By Paul Nicholson
April 28 – Football focus may be on end season results and the upcoming Copa America and European Championships, but behind the scenes the Women’s game is making its own mark breaking new ground in unusual places.
April 28 – Sepp Blatter has reportedly been requested to attend Michel Platini’s eagerly awaited Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) appeal hearing on Friday as a witness in a last-ditch attempt by the Frenchman to clear his name.
April 28 – The head of the British police force at the centre of the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster has been suspended following this week’s sensational verdict that the 96 victims were unlawfully killed.
April 28 – France and Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho looks certain to miss this summer’s Euros in his homeland – as well as the rest of the English domestic season – after accepting the result of a failed drug test.
April 28 – The locations of the Official FIFA Fan Fest venues in the 11 cities hosting Russia 2018 World Cup matches have been announced by the Local Organising Committee. In total the sites will have a combined capacity of 267,000.
April 28 – UEFA has launched an online transport services partnership with the digital platform Fanzone, designed to facilitate new transportation networks for fans at Euro 2016 tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 27 – The damning unlawful killing verdict in Britain’s worst ever sporting tragedy may have brought justice after 27 years but attention now switches to whether criminal prosecutions will follow.
By Andrew Warshaw and Mark Baber
April 27 – Croatia’s anti-corruption authorities say they have charged three current and former officials from 17-time champions Dinamo Zagreb with tax evasion and siphoning off profits from player transfers – including a senior Croatian FA official who Insideworldfootball has discovered is a member of a leading FIFA trouble-shooting body.
By Matt Scott
April 27 – The most unusual Premier League season in the competition’s 23-year history has made the commercial messaging markedly easier for executives selling sponsorship inventory around the world’s most popular domestic football competition.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 27 – The far-reaching reform package which FIFA hopes will regain the trust of fans around the world has formally come into effect – but the soon-to-be-scrapped executive committee remains intact for a few more months.
April 27 – Spain-based ISDE (Institute of Higher Learning in Law and Economics) has launched a masters course in sports management and legal skills that will be run from its Barcelona offices but also linking with the city’s football club FCB Barcelona.
By Matt Scott
April 27 – Tag Heuer has become the Premier League’s Official Timekeeper in a three-year deal announced simultaneously in London and Hong Kong. No official value for the deal was released but one estimate reckons it to be worth £7.3 million per season.
April 27 – German club SC Freiburg who currently lead 2. Bundesliga will have a new main and short sponsor next season, whether they make it to the top flight or not.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – The 96 Liverpool fans who died in Britain’s worst ever sporting disaster were unlawfully killed, the longest inquest case in British legal history dramatically concluded today.
April 26 – The first game to mark West Ham’s controversial move to London’s Olympic stadium that was the centre of world sporting attention in 2012 will be a friendly against newly crowned Italian champions Juventus.