January 18 – Italian bank Unicredit will not be renewing its official sponsorship of UEFA club competitions, including the Champions League, when its deal runs out at the end of the 2017/18 season, according to Unicredit CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier.
January 18 – The two confederations representing the Americas are reportedly studying the idea of creating a brand new competition featuring the leading countries in both regions.
January 18 – The English Football Association is considering introducing retrospective bans on players who dive or feign injury.
By Paul Nicholson
January 17 – KPMG’s Football Benchmark team has released their European Champions Report 2017. The findings might not be revolutionary in terms of new numbers but it is thought-provoking when looking at a Europe-wide view. The analysis, based on hard financial data, do show a huge swing from the days of spending big to win big, to a more sustainable management model.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – FIFA faces accusations of buck-passing and shirking its responsibility after effectively telling Liverpool to make up their own minds and suffer the consequences over whether to select Cameroon defender Joel Matip after he declined to represent his country in the African Nations Cup.
January 17 – Watford showed the largest percentage growth in Twitter followers in the Premier League this week, as it led the mourning over the sudden death of Graham Taylor, a legendary manager at the club. Hull City, with new manager Marco Silva beginning to hit his stride, led the ranking of clubs tweeting the most.
January 17 – Neymar and not Leonel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo is the most valuable player in Europe, at €246.8 million, according to a new study which values 10 players at more than €100 million.
January 17 – He may still be fighting extradition to the United States over corruption charges but banned former FIFA powerbroker Jack Warner shows no sign of staying silent when it comes to domestic footballing affairs.
By Samindra Kunti
January 17 – The CAF executive committee has withdrawn the hosting right for this year’s U17 African Cup of Nations from Madagascar.
January 17 – CONCACAF has launched a high level initiative in conjunction with Mexican federation FEMEXFUT to boost the standard of referring and coaching at the top levels of its member federations.
January 17 – Already embroiled in the 2006 World Cup bid scandal, German football has suffered another internal administrative blow with the premature departure of sporting director Hansi Flick, with former under-21 coach Horst Hrubesch hauled out of retirement to temporarily replace him.
January 17 – A former English league coach has denied eight child abuse offences in the 1980s in a case that came to light late last year, one of many that rocked the sport when several ex-players came forward to describe their suffering.
By Paul Nicholson
January 16 – After a number of government warnings, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has confirmed that it is stepping in to end the gravy train of European-based players’ big money transfers to Chinese Super League clubs.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – An Israeli-based media watchdog has sent a detailed and highly damning file on Palestine football leader Jibril Rajoub to FIFA in the latest tit-for-tat exchange over the sensitive issue over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian players and officials in the occupied territories.
January 16 – The British sponsorship consultant widely acknowledged as one of the pioneers of modern sports marketing has described as “absurd” FIFA’s decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.