hong Kong’s independence movement as ‘poison’ and carrying the words: ‘Annihilate British Dogs’.
May 4 – No sooner had Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho bemoaned a packed fixture schedule as the club battle to close its season out with a Champions League qualifying place, than the club triumphantly announce a sixth pre-season friendly, against Norway’s Valerenga on July 30.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – Will they be replaced or given another mandate? Amid growing speculation that FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and chief investigator Cornel Borbely may not have their positions renewed at the upcoming FIFA Congress, confirmation has been made that the entire future of FIFA’s judicial bodies is up for discussion by the ruling Council that precedes the full session in Bahrain.
May 3 – With FIFA focus firmly on politics and scandal, you could be forgiven for missing the progress of the Beach Soccer Cup in the Bahamas which has now reached its quarter final stage.
May 3 – Olympique Marseilles has hired one of the world’s leading advertising and marketing agencies, McCANN France, to carry out a club rebranding, develop a communications strategy and lead the ticket marketing effort for the 2017-18 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 3 – How short-sighted can you get? Pescara’s former Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari has been banned for one game by the Italian FA for walking off the pitch complaining of racist abuse despite being praised by the United Nations’ top human rights official.
May 3 – Sepp Blatter has not spoken in person to United States prosecutors in his native Switzerland despite his previous assertions to the contrary.
May 3 – ‘Points mean prizes’ as the old gameshow catchphrase goes. In football’s version of the gameshow the phrase would more accurately be ‘money wins prizes’ according to the latest analysis of the CIES Football Observatory.
May 3 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed that Mali’s suspension by FIFA has been lifted.