By David Owen
August 17 – In six and a half decades, RB Leipzig, who take on one of the Middle East-backed super-clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, in Lisbon on Tuesday night, will be the first team from eastern Germany to appear in a Champions League/European Cup semi-final.
August 17 – Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has finally broken his silence over the doomed £300 million Saudi-led bid to buy English Premier League club Newcastle United.
August 17 – Armenian football, which has been so plagued by match-fixing that it abandoned its second tier league, has announced a new sponsorship deal with online bookmaker brand VBET, owned by BetConstruct.
August 17 – The political protests sweeping through Belarus have spilled over into football with CSKA Moscow’s Belarusian striker Ilya Shkurin (pictured) saying he won’t play for his country until President Alexander Lukashenko steps down.
August 17 – Goa will be the central venue for the 2020 Indian Super League, organisers have announced.
August 17 – Is Lionel Messi about to light up the English Premier League? Rumours are rife that Messi wants to leave Barcelona following last week’s 8-2 Champions league humiliation – and that Manchester City, themselves desperate hunting for exciting new players, could be his destination.
August 17 – Qatar Airways has added Tunisia’s Club Africain to its growing global sponsorship portfolio in a new 3-year deal.
August 17 – Confectionary business Mondelēz International has added a fourth Premier League club to its sponsorship roster, with its Cadbury brand becoming the Official Snacking Partner of Arsenal.
By Paul Nicholson
August 14 – Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge Carol Gobin has ruled against FIFA’s application to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by former TTFA board members over their replacement with a normalisation committee.
August 14 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says sweeping changes will have to be made to Financial Fair Play rules in the wake of Manchester City’s successful appeal against a ban from the Champions League.
August 14 – The world’s oldest domestic knockout competition, England’s FA Cup, is to be radically restructured next season to help ease fixture congestion with all replays scrapped in every round.
August 14 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched another attack on his successor Gianni Infantino, claiming the present incumbent “thinks he is untouchable” and should have an ethics inquiry opened against him immediately.
August 14 – Major League Soccer’s expansion team in St. Louis will officially be known as St. Louis City Soccer Club. The team has also unveiled its official colours and logo.
August 14 – Western Union have pulled out of their shirt five-year sleeve sponsorship with Premier League champions Liverpool with two seasons left on the deal.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 13 – With a couple of minutes left on the clock, one of the great romantic upsets was on the cards. In France, pens were being sharpened in anticipation of pouring scorn on yet another Champions League under-achieving failure by the country’s moneybags superstar team.