By Andrew Warshaw
And so it goes on. While Italy, France, Germany and Spain have all hosted the World Cup in the last 40 years, the other member of Europe’s so-called Big Five elite – England – remain outside looking in, conspicuous by being overlooked when it comes to staging football’s greatest show on earth.
February 8 – Financially challenged Barcelona are reportedly on the verge of agreeing a €280 million shirt and training kit deal with streaming service Spotify.
February 8 – Ligue 2 club Paris FC is poised to announce a new investor from Armenia in a reshuffle of their ownership structure.
February 8 – Online car retailer Cazoo will become the main sponsor of LaLiga’s Real Sociedad from the start of next season. The deal will see the brand take the club’s front of shirt logo position.
February 8 – Morocco is rumoured to be considering a bid for the 2030 World Cup – the sixth time the country would have attempted to land football’s showpiece tournament.
February 8 – TEAM Marketing has retained the rights to the UEFA men’s Champions League for the rights cycle 2024-27, but has ceded media sales rights to Relevent Sports Group in the US.
February 8 – World football’s lawmakers will once again discuss changes to the offside law at their annual meeting next month, being conducted virtually.
February 8 – Nike have terminated their endorsement of Manchester United and England striker Mason Greenwood, the sportswear firm has announced, citing “deep concerns” following his arrest on suspicion of rape and assault.
February 8 – The advantage of having a large sales portfolio of big and champion (or near champion clubs) means you can slice and dice your inventory.
February 8 – Retired former England captain Wayne Rooney has opened up about his problems with alcohol in a much-publicised upcoming documentary.
By Paul Nicholson
February 7 – The combined British and Irish bid to host the World Cup in 2030 has been officially shelved with the five FAs instead saying they will focus on a bid to host the Euro 2028 championships.
By Samindra Kunti
February 7 – On the sidelines of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) convened a meeting with FA presidents, club chairmen and FIFA president Gianni Infantino to discuss plans for the creation of an African Super League, but the governing body again was able to give little detail on the project.
By Samindra Kunti
February 7 – Senegal won their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations despite Sadio Mane missing a penalty in the first minutes of the final. He later atoned for the miss delivering the winning spot-kick in a 4-2 shootout victory to wrap up a tournament that was overshadowed by the loss of eights lives at the last-16 tie involving hosts Cameroon.
February 7 – China stunned South Korea to come back from two goals down at half time to win the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 3-2 in a classic final in Mumbai yesterday.
February 7 – West Ham and Jamaica’s Michail Antonio will face off against Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic (US) and Bayern Munich’s Alfonso Davies (Canada), in the vote for the Concacaf player of the year.