By Paul Nicholson
January 31 – With the Chinese Women’s team currently quarantined in a Brisbane hotel until February 5, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) have announced a revamped schedule for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers that will start February 3.
January 31 – Mauritius has followed the lead of South Africa by becoming the second country to pull out of the ongoing Futsal Africa Cup of Nations being staged in Laayoune in the disputed region of Western Sahara.
January 31 – Transfer spending by English Premier League clubs in January increased from last year’s winter window following two major deals on the penultimate day of business.
January 31 – The future of the embattled Irish Football Association (FAI) has been saved after the Irish Government agreed to double its funding and give the federation an interest free loan of €2.5 million annually for the next three years as part of a refinancing arrangement.
January 31 – Brazilian giants Flamengo have taken legal steps against broadcast behemoth TV Globo over the league’s broadcast rights contract. Earlier this season, Flamengo and Globo fell out over a rights deal for Rio de Janeiro’s state championship.
January 31 – Major League Soccer (MLS) and U.S. Soccer have appointed Stats Perfom as their exclusive official data deal with Stats Perform.
January 31 – Beach Soccer World Wide (BSWW), organisers of the Beach Soccer World Cup and the upcoming Mundialito de Clubes in Moscow, has signed a multi-year deal with Puma to become an Official Global Partner.
January 31 – Free to work in football again now that his ban from the game is over, Michel Platini says he is a happy man despite never realising his ambition of running FIFA and instead seeing his reputation shattered.
January 30 – The third Rex Sport/Insideworldfootball conference will be held June 5-6, Barcelona, Spain, at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona. Click here to register your interest in attending and to receive conference information updates.
January 30 – The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has postponed all domestic games due to the coronavirus epidemic as the number of fatalities and infections continues to rise.
January 30 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has extended its integrity partnership with Sportradar aimed at tackling match manipulation and betting fraud in the Asian game. The agreement will run through to 2023 and the next Asian Cup in China.
January 30 – The Canadian Premier League (CPL) has green lighted an Ottawa franchise team run by Spanish club Atletico Madrid.
January 30 – Forget the US women superstars, it is Canada’s Christine Sinclair’s name will now be etched into the record books. On Wednesday, the Canadian striker scored twice in a 11-0 win over Saint Kitts and Nevis in Olympic qualifying to become the all-time top scorer in international football, surpassing previous record holder Abby Wambach of the United States.
January 30 – Betting companies are not being put off spending marketing money with English Championship clubs QPR and Millwall both agreeing new betting partner deals despite the warnings from the UK government that football needs to re-examine its relationship with bookmakers.
January 30 – With 12 teams now qualified for the 2021 Gold Cup – the 16th edition of Concacaf’s blue riband national men’s team competition – the draw for the play-offs for the final four spots has been released. The deciders will be via elimination rounds in the March 2020 international window before a final round of play-offs in June 2020.