November 29 – There are more Brazilian players playing outside their home country in Europe’s top 31 leagues than any other nation. Though there are more French players playing outside of France in the Big Five leagues than there are Brazilians.
By Paul Nicholson
November 28 – German and Chinese governments have signed the equivalent of a football trade deal – the first of its kind between two governments – China’s vice-premier Liu Yandong and German chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel signed the partnership which will run for an initial five years.
By Paul Nicholson
November 28 – Growth in new twitter followers this week across the Premier League is up to 0.42% from 0.37% last week – or in real terms from 166,700 to 187,300. Manchester United still top the weekly table but Chelsea are gently showing a return to form and favour after a halving of weekly gains from 12 months ago, due to a drop in form and the unsavoury antics of former manager Jose Mourinho.
By Paul Nicholson
November 28 – Suning Sports, owners of China Super League club Jiangsu Suning and majority owners of Italy’s Internazionale, opened its flagship retail store in Nanjing’s Olympic Sports Centre. The store sell merchandise from both clubs and offers entertainment based experiences as well as retail.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 28 – Wrong refereeing decisions not only change games but can wreck seasons and even lead to coaches being sacked. But one Atlético Madrid fan is so incensed over what happened in last season’s Champions League final that he is suing UEFA for damages.
November 28 – Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers has approved plans to privatise its football clubs after consultancy firm Deloitte conducted a year-long feasibility study.
November 28 – Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, the self-styled Special One, prides himself on setting records. But his latest “achievement” will hardly go down as one of his most admirable.
November 28 – The English Football Association has confirmed it is investigating allegations of sexual abuse in youth football after more ex-professionals came forward with stories of their suffering.
By David Owen
November 28 – Patrons wishing to hire a private suite for next year’s Confederations Cup final in Saint Petersburg face prices of up to almost $50,000 under packages being advertised by Match Hospitality, exclusive rights-holder of FIFA’s hospitality programme at the eight-team competition.
By Paul Nicholson
November 25 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Competitions Committee is proposing a revamp of the AFC Cup, the confederations cup competition for clubs that come from the AFC’s lower ranked member nations. On what was a packed meeting agenda, changes to ranking criteria and a hard look at foreign player quotas were put forward.
It’s the ultimate catch-22 question for ambitious club owners and coaches. How do you fund an expensive new stadium while at the same time build a competitive title-contending team?
November 25 – The growth of new Instagram followers to Premier League clubs in the week to November 20 has remained steady with another 276,000 plus sign-ons matching the previous week. What is emerging is a pattern of the biggest clubs putting on huge numbers of followers, in contrast to the 12 lowest ranked clubs adding less than 2,000 followers each.
November 25 – Inter Milan, one of the world’s most iconic clubs but currently struggling in Serie A despite being taken over by Chinese investors, have suffered the ultimate humiliation after being knocked out of the Europa League – baby brother of the Champions League – with a game to spare.
November 25 – English football has been rocked by revelations of sexual abuse inflicted on a raft of ex-professionals who have come forward to provide details of their suffering when they were children at the hands of youth coaches.
November 25 – FIFA is facing a lawsuit in a Zurich court over its ban on transferring players under the age of 18, one of its most contentious rules that has already led to severe sanctions imposed on Spain’s three largest clubs.