By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – The head of European football today took a veiled swipe at next week’s FIFA-organised Global Summit to determine the future of the game, hinting he expected little or nothing to emerge from what many perceive as a glorified talk shop.
December 16 – In a show of strength, renewing their existing Memorandum of Understanding, UEFA will stage a ‘Finalissima’ between Italy and Argentina in London next year.
December 15 – Khalida Popal, Juan Mata and the German Football Association (DFB) will all receive UEFA #EqualGame Awards this week to celebrate their work in promoting inclusion and diversity in football.
December 15 – Germany’s 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs have voted for the inclusion of mandatory sustainability criteria in their licensing regulations.
December 14 – Real Madrid have slammed Monday’s farcical Champions League last-16 re-draw that saw them end up with a nightmare heavyweight clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
December 13 – There is no question about the match-up of the round following the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League – but it wasn’t the original tie!
December 13 – There was no question about the match-up of the round when the draw was made today for the last 16 of the Champions League – only for the entire process to be declared null and void minutes later in a major embarrassment for UEFA.
December 12 – While the small balls of the UEFA Champions League draw have confused confusion and no-little amusement, the big ball to be used for the real match-up has been unveiled by Adidas.
December 11 – Tottenham Hotspur’s postponed Covid-hit Europa Conference League game against Rennes has been scrapped altogether and will not be played at all, putting the Premier League club at risk of having to forfeit the match and being thrown out of the competition.
December 13 – Bayern Munich and Germany star Joshua Kimmich will get vaccinated against the coronavirus after infection forced him to sit time out on the sidelines. Kimmich had refused to get jabbed, his vaccine hesitancy putting him in the spotlight of the vaccination debate.
By Paul Nicholson
December 10 – UEFA will hold its Executive Committee next Thursday (December 16) via video conference and with an agenda that is noticeable absent of the two biggest issues that have faced the European federation over the past eight months – the biennial World Cup and the thwarted plans for a European Super League (ESL).
December 10 – The Covid outbreak sweeping through English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, which put paid to Thursday’s Europa Conference League fixture, has now forced Sunday’s Premier League game at Brighton to also be postponed.
December 10 – Napoli have knocked Leicester City out of the Europa League with a 3-2 victory in an end-to-end match and will join Barcelona among others in the knockout phase of the competition.
December 10 – There is still big money in youth development despite an overall stagnation in the transfer market. A new transfer value analysis of the Big 5 leagues says there are 15 players under the age of 23 who could command a transfer fee of €100 million or more.
By Paul Nicholson
December 9 – Two days before LaLiga’s clubs are scheduled to vote on the Impulso Project which will see CVC inject almost €2 billion into the league, the Spanish FA (RFEF) and its president Luis Rubiales have issued a statement against the fund raising and questioning its legality under Spanish law.