Stoke, Leeds and Aston Villa lead football hate crime stats
September 20 – Incidents of hate crime at football matches in England and Wales rose by 47% last season, according to new government figures.
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Rex Sport and CEU IAM open applications for Master in Sports Law programme
September 20 – Sports law association Rex Sport has opened its Master in International Sports Law programme for applications for the 2020 academic year. The one-year course is run in conjunction with the CEU IAM Business School in Spain.
Anti-discrimination groups demand action against ‘not fit for purpose’ Italian regulators
September 19 – The head of European football’s main anti-discriminatory body has slammed Italian officials for failing to deal with increasing instances of abuse saying the authorities are “not fit for purpose”.
SIGA in Brussels for sport integrity roundtable on EU’s 5-year focus
September 19 – SIGA are keeping up the pace of their series of Sports Integrity events. Having just completed their first Middle Eastern Inter-Regional Summit in Qatar, they are back in Europe next week convening an Expert Roundtable in Brussels to coincide with the European Week of Sport.
Message to fans from Serie A: Don’t throw plastic bottles, hurling racist abuse is OK
September 18 – Cagliari won’t be punished for the racist abused by its fans aimed at Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku during the club’s Serie A match in September, but it will have to pay a €5,000 fine for fans throwing plastic bottles on to the pitch at Parma on Sunday
Hero or hacker? Portuguese have held whistleblower Pinto for 6 months without charge
By Andrew Warshaw
September 19 – The lawyer representing Rui Pinto, whose string of incriminating leaks shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal, has denounced the Portuguese authorities for holding his client without charge and claims he would never have been jailed in other leading western democracies based on the accusations against him.
Italian police arrest violent Juve fan gang members for criminal ticketing scam
September 17 – Police in Italy have arrested 12 Juventus ‘ultra’ fans over allegations of blackmail and extortion including threatening to chant racist slogans if they weren’t provided with tickets to games.
FIFA bans former Russian FA official Shprygin for discrimination
By Andrew Warshaw
September 16 – FIFA has banned a former leading Russian football administrator and fan club founder for two years for discrimination.
Italian TV pundit banned after Lukaku banana slip-up
September 16 – It’s hardly believable but it’s true. Racist incidents may be on the rise across European football but you wouldn’t expect a tv pundit to be one of the culprits.
Expecting the worst: England team plan response to anticipated Bulgarian racism
September 13 – England manager Gareth Southgate says England players will meet to “prepare” how to react to racism before their Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria on October 14 following a resurgence of incidents that have tarnished the sport across Europe.
SIGA puts final touches to Middle East, Asia and Africa regional integrity summit
September 13 – The Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) will hold its first high-level Inter-Regional Summit in the Middle East next week on September 16-17.
Relevent Sports accuse USSF and FIFA of conspiring to prevent LaLiga play in US
September 12 – Relevent Sports, the promoter of the International Champions Cup which is building a business on taking international clubs to play in the US, has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation (USSF).
France’s Le Graët under fire after saying matches won’t be stopped for homophobic chants
September 11 – The president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët has instructed referees that they should no longer stop matches over homophobic chants. The directive has prompted anti-discrimination groups to demand that Le Graët resigns.
Chelsea and Liverpool join Spurs in ending 1xBet sponsorships
September 3 – Chelsea and Liverpool have followed Tottenham Hotspurs’s lead earlier this month and ended their sponsorships with Russian online betting firm 1xBet.
Cappello warns of ‘disturbing’ power of agents
By Paul Nicholson in Edinburgh
September 6 – Coaching legend Fabio Cappello has slammed the power that player agents have within the game, and how that power is used to manipulate players, managers and clubs.