February 16 – Scotland finally have a manager to succeed Gordon Strachan – very much a sense of déjà vu. Alex McLeish has agreed to take over for the second time – 11 years after leaving the post.
February 16 – Germany’s Bundesliga has reported first half of 2017-18 season attendances as being the second-highest average attendance in Bundesliga history at 43,429 fans per match.
February 16 – Research by the CIES Football Observatory into the age ranges within clubs in 31 top division European leagues finds that the most competitive clubs are the ones with older squads.
By David Owen
February 15 – German professional football remains an oasis of financial solidity. The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL)’s 2018 Report on the economic state of the sector reveals that the clubs in the top two tiers of Western Europe’s most populous nation – Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 – for the first time generated aggregate revenues of more than €4 billion in 2016-17.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – Several years after the incident first hit the headlines, Spanish prosecutors have dramatically reopened a case against 41 individuals, including 36 players, over alleged matchfixing relating to a top-flight survival decider between Levante and Real Zaragoza.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – Football politics moves in unpredictable ways. Not so long ago, then English FA chief Greg Dyke criticised Qatar being awarded the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup as the “worst moment” in FIFA’s history.
February 15 – The regime of Chechnyan strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has hit back at suggestions that the region’s capital Grozny should be stripped by FIFA as a World Cup base for Egypt next summer.
February 15 – The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) which has long been battling criminal matchfixing gangs operating within its leagues, has unveiled a new education strategy that will see 32 workshops per season covering referees, BFU officials and all players in the country’s top two tiers.
February 15 – Coca-Cola may have the World Cup rights but Pepsi own Lionel Messi, Marcelo, Tono Kroos and US women’s star Carli Lloyd. It is a classic global event brand vs the cult of the personality marketing war. Coke have the greatest show on earth, Pepsi have the greatest showman, and some of the next best too.
February 15 – Internazionale, who recently opened their state-of-the-art ‘Media House’ to drive the club’s content proposition, have taken another new step entrusting their official Instagram account to their mercurial Brazilian midfielder Rafinha for a day.
February 15 – Valentines Day may be over but the Climate Coalition is still encouraging people to #ShowTheLove.
February 14 – The Early Bird conference registration rate for the Tackling Matchfixing conference, March 9/10, at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel, London, closes Monday 19 February.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – The bubble hasn’t exactly burst for domestic rights to show Premier League games but maybe a ceiling has been hit in terms of the value of matches.
By Mark Baber
February 14 – An updated study of Stadium Naming Rights by Duff & Phelps, the global valuation and corporate finance advisor, finds market rates of Premier League stadium naming rights have increased by over 80% over the last four years – rising from £74.6 million in 2013 to £135.6 mllion in 2017.
February 14 – Los Angeles is being given more time to submit its bid to be one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup.