Guatemala 0-1 Panama:
June 20 – Friday night at Q2 Stadium bore no resemblance to the venue that hosted football just 24 hours earlier. The transformation was complete, and the catalyst was simple: unbridled passion provided by the hordes of Guatemala supporters who descended on Austin. Stark contrast to the lack of interest shown by US fans on Thursday.
March 23 – Following the gun-toting antics of PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis that led to the suspension of the Greek Super League, further information is emerging purportedly linking Savvidis, his associates and his companies to more criminal violence and intimidation in Greek football dating back to 2015.
March 23 – English Championship club Fulham have been granted planning permission to extend their Craven Cottage stadium to 29,600. The building work will start in the Summer of 2019.
March 22 – Kyrgyz Republic sealed their place at next year’s AFC Asian Cup on Thursday, as a 5-1 win over Myanmar saw the Central Asians confirm a first-ever qualification for the tournament.
March 22 – Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into last year’s sale of AC Milan by Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company to a Chinese consortium, according to Reuters quoting a judicial source.
March 22 – The crackdown by Spanish authorities to prevent elite footballers getting even richer by beating the tax system has struck again, with former Liverpool and Real Madrid star Xabi Alonso facing a possible five-year jail term after being accused of fraud.
March 22 – Troubled English Premier League club West Ham United have meted out lifetime bans to five supporters who invaded the pitch during a recent 3-0 defeat by Burnley.
March 22 – The diplomatic spat between Britain and Russia over the poisoning of a former double agent on British soil has plummeted to new depths after British foreign secretary Boris Johnson claimed Vladimir Putin will use this summer’s World Cup to glorify Russia in the same way Adolf Hitler used Berlin’s hosting of the summer games in 1936 as propaganda for the Nazi regime.
By Paul Nicholson
March 22 – Betting brands and football club sponsorship are tightly linked but while the clubs have an appetite for the betting company money, the brands question how much clubs really want to engage with them.
March 22 – Manchester United is officially crossing the gender divide and launching a women’s team that will for the first time play under the famous club’s name and in its club colours.
21 March – LaLiga has expanded its regional sponsorship coverage with telecoms giant MTN Group into Africa. MTN Ivory Coast joins the company’s Iranian subsidiary MTN Irancell as a regional sponsor of the Spanish league.
March 22 – NFL club San Francisco 49ers have announced an education partnership aimed at young people with Premier League Chelsea, working through their teaching focussed affiliates – the EDU Academy for the 49ers and The Chelsea Foundation.
By Paul Nicholson
March 21 – Outgoing Liberia FA (LFA) president Musa Bility has petitioned FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino not to release the findings of an audit of the LFA in December last year.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – Gianni Infantino, used to getting his own way since taking over as FIFA president, has failed in his bid to introduce a new global league for women amid concerns that not enough consultation took place with the various stakeholders before the idea was officially tabled.
March 21 – Poland has been awarded the right to host the 2019 U-20 World Cup, seeing off competition from India. Peru will host the 2019 U-17 World Cup.
March 21 – UEFA has extended its partnership with the Leaders XX Series into a second year. The Leaders XX Series is a forum that gathers football and sports industry leaders grow women’s sport through innovation.