By Paul Nicholson
April 20 – Real Madrid and Barcelona are not just giants on the pitch, they are social media monsters off it. The two Spanish clubs head Insideworldfootball’s European club ranking in terms of followers, with the English Premier League’s Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea in 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively.
April 20 – Iconic English club Leeds United, back in the news for all the wrong reasons, insist that six players who suddenly withdrew ahead of Saturday’s defeat at Charlton were injured.
April 20 – Russian authorities are to build two new sports centres in Crimea in the latest move to cement their influence in the annexed peninsula where UEFA have already barred Russian-administered teams from competing in their competitions or the Russian domestic league.
April 17 – The Irish Football Association has been advised to demolish a damaged stand at the national stadium following a preliminary structural report.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 17 – The Greek authorities are on a collision with FIFA and EUFA over plans to tackle violence in domestic sport, with the two bodies warning the country could be thrown out of international football because of government interference.
By Samindra Kunti
April 17 – Next season the women’s Super League will replace the BeNe League in Belgium. Eight teams will compete in the newly designed league format with the champions crowned after play-offs.
April 15 – Croatian football, marred by constant problems involving hooligan fans, is back in the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons after national team coach Niko Kovac was assailed by a group of supporters wearing Hajduk Split colours.
April 15 – Bulgarian football is facing yet another potential match-fixing scandal following allegations of games being manipulated in the country’s second division.
April 15 – Anything Torpedo Moscow can do when it comes to discrimination, Spartak Moscow can seemingly match. Within days of Torpedo being found guilty of racism and ordered to play two more home games behind closed doors after their fourth offense of the season, so Spartak Moscow have been punished after fans displayed racist images during the April 9 fixture at Arsenal Tula.
By Mark Baber
April 15 – Football has made it on to the election agenda in the UK with the Labour Party making a manifesto commitment to introduce legislation to allow football supporters to appoint club directors and also to give fans the right to purchase shares in their club when there is a change of ownership.
By Alexander Krassimirov
April 10 – The financial turmoil and instability at Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has taken a new turn with major shareholder Alexander Tomov saying that he has filed an application to quit his post as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the club and no longer continue as a shareholder.
April 10 – Paris St-Germain’s star Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been suspended for four league games as a result of his foul-mouthed outburst that was captured live on TV.
April 10 – After a five-day wait, they ended up playing for just 18 seconds! UEFA’s unprecedented decision to order England and Norway to replay the last moments of their women’s under-19 European qualifier duly took place Thursday night with the English grabbing the 2-2 draw they thought they had achieved first time round.
April 9 – In an extraordinary decision that UEFA admit is unprecedented in their competitions, England and Norway have been ordered to replay the last few seconds of their women’s under-19 European qualifier tonight – starting with a retaken 96th-minute penalty.
By Mark Baber
April 9 – The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) has hit back at those using football to spread their message of racial hatred with an order that Croatia’s upcoming game against Italy must be played behind closed doors.