By Samindra Kunti
April 26 – The Brazilian FA, the CBF, have kicked off a week of seminars discussing the future of Brazilian football. Brazil coach Carlos Dunga (pictured) and Italy coach Antonio Conte opened the proceedings.
April 26 – A reduced fixture list for Round 35 of the Premier League saw Leicester City and Spurs topping the attendance capacity chart and Aston Villa a long way off at the bottom – a direct reflection of their league positions.
By Mark Baber
April 26 – Whilst on the pitch, FC Bayern are within sight of a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble, off the pitch the club have signed a new partnership with American multi-national consumer goods company Procter and Gamble.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – The dream is almost a reality. One of the most miraculous achievements in English football history is within touching distance. Leicester City, 5000 to 1 outsiders at the start of the season to capture their first ever league title, will do exactly that if they win at Manchester United next weekend.
April 26 – A campaign that seeks to tackle poor nutrition to enhance grassroots football, including amongst thousands of refugees in camps across northern Jordan, is the latest initiative of the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP).
April 26 – Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League finalists Club America and Tigres UANL are taking part in educational workshops today, on the eve of the final, to raise awareness of diversity and send messages of inclusion and respect.
April 26 – The best goalkeeper in Europe’s Big-5 leagues this year is Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer and the worst is, not surprisingly, American Brad Guzan who has had a miserable season at a miserable Aston Villa.
By Mark Baber
April 25 – The Nigerian soap opera continues as rival groups claim to represent the official Nigerian Football Federation – with the appointment of a dead referee as match official symptomatic of the chaos in the country’s football administration.
April 25 – Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly in discussion about moving some of their home games next season to Wembley as capacity at White Hart Lane may be reduced by more than initially expected and at an earlier stage under the rebuild plans.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Sepp Blatter may no longer be the centre of world attention and be banned from the sport he controlled for 18 years. But he has certainly not gone to ground and insists he is still in big demand.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – Harold Mayne-Nicholls (pictured), who led the FIFA inspection team that evaluated the credentials of all 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding candidates, has had his ban from all football-related activities reduced on appeal from seven to three years – another blow to the supposed independent judgement of FIFA’s ethics chiefs.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 25 – The climax to Liverpool’s first season under their charismatic German manager Jurgen Klopp, highlighted by reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League this week, has been marred by their highly rated £18 million central defender Mamadou Sakho being unavailable at the worst possible time after failing a drugs test.
By Paul Nicholson
April 24 – Swiss based sports data group Sportradar has widened the base of its business with the acquisition of German rights agency sportsman media holding. The German business stretches from media rights representation and sports marketing, to production services, digital platforms, digital services, as well as providing services for betting platforms, and takes Sportradar into new areas.
April 25 – Costa Rica has stepped up to more hosting duties in the CONCACAF region picking up the 2017 Under-20 Championship which acts as the qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, to be played in South Korea in 2017.
April 25 – The lawmakers of world football, the International FA Board, have invited leagues and associations interested in running experiments with video replays to a first workshop on the ground-breaking innovation in Amsterdam next month.