June 17 – In a test of character, France laboured past a stubborn Austria 1-0 to open their account at Euro 2024 with three points, but star player Kylian Mbappé left the play with blood streaming from his face.
June 17 – The most unwanted label in football has to be the ‘Golden Generation’ – just ask England circa 2002-06. At Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, Belgium’s ‘GG’ were keen to prove that the label, which has hung heavily around their necks since 2014, still had some luster left.
By Paul Nicholson
December 12 – The five-year deal between Scotland’s SPFL and sports betting content hub IMG Arena will see a big step forward for sports broadcast technology company Pixellot in the European football market.
December 12 – The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in its new budget for 2020 is predicting a 41% growth in revenues to €316 million, primarily fuelled by the new money from the estimated €120 million deal with Saudi Arabia to stage its revamped Super Cup competition.
December 12 – The German FA vice-president Rainer Koch will not run for a seat on the FIFA Council, the DFB announced on Thursday. His candidacy has been withdrawn in favour of the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) Noël Le Graët.
December 11 – The head of the umbrella organisation representing Europe’s domestic leagues has launched yet another broadside against plans to revamp the Champions League saying his organisation is “tired” of threats about a breakaway super league.
By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 11 – Suketu Patel, a former leading official of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), who was at the centre of negotiations for the 12-year $1 billion marketing deal with French company Lagardere Sports (LS), is predicting that the contract’s recent cancellation will lead to “a very difficult period” for CAF.
December 11 – Irish police are reported to be investigating a series of threats made against staff at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), leading to increased security at the federation’s Dublin headquarters.
December 11 – With the winter transfer window looming, KPMG Football Benchmark has updated its players’ value estimates and ranked players by most increased value since the start of the season.
December 11 – Liverpool are backing calls by human rights groups for thorough investigations into the deaths of migrant workers in Qatar – before the club flies out next week for the Club World Cup.
December 11 – FIFA were the target of spying and hacking by the United Arab Emirates as US intelligence agents helped the Emirate to build a secret surveillance unit, a Reuters report has revealed.
December 10 – With the threat of broadcast disruption from the broadcast streaming giants and sports ambitious social networks looming over the traditional broadcast industry, and pay tv networks in particular, a distribution deal between Canal+ Group and beIN Sports in France could indicate a trend towards a new pathway for established rights holders.
December 11 – No sooner had he guided Napoli into the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday than Carlo Ancelotti, one of Europe’s most successful coaches, was sacked .
By Andrew Warshaw
December 10 – Quick to point the finger at football-fuelled racism elsewhere in Europe, the English game is going through a period of intense soul-searching following a spate of instances over the weekend from the Premier League to the fourth tier, one of the alleged culprits being as young as 13 years old.
December 10 – A Spanish court has cleared 36 players and five others of match-fixing relating to a top-flight survival decider between Levante and Real Zaragoza in the final round of the 2010-11 season.
By David Owen in Lausanne
December 10 – The bizarre spectacle of a Russian football team qualifying for the 2022 World Cup as Russia, but then being obliged to assume a neutral guise in the finals was conjured up on Monday at a press conference featuring leading figures from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the bowels of a Swiss hotel.
December 10 – Organisers of the Club World Cup, which kicks off on Wednesday in Qatar, have been left red-faced after being forced to switch the venue for the tournament’s showpiece final because the so-called Education City Stadium is not ready.