By Andrew Warshaw
September 5 – New manager, same old England – with one sharp difference. A last-gasp stroke of good fortune which perhaps augurs well for the future in terms of team building and confidence.
September 5 – Asia’s top coaches have endorsed the use of video replays in matches at the inaugural Elite Club Coaches’ Forum in Shanghai, China. The coaches felt that the use of technology should be expanded and that video replays in particular protected the referees by being able to check decisions, as well as ensuring wrong decisions were corrected.
September 4 – Say what you like about the way newly-relegated Newcastle United have handled footballing affairs in recent seasons, but it is hard not to admire their business acumen.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 2 – Michael van Praag says European football’s landscape has changed significantly as a result of Brexit and that he is the only candidate for UEFA president with the knowledge and contacts to tackle the problems that lie ahead.
By Paul Nicholson
September 2 – While Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) remain tight-lipped about the possible sale of the club, the Chinese consortium that has made an offer for the club of £800 million is rumoured to be prepared to raise that amount to £1 billion, despite the club’s poor performance last season.
September 2 – The crisis at the Dutch FA, the KNVB, has been exacerbated following the Netherlands’s 1-2 home defeat to Greece and the resignation of director of football Bert Van Oostveen. The KNVB was already struggling to complete its coaching staff.
September 2 – Argentine football is back: the domestic league has resumed and the national team defeated Uruguay 1-0 in World Cup qualifying; but the state of the Argentine FA, the AFA, remains precarious.
September 2 – Asian qualifying for the Russia 2018 World Cup opened with all 12 teams in action and a shock 2-1 for the UAE over Japan. Australia and Saudi Arabia also had campaign opening wins in the group.
September 2 – Video replays, for years rejected by FIFA as too great a step to take in modernising the game, were used for the first time in an international fixture on Thursday and hailed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino as “football history”.
September 2 – With the focus of UEFA’s men Champions League turning to clubs naming their squads for the last group qualifying stages, the Women’s Champions league round of 32 draw was held throwing up a rematch of Wolfsburg vs Chelsea clash from last season.
September 2 – The US overhaul of its youth training and playing structures have continued with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), the world’s largest coaches organisation, unveiling a suite of new coaching education programmes and qualifications that focus on small-sided games.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – Despite continually protesting his innocence over any involvement in manipulating the vote that handed Germany the 2006 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer, his country’s most revered footballing figurehead who led the bid process, is being investigated by Swiss prosecutors as part of a corruption probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – He described his original $2 million pay offer as “insulting” yet now he is getting even less. Or is he? After six months in charge, and having failed to sign a contract that had been on the table since March, Gianni Infantino has now apparently agreed an annual salary of 1.5 million Swiss francs.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – Of all the countries taking part in the forthcoming World Cup qualifying programme, none is surely anticipating the occasion with more relish than Kosovo who make their competitive international debut on Monday. Yet the Balkan state, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, still needs confirmation from FIFA whether a raft of players can switch nationality to join them.
September 1 – Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer has expanded its sponsorship portfolio into Asia agreeing a four-year deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It will become the Official Timekeeper & Official Watch of the AFC’s national competitions including the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Final Round (that starts tonight), the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the AFC Asian Cup in 2019.