January 31- A review of the 30 ‘most prominent’ football stadia built in Europe over the past five years shows Turkey topping the list of countries developing their football infrastructure with nine venue. Russia, hosts of this year’s World Cup, is second with five stadia.
By Paul Nicholson
January 30 – Greek football is in chaos and the crisis in the top professional tiers is not showing any signs of improvement. This is despite a FIFA normalisation committee led by Portuguese Vitor Melo Pereira and the parachuting in last week of UEFA director of national associations Zoran Laković. Rather than finding solutions, his trip in fact just rubber stamped the ‘new’ status quo.
By Paul Nicholson
January 30 – The London Football Exchange (LFE) has unveiled plans to launch its own cryptocurrency that will offer LFE token holders special discounts, exclusive offers, rewards and other club and league incentives.
By Mark Baber
January 30 – The Italian FA (FIGC) were unable to elect a new president on Monday, despite four rounds of voting, underlining the crisis in Italian football which has seen racism tolerated at the highest levels, seen the national team (currently coach-less) eliminated in qualifying for the World Cup and now sees vacancies in the top positions at the FIGC and Serie A.
January 30 – The stranglehold that German leisurewear and kit manufacturer had Adidas over the UEFA’s competitions looks to be gently releaseing.
January 30 – Marc Bartra, Borussia Dortmund’s Spanish defender injured when the team bus was bombed last April, says he is lucky to be alive.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – As serious lobbying for the 2026 World Cup gets under way, FIFA has reminded its federations not to break strict new guidelines when it comes to their dealings with the two contenders ahead of the vote in June.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 30 – It’s taken over four years but it’s finally happening. Not rumours, not heightened speculation but from the man himself. David Beckham’s long-awaited team in Miami is up and running.
By David Owen
January 30 – Twenty years have passed since I was dispatched on one of those hardship assignments: a visit to L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie in a quiet little town noted for its brioches in La France profonde.
January 30 – Mexico broke the four-championship winning streak of the US to take their first-ever CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s title at the weekend in Trinidad. A 4-2 penalty shoot out win made it third final lucky for the Mexicans who had lost to the US in 2010and 2014.
January 29 – The respected media lawyer, entrepreneur, father to three children, dedicated husband and a man of vision, Dr Martin Wagner, was brutally slain on Sunday, January 28, 2018 in his home outside Basel, Switzerland.
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – Far too long delays, questionable judgements, wrong decisions, contrasting opinions. The global debate over whether to introduce video technology – which FIFA president Gianni Infantino is determined to do before the World Cup – shows no sign of abating following yet more controversy at the weekend.
By Samindra Kunti
January 29 – In freezing and snowy conditions Uzbekistan clinched the AFC U-23 Championship with a dramatic extra-time winner from substitute striker Andrey Sidorov to break Vietnamese hearts in Changzhou, China. Despite the loss the Vietnamese team were still received as heroes back home.
January 29 – One of India’s biggest clubs has written to their governing body claiming two of their players have been approached via social media to fix matches.
January 29 – Italy’s Serie A is in talks with Spain’s Mediapro on a €950 million deal for the 2018-2021 seasons. This follows a breakdown in discussion with Sky Italia who had not met the €1.05 billion minimum set by the league’s advisor Infront.