February 11 – English football bodies have joined forces to send an open letter to Facebook and Twitter demanding action amid increased levels of abuse aimed at high-profile players and officials on social media.
February 11 – Short-form mobile video app TikTok has signed an official partnership with UEFA for the rescheduled Euro 2020 Championship that kicks off this summer.
February 10 – Manchester City are going big with a new ‘Supersized LED’ perimeter board system that is currently being installed at its Etihad Stadium.
February 10 – The new Serie A deals for domestic and international broadcast rights – revenue that will underpin the league and its clubs – have reached crucial and sensitive stages at the same time.
February 10 – The market for betting sponsorship of Italian clubs may be drying up domestically as gambling authorities move in with new rules, but the appetite for promotion in international markets is still there.
February 9 – The battle over who can collect match data from Premier League stadia took another ugly turn early this week when official data provider Genius Sports Group sued Sportradar in the UK saying it was illegally sending ‘data scouts’ to matches.
February 9 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has increased the pace of its broadcast rights sales with two new partners announced for its 2021 to 2024 rights cycle, one in Europe and one Asia.
February 8 – The four Premier League clubs from Manchester and Liverpool have joined forces to condemn the online racial abuse suffered by players in recent weeks.
By Paul Nicholson
February 8 – Mesut Ozil, no stranger to conflict and controversy in recent years, may not find Fenerbahce the calm and safe haven club he was looking for.
February 5 – Major League Soccer (MLS) has again extended the deadline for negotiating a new pay deal with its players union. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the MLS Players Association (MLSPA) has to be in place before the start of the new season in the Spring.
February 5 – France’s professional leagues have been handed a badly needed lifeline to help them over their broadcast rights crisis after Ligue 1 reached an agreement with Canal Plus to screen the remainder of matches this season following the spectacular collapse of a record contract with Mediapro.
February 5 – Brazil’s Fluminense have agreed a sponsorship with online gaming operator Betmotion that will see its logo on the club’s shirt in what is described as a ‘chest seal’ (see picture).
February 4 – The British government has threatened social media companies with fines which could amount to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse of footballers on their platforms.
February 4 – UEFA has renewed Japanese manufacturer Molten Corporation as the official match ball supplier for its Europa League. Molten will also pick up rights to the new Europa Conference League that kicks off in July.
February 4 – Electronic Arts (EA) has renewed is exclusive license with UEFA for its Champions League and Europa League video games, keeping both competitions on the FIFA platform.