By Mark Baber
July 17 – The Premier League, supported by UEFA and other sports organisations, secured a landmark judgment in the High Court on Tuesday requiring the six main UK-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to live streaming site First Row Sports.
July 17 – Online gambling company Bwin.party has agreed a three-year digital sponsorship deal with Italian champions Juventus, its fourth partnership with a top European team.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 17 – Leading football clubs in India have hit out against moves to stage a rival tournament to the national league inspired by cricket’s cash-rich IPL that attracts top international names.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 17 – Brazil’s controversial World Cup law, which gives FIFA the guarantees it needs to stage the tournament next year but has constantly plagued preparations, has again fallen into the spotlight with the country’s federal prosecutor challenging the legality of the legislation.
A foreign owner jetting in to buy a club always produces the same response. The fans hope he will be another Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour. Then reality sets in and the fans, who so enthusiastically welcomed the new owner, act like jilted lovers and cannot contain their anger. So how should the Fulham fans treat Florida-based Shahid Khan’s purchase of Fulham?
The first thing to be said is the sale was no surprise.
By Mark Baber
July 16 – President of FC Shakhtar Donetsk, Rinat Akhmetov (pictured) has declared that a possible Ukrainian-Russian joint football league should be advantageous, first and foremost, to Ukrainian football.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
June 16 – What was supposed to be a summer of optimism and celebration for Turkish football has turned into a summer to forget. As well as the highly publicised UEFA bans on Fenerbahce and Besiktas over match fixing allegations, the Turkish authorities struggled to get it right when it came to staging the under-20 World Cup, known alternatively as the World Youth Cup.
By Mark Baber
July 16 – The English Football Association has announced its backing for London’s bid to host the 2018 Gay Games. A team from the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) is currently carrying out an inspection of London’s facilities,
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Two of Turkey’s three biggest clubs, Fenerbahce and Besiktas, have failed in their bids to get their forthcoming European bans overturned, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport now their only remaining avenue.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Just when Asian football is striving to improve its image and develop the game, Australian coach Holger Osieck (pictured) has attacked Asian clubs for failing to release a number of his players for the East Asian Cup, which starts on Saturday in Seoul.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Al Jazeera’s increasing influence as a major player in televised sport has been underlined by the announcement that the Qatar-based broadcaster has bought exclusive rights to screen England’s Premier League in the Middle East and North Africa for three years starting with the coming season.
July 16 – Chelsea FC partners Sauber Motorsport AG of Zurich, Switzerland, has landed a substantial commercial deal that will catapult the firm, and its partners, into a new era in Formula One.
July 15 – Nigerian women footballers at the FCT (Federal Capital Territory) Queens football club are being forced into begging and even prostitution to survive following the failure to pay their wages.
What do Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Fulham have in common? Okay, they are all members of English Premier League but that’s not the answer I’m looking for.
The answer I’m looking for is they are also now controlled by American owners or majority shareholders, Fulham being the latest to join that particular ‘club’ for a reported £200m.
Not so long ago, the notion that almost a third of top-flight English clubs would be in American hands 13 years into the new millennium would have been dismissed as fanciful given the fact that professional football,
By Andrew Warshaw
July 15 – Mohamed Al Fayed, one of the most colourful figures in English football, has ended his 16-year stint as boss of Fulham by selling the iconic west London club to Shahid Khan (pictured on left of Fayed), owner of NFL side Jacksonville Jaguars in the United States.