January 29 – The British government has been challenged by a group of lawmakers to impose sanctions on two billionaire oligarchs linked to English top-flight clubs following the detention of Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny that has caused outcry among western democracies.
January 29 – Andrea Agnelli, the highly influential Juventus boss and head of the European Clubs Association, has dealt a potential blow to closed-shop European super league talks by instead backing UEFA’s Champions League reforms.
January 29 – On Saturday, Sao Paulo giants Palmeiras and Santos will seek to succeed Flamengo as winners of the Copa Libertadores in a final that will be played behind closed doors at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium.
January 29 – Manchester United say they are “disgusted” after two of their players, Axel Tuanzebe (pictured) and Anthony Martial, were racially abused on social media following Wednesday’s surprise 2-1 Premier League home defeat by bottom-placed Sheffield United.
January 29 – UEFA’s appeals body has upheld a €100,000 fine imposed last November on Qarabağ FK and rejected the club’s appeal.
January 29 – Increasingly concerned about how to manage next summer’s delayed Euro 2020, UEFA has brought in a leading expert in communicable diseases to help with the procedure of somehow letting fans into the 12 stadiums being used for the pan-European tournament.
January 29 – A court of appeal has acquitted Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest owner Vangelis Marinakis (pictured) and 27 others of match-fixing in a case stretching back several years.
January 29 – Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo and the Premier League are the most popular football brands in China’s digital media, but a newly launched David Beckham platform shows there is still power in the old warhorse’s name.
January 29 – FIFA has launched a global safeguarding in sport education programme with the aim of building formal safeguarding capacity across football.
January 29 – Hard on the heels of the AFC’s Champions league draw earlier this week, Concacaf have said they will hoid their 16-team Champions League draw February 10.
January 29 – Manchester City, who returned to top of the Premier League this week, are firing on all cylinders off the pitch as well with another sponsorship announcement indicating the leverage the club’s owner City Football Group brings in terms of opening up sponsorship budgets to its club assets.
By David Owen
January 28 – Match Hospitality agents have committed to record World Cup sales targets, auguring well for the sale of official Qatar 2022 hospitality packages, which gets under way on Monday (February 1).
By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says he remains committed to staging next summer’s delayed Euros in the current format of 12 cities despite recent surges of the coronavirus pandemic across the continent.
January 28 – An unsavoury row has broken out between Barcelona and Paris St Germain over the future of Lionel Messi with the Catalan giants threatening to report the Middle East-owned Ligue 1 champions to FIFA and UEFA.
January 28 – The premium women’s national team competition in Asia, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to be played in India in 2022 will be held January 20 to February 6.