March 17 – English Premier League club Hull City have been given the go-ahead to change their name to Hull Tigers next season – a move that seems bound to infuriate diehard fans of the club.
March 17 – The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has reported a number of players to law enforcement agencies over allegations they bet on their own team to lose.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – Ukraine’s government is back on the offensive over a potential boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia with organisers countering that such a move would be doomed to failure.
By Paul Nicholson
March 17 – The New York Cosmos, one of the world’s most iconic football club names, has announced that they will travel to Cuba for a friendly match against the Cuban national team on June 2. The Cosmos will be the first professional sports team to play in Cuba since 1999.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 16 – Serie A has extended its long-running sponsorship with Telecom Italia. The Italian top tier will partner with the company, through its mobile phone brand TIM, until 2018.
March 17 – Manchester United have launched their own on-line casino in partnership with the club’s online gaming and betting partner bwin. Played online and via an app, the 3D casino is set against the backdrop of Old Trafford.
“Economy is half the battle of life; it is not so hard to earn money as to spend it well.” Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon was the 19th Century preacher whose sermons taught millions of Victorian Londoners how to apply Christian virtues to life in an often-Hogarthian city. His mark was far from permanent: Spurgeon’s famous fondness for self-restraint has hardly left behind a city steeped in self-denial. He would no doubt be dismayed by a nation that has responded to the financial crisis by gorging itself on debt.
By David Owen
March 17 – FIFA has backed down over the inclusion of the Amazonian city of Manaus on the list of venues for the Rio 2016 Olympic football tournaments.
By Mark Baber
March 16 – The attempt by the Kenyan Football Federation (FKF) to put an end to the Kenyan Premier League (KPL) by taking matters to the civil courts was defeated comprehensively in the Kenyan High Court this morning as the Judge ruled the FKF does not have the capacity to sue.
March 16 – Barcelona may be holding on to their lead in La Liga but off the field the club have become ever more deeply embroiled in the Neymar tax fraud case.
By Mark Baber
March 16 – The release of a video clip by The Sun newspaper, showing England and Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney apparently knocked out whilst engaged in a boxing match with former team-mate Phil Bardsley, is largely being treated as a private matter and a hook for various one-liners.
March 16 – Italian crisis club Parma, thumped again 4-1 at the weekend, have had two more points deducted by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for failing to pay their players’ salaries.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – Brunei’s football federation has sought to play down reports that it will be supporting Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.
March 16 – In a week when FIFA is due to announce the dates for the first ever winter World Cup in 2022, Sepp Blatter is keeping up the pressure on hosts Qatar to improve conditions for migrant workers.
By Paul Nicholson
March 16 – Manchester United continued their dominance of the Premier League Twitter chart for the fourth consecutive week, putting on more than 44,000 new followers, more than 7,000 more than nearest rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.