October 23 – English Football Association chairman Greg Clarke wants concussion substitutes to be introduced “as quickly as possible” in the wake of a highly publicised report which found a higher incidence of neurodegenerative disease among former footballers than in the population as a whole.
October 23 – Three Chelsea fans are potentially facing lifetime bans for racial abuse – against one of their own.
October 23 – Real Madrid top a ranking of Big 5 league clubs who have the trained the most players active in professional football.
October 23 – The sports rights geo-political battle being waged in the middle east between Qatari broadcaster beIN Sport and Saudi Arabian-supported channels and broadcast rights interests, has taken a new twist.
October 23 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has moved the AFC Cup 2019 final from Pyongyang in North Korea to Shanghai.
By Richard Heller
October 11, 2019 will go down in football history. Andorra won its first match in the European Championships, ending a run of 56 consecutive defeats. Fewer than a thousand fans were at the Estadi Nacional to see Marc Vales head the hosts into a shock lead against Moldova in the 63rd minute. Then the Andorran defence stood tall to protect it, as befits their mountain nation (current population 77,000 or so) which has preserved its independence against powerful neighbours for centuries.
October 23 – Yet another incident of racism has plagued English football with Manchester United indefinitely banning a supporter who allegedly directed racist abuse at a Liverpool player in Sunday’s globally televised 1-1 draw between the two fierce rivals.
By Paul Nicholson
October 22 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino, on tour in Asia on his way to the FIFA Council meeting in China later this week, has caused controversy in Mongolia following a secret meeting with former Mongolian FA president Ganbold Buyannemekh who was banned by FIFA’s ethics committee for five years in 2014 for soliciting and accepting bribes.
October 22 – A landmark study into the links between football and brain disease has produced alarming results which suggest that professional players are more likely to suffer than others.
October 22 – Serbia have been ordered to play their next home game behind closed doors in the latest sanction imposed by UEFA for racism.
October 22 – An English FA Cup qualifier abandoned at the weekend because of racist abuse when the home players walked off is to be replayed rather than the tie be awarded to either team.
October 22 – South American football governing body Conmebol has confirmed that the 2020 Copa Libertadores final will still be staged in Santiago amid growing fears over the social unrest engulfing the Chilean capital.
October 22 – UEFA has signed three start-up businesses as part of its business innovation drive to develop new technologies and products that will significantly impact the commercial management and promotion of football and its assets.
October 22 – In September the Qataris launched the official emblem for the 2022 World Cup. Last week they launched a new official emblem for this year’s Club World Cup to be played in December.
By David Owen
October 21 – Women’s football is on a roll – and more power to its elbow for that. Nonetheless, the viewing figures for this summer’s Women’s World Cup, released at the end of last week to some fanfare, deserve to be treated with a certain amount of caution.