By David Owen
March 1 – Liverpool, one of five clubs locked in a fight for Champions League places behind runaway Premier League leaders Chelsea, tumbled back into the red in the 2015-16 financial year. The club reported a pre-tax loss of £19.8 million, versus a profit of £60 million last time, when it was the Premiership’s most profitable club.
By Paul Nicholson
March 1 – Controversial Liberian FA president Musa Bility (pictured), excluded from the FIFA presidential race after failing integrity tests, is being accused by a former Liberian FA executive committee member of misappropriating FIFA financial assistance money of more than $1 million. Amongst a raft of claims of financial embezzlement, he is also accused of taking $50,000 of Ebola relief money sent to the Liberian FA and sharing it between committee members.
By Paul Nicholson
March 1 – Delays by FIFA on clearing candidates to stand in the AFC elections for its Council is causing mounting concern amongst Asian member associations that FIFA’s executive function is operating in a far from independent manner.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – Asian football’s governing body has urged FIFA to urgently resolve the festering dispute in the Middle East amid speculation that a call for Israel to be thrown out of world football will be revived in May.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – Amos Adamu (pictured), one of Africa’s most notorious footballing figures, has been banned for a second time by FIFA’s Ethics Committee for unethical conduct, almost certainly bringing the curtain down on a career that has long been shrouded in controversy.
March 1 – German football supremos Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Reinhard Grindel have given a firm thumbs down to Gianni Infantino’s first year as FIFA president.
March 1 – Manchester United has signed a global partnership deal with Malaysian-based e-commerce group Aladdin Group. The online trader will use the club as part of the global launch marketing of its aladdinstreet.com marketplace.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – The regional factions lining up behind the two rival camps in this month’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election are taking shape with the Council for East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) endorsing Issa Hayatou for an unprecedented eighth term of office.
March 1 – Morocco is reportedly considering a new strategy to challenge north America for the 2026 World Cup, almost certainly the first edition to involve 48 teams.
March 1 – Germany’s Bundesliga has partnered with Chinese internet giant Baidu to become the web company’s first European league to have an official web presence on its platform.
By Paul Nicholson
February 28 – FIFA’s firing of all its development staff across Africa and the closing of offices in four countries was met with a barrage of criticism within the region last December. Now the governing body of world football is facing a series of legal challenges from former employees to whom it has allegedly refused to make severance payments in accordance with national law.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 28 – I’ll see you in court if necessary. That is the defiant message issued to FIFA by former South African Football Association (SAFA) CEO Leslie Sedibe (pictured) who has served world football’s governing body with a claim for $5 million for defamation of character after being banned for five years over the 2010 matchfixing scandal along with three other SAFA officials.
February 28 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says Donald Trump’s immigration policies could potentially work against the United States in their bid to stage the 2026 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 28 – Just days before the first UEFA-imposed deadline for national associations to confirm their interest, Nordic federations have ditched plans to bid for the 2024 European Championship – leaving Germany and Turkey to fight it out.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 28 – Jerome Valcke (pictured), former number two to Sepp Blatter who spectacularly fell from grace after spending years as the organisation’s go-to troubleshooter, is taking his 10-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).