If I were FIFA, I think I would be just a little concerned about this week’s 12-year sponsorship deal between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – In a potential landmark ruling that could have far-reaching consequences, a Belgian court has found FIFA and the Belgian FA (KBVB) jointly guilty of obstructing former Real Madrid midfielder Lassana Diarra’s transfer to Charleroi in 2015 and has ordered them to pay him €6 million.
January 20 – Major League Soccer has unveiled giant retailer Target as a new sponsor in a multi-year deal that begins this season. This is the first football (soccer) sponsorship for Target who also announced they would become MLS expansion side Minnesota United’s shirt sponsor.
By Samindra Kent
January 20 – Senegal are the first team to progress to the quarter-finals of the 2017 African Cup of Nations after a commanding 2-0 win against Zimbabwe. The fortunes of favorites Algeria took a dent following a surprise defeat against rivals Tunisia.
January 20 – The pattern of growth in Facebook Likes has been remarkable over the past five weeks as Manchester City had a growth of nearly 330,000 followers, nearly matching Manchester United’s 388,000 – on the face of it a major step forward for the blue side of the City.
January 20 – The Chinese FA is set introduce a €30 million transfer cap on foreign players as part of an 18-point plan designed to take some of the overheating out of a Chinese soccer market where money seems to have become no object.
January 20 – AFC Champions League holders Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors from South Korea have been banned from all Asian Football Confederation competition in 2017, preventing them from being able to defend their title. The sanction carries out the hard stance taken by AFC that it will have a zero tolerance attitude towards any form of match-fixing.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 20 – East Timor has been kicked out of the 2023 Asian Cup and fined $76,000 for fielding several Brazilian-born footballers with fake documents, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced today.
January 20 – A British worker has lost his life working on Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar which will host the group matches and a quarter final at the 2022 World Cup.
January 2 – Germany’s Bundesliga will become the first major league to use video assistant referees next season for game-changing decisions.
January 20 – An American consortium looking to secure a deal to takeover former European champions Nottingham Forest say a revised bid has been rejected.
January 20 – Long-time Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, one of the most knowledgeable coaches of global footballing trends, says top-flight players should opt for playing a better standard rather than automatically take the money by moving to China.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 19 – UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin sees no “rational or legal grounds” to strip Russia of the 2018 World Cup despite the recent doping scandal combined with persistent instances of racism and the ongoing probe by Swiss authorities into the bid process.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 19 – Not to be outdone by the innovations of his boss Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s new technical director Marco van Basten has come up with arguably the most ground-breaking blueprint ever for the future of football including scrapping offside and introducing sin-bins in place of yellow cards.
By Paul Nicholson
January 19 – Manchester United have emphatically beaten Barcelona and Real Madrid to the top of the Deloitte Football Money League, beating second place Barca by almost €69 million. Eight Premier League clubs were in the top 20 that collectively generated a record €7.4 billion in the 2015/16 period – more than FIFA generates in its four-year cycle.