January 3 – A 2030 World Cup final in Manchester or Liverpool? It is what senior Tory figures have asked newly elected UK prime minister Boris Johnson to back in a bid to recreate “something like the London Olympics.”
January 3 – Belgian Roland Duchatelet’s foray into English club ownership is over with the sale of English Championship side Charlton Athletic to Abu Dhabi-based consortium East Street Investments (ESI) for an undisclosed amount.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 2 – Amr Fahmy (pictured), the Egyptian official sacked last spring as African football’s number two administrator for lifting the lid on the allegedly corrupt activities of his boss, Ahmad, is gunning to unseat him by going for the region’s top job himself.
January 2 – Another political row as hit regional Asian football with North Korea withdrawing its women’s team from the final round of Olympic qualifiers being staged in South Korea in February.
January 2 – An English Championship game was briefly halted on Wednesday as discrimination at football fixtures, which marred much of 2019, occurred again just two days into the new year.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 31 – Football’s law-makers have hit back at criticism of VAR by English football experts, saying the problem lies directly at the feet of the Premier League for not applying the rule correctly.
December 31 – The vice-president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has been charged with fraud in the latest corruption scandal to besmirch the federation.
December 31 – The debt-ridden Football Association of Ireland’s (FAI) existence is reported to be under threat because of long-term financial mismanagement.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola declared the VAR system a “big mess” on Sunday after a weekend that witnessed a plethora of ever more baffling rulings being judged on a series of screens often hundreds of miles away from the action.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 30 – Four English top-flight teams go into 2020 with new men at the helm after the managerial merry-go-round moved into full swing over Christmas.
By Paul Nicholson
December 30 – China has announced ten cities that will host the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) flagship Asian Cup in 2023. Beijing will be the lead city.
December 30 – Seven players from Eritrea’s national football team disappeared following the end of the Cecafa Cup in Uganda earlier this month, according to tournament spokesman Rogers Mulindwa. Police continue their search for the players.
December 30 – US investors buying European clubs has become commonplace but European investors moving into the US to acquire a stake in club soccer is not.
December 30 – The Chinese Super League has introduced a salary cap of £2 million a year, a move that will redraw clubs’ transfer policies and spending. Domestic players will be allowed to earn a maximum of £1.1 million a year.
December 30 – A Moroccan referee has been banned for life for awarding four highly questionable penalties, three of them for the same team, in a domestic league match.