France 1 Germany 1 (5-6 pens)
July 19 – Germany recovered from a 13th-minute red card to knockout France on penalties following a 1-1 draw and set up a blockbuster semi-final against Spain.
By Paul Nicholson
August 21 – US Club Soccer, the 500,000 member organisation that launched its Players First initiative for youth clubs earlier this month, has officially launched its technical partnership with Spain’s LaLiga.
By Ben Nicholson
August 21 – Forbes has published estimated values of MLS teams, showing an average increase in value of around 50% since 2013.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 21 – As the overhaul of FIFA’s reform process picks up speed, the women’s game is determined not to be left behind and has called for a target of 30% of women’s participation in the body’s decision-making heirarchy.
By Samindra Kunti
August 21 – In 2015 Brazilian broadcasting behemoth TV Globo invested about €335 million in football and TV-rights, but its vice-like grip over football in the country is for the first time being seriously challenged by competitors, with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Sports at the forefront.
August 21 – Catania have been relegated to the third tier of Italian football for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal last season. The Sicilian side were also deducted 12 points for this season and fined €150,000 while club president Antonino Pulvirenti has been banned for five years and fined €300,000.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 21 – FIFA’s much-trumpeted reform body headed by former Olympics guru Francois Carrard will meet for the first time on September 2-3, three weeks before it is due to provide an update to the organisation’s top brass over proposals for cleaning up the corruption-tarnished body.
By Mark Baber
August 20 – Called before the National Assembly on Wednesday, South Africa’s Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula (pictured) explained that South Africa’s $10 million payment to the Caribbean, was a totally legitimate legacy payment, whilst a former South African Football Federation (SAFA) executive member gave an off-message interview to local media – saying neither he nor many of his colleagues were told anything about the payment.
By Samindra Kunti
August 20 – Belgian topflight club Sint-Truidense V.V. have partnered with Swiss start-up kickrs.net to crowd-fund the transfers of football players. Fans of STVV can invest in 18-year old Greek striker Panagiotis Kynigopoulos.
By Mark Baber
August 20 – FIFA subsidiary Early Warning System and the sports media group Perform have announced a new partnership which will see the integration of data from Perform into EWS’s integrity monitoring system in a major turnaround since this time last year.
The contest to succeed Sepp Blatter could still produce surprises, not least we could have more candidates. Some Africans, aided by European advisers, are still trying to find a heavyweight African, Tokyo Sexwale is the name most often mentioned, to provide a realistic chance of the first black man occupying Blatter’s wonderful House of Football in Zurich. Prince Ali could still stand. But whatever the final list of candidates already the contour of the election is clear.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – FIFA has taken steps with its six confederations to create a global club licensing framework that will set a minimum standards required by clubs in key areas like stadium safety, fan experience and youth football development. FIFA said the new licensing framework will be in place by the end of 2016.
August 20 – UEFA has announced Hublot as its official licensed watch partner for the Champions League and Europa League in a three-season deal from 2015 to 2018.
August 20 – English Premier League giants Manchester United are on a good run in the betting and gaming business, announcing Donaco as the club’s first Official Casino Resort Partner in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and South Korea.
By Paul Nicholson
August 20 – There is a lot of talk about FIFA reform, but the talk is in general very short on detail. To date the focus has been on corruption and its prevention, with reform measures being focused around issues like age and term of tenure and ‘fit and proper’ person tests, financial governance and independent governors. Lurking below the surface of this talk is a much deeper issue – that of the one-man (it is usually a man) one-vote system.
FIFA has been the subject of relentless criticism and not only since the recent scandals shook the entire football world. There is no doubt that FIFA needs to instigate many-faceted, major reforms of its administration, procedures and structure that will transform different areas of the Football Governing Body’s fundament in order to recapture its credibility and reputation. Up to now, such fundamental alterations have not been visible.