July 2 – Germany have a fully-fit squad to chose from for the clash of the familiar heavyweight foes after Jerome Boateng, Julian Draxler and Sami Khedira recovered from minor injuries. Italy will assess key midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who was forced off against Spain with a thigh injury and who has been crucial for Antonio Conte’s side as they upset pre-tournament predictions.
By Paul Nicholson
July 1 – Controversial Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president, David John-Williams, has officially declared his candidacy for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) presidency, amid claims that he has misused TTFA funds to finance his campaign and that he has been given significant political backing from CONCACAF and FIFA in return for his support of their new presidents Victor Montagliani (pictured) and Gianni Infantino.
By Paul Nicholson
July 1 – Spain’s LaLiga has officially rebranded itself for the 2016/17 season with the ending of the BBVA title sponsorship deal. LaLiga and LaLiga2 are now the official names for the top two tiers of the league.
The largest corruption threat to football is the one that its administrators frequently seem most reluctant to face aggressively. Match-fixing cannot be swept under the carpet but the anti-match-fixing fight does need more funding and the acceptance of objective benchmarks to evaluate the independence of the governing bodies in the front line.
July 1 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has banned two Thai referees for life for involvement in match-fixing following a meeting of its disciplinary committee.
July 1 – Saudi Arabia is the latest Asian country to probe possible match fixing in the kingdom’s top football league.
By Samindra Kunti in Lille
July 1 – Up to a 100,000 Belgian fans will make the trip across the French-Belgian border to Lille for the Euro 2016 quarter-final with Wales.
July 1 – The Romanian public prosecutor has charged an emergency doctor with the manslaughter of former Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng who collapsed during a league match for Dinamo Bucharest in May and died of heart failure.
July 1 – Following the lacklustre first Euro 2016 quarterfinal, this one has all the makings of a mouth-watering affair between the side currently ranked No. 2 in the world and outsiders Wales for whom this is the biggest match since the 1958 World Cup.
July 1 – This weekend Premier League Manchester City are throwing their doors open to fans in what is called a ‘Cityzens Weekend’ to celebrate the arrival of Pep Guardiola and the launch of club’s new badge, website and home kit.
July 1 – All 1,818 doping test taken from European Championship players have so far tested negative. UEFA says 354 samples collected at matches and analysed by the WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry outside Paris added to the 1,464 that were taken out-of-competition since January 1.
June 30 – EA Sports has launched an investigation following reports of a “chemistry inconsistency” in FIFA’s 2016 Ultimate Team (FUT) game that has prompted scores of complaints from players demanding a boycott of the game over fears they’re being cheated.
June 30 – With rumours raging that Manchester United are about to announce the signing of Swedish striker Zoltan Ibrahimovic, the club have confirmed that they have added an extra overseas game to the pre-season tour…in Sweden.
June 30 – Sports media service company Deltatre, which provides data and broadcast solutions for clients including UEFA, FIFA, and the English Premier League, has been acquired by fast growing US sports investor Bruin Sports Capital. No figure has been disclosed for the deal but Deltatre’s two founders, Giampiero Rinaudo and Luca Marini, will “keep significant minority shares”.
June 30 – The Euro 2016 quarter finals start tonight with Poland and Portugal battling for the right to face either Wales or Belgium in the semi-final. Portugal can consider themselves highly fortunate to have got this far having failed to impress, but they are still in the competition and this could be the time when they produce the big performance everyone has been waiting for.