By Paul Nicholson
October 21 – Asia will have a new world champion tonight in a FIFA competition the Asian Football Confederation has dominated since its inception. The final of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, being played in Amman, Jordan, features defending champions Japan against AFC champions DPR Korea.
October 21 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is poised to beef up its governance procedures with a raft of reform proposals to include an AFC whistleblower policy, new anti-bribery and corruption measures and, crucially, a commercial strategy paper for future rights sales.
October 21 – Newly appointed Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, promoted from sports minister, says he may stand down as president of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
October 21 – The sale of Premier League Hull City now appears to be a race between three different parties, two of them from China and a third group believed to be predominantly European money.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 21 – American marketing executive Aaron Davidson has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the US-led probe into football corruption and has had his trial set for April 24 next year.
October 21 – New UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has given the biggest hint yet that a bidding process will be put in place for staging UEFA’s major club finals.
October 21 – KPMG Football Benchmark has launched a new iteration of its football business data platform.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 20 – The election of Asian candidates to FIFA’s new-look ruling Council looks set to be rescheduled for late February or early March – in time to take up their seats before the FIFA Congress in Bahrain in May.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 20 – He may be regarded as one of the most sought-after and tactically astute modern-minded club coaches in world football but for all his achievements and aspirations, Pep Guardiola, perhaps for the first time, is having to swallow his fair share of disappointment to maintain his remarkable record of success.
By Samindra Kunti
October 20 – The hosts Gabon have been handed a favorable draw for the 2017 African Cup of Nations alongside Cameroon, Burkina Faso and the debutants Guinea-Bissau in Group A. Group B has been dubbed the group of death, comprising Algeria and Senegal, two of Africa’s strongest teams.
October 20 – The protracted sale of English Premier League club Hull City to a Chinese consortium looks to have moved closer to fruition in a potential deal worth £130 million.
By Paul Nicholson
October 20 – Arsenal topped Manchester United in the weekly Twitter followers table for the second week running. The Gunners’ 52,900 new followers is a marked jump for the club, in comparison to the tail off in growth Man Utd are experiencing.
October 19 – Manchester City turned British media heads when they travelled to Barcelona for their Champions League match. Gone was the (often) scruffy suit and tie look of overgrown schoolboys on tour and in came a modern, casually smart denim look. Even assistant manager Brian Kidd managed to carry off the style change.
October 20 – History was been made in Djibouti this week with the first official football final being played outside the capital. The 35th edition of the Djiboutian Super Cup was hosted at the sports complex in the Ali Sabeih region.
October 20 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspurs ground redevelopment and associated regeneration of the local area is starting to win awards. The Cannon Road development has been named Affordable Housing development of the year by Inside Housing magazine.