June 11 – The rapidly expanded secoind tier US professional league, the USL, broke another record last week as total attendance for the 2018 season broke the one million barrier at the earliest point in its history.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 8 – Just days before FIFA’s top brass and entire membership are both due to meet on the eve of the World Cup, explosive new corruption allegations have plunged African football into disgrace and led to Ghana dissolving its national federation.
June 8 – FIFA has announced that 2.4 million tickets have already been sold for the World Cup, which kicks off next Thursday. International demand accounts for 54%. On Friday evening, the governing body will release another batch of 100,000 tickets.
By Paul Nicholson
June 8 – While Concacaf focus in Moscow next week will be on the United 2026 bid to bring the World Cup back to the region, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) also faces a potentially pivotal moment.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 8 – Having already seemingly lost out to their North American rivals to secure the votes of both South Africa and Liberia, 2026 World Cup underdogs Morocco have received a further blow to African unity with the news that Zimbabwe has also declared itself for United 2026.
June 8 – FIFA has reiterated that referees will have the power to suspend games at the World Cup in cases of persistent discrimination by the crowd.
June 8 – With the World Cup on the doorstep, Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the eleven host cities to take advantage on the tournament and deliver a strong footballing legacy after the finals.
June 8 – Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), speaking at the opening of a conference on safeguarding sport from corruption in Vienna emphasised that investing in fighting corruption in sport was an investment in our economic and social future.
June 8 – On the day the Premier League announced a ground-breaking deal to hand one of its remaining TV rights packages to online streaming service Amazon, breaking Sky and BT’s grip on the broadcasting of live games, the man behind the league’s growth into the world’s richest domestic competition announced he is stepping down.
June 7 – World Cup hosts invariably go into World Cups with at least a modicum of optimism but Russia is going to need all the help it can get to progress from the group stage and prevent the tournament taking a massive early hit.
With his announcement to resign, Richard Scudamore has demonstrated once again a certain class and intelligence: he leaves at a time when the Premier League is in the best of health, successful and solid to the core.
By Paul Nicholson
June 7 – The final Premier League TV rights packages for the UK have been awarded with Amazon swooping in with a groundbreaking deal that breaks Sky and BT’s grip on the broadcast of live games in the UK.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The questions came thick and fast. How do you justify an apparent discrepancy in your projected figures? To what extent will Donald Trump’s global unpopularity work against you? Is your bid simply about budgets rather than passion and pedigree?
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The tit-for-tat row over the cancellation of Argentina’s friendly with Israel this coming Saturday has intensified with the Israelis demanding FIFA investigate what it said were threats against Argentina players and laying the blame squarely at the feet of the Palestinian authorities.
June 7 – A Croatian court has sentenced the former boss of Dinamo Zagreb, Zdravko Mamic (pictured right with brother Zoran), to six-and-a-half years in prison for tax evasion and siphoning off profits from player transfers, allegedly including that of Luka Modric to Tottenham Hotspur and Mateo Kovacic to Inter.