By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – The international players’ union FIFPro has once again sprung to the defense of Luis Suarez, calling for the Uruguayan striker’s four-month ban for biting – plus nine competitive internationals – at the World Cup to be reduced.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – Vanishing spray to ensure players do not encroach at freekicks outside the penalty area is to be used in UEFA club competitions this season following its successful implementation at the World Cup.
August 8 – The parlous financial state of much of Spanish football has been underlined yet again with Real Murcia demoted to the third tier of the league. It is huge fall from grace for Murcia, who finished fourth in the second division last season before being beaten in the promotion playoffs by Cordoba.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – Despite being well beaten in both legs, Celtic were dramatically given a Champions League lifeline today after Legia Warsaw were kicked out for fielding an ineligible player – the second time in recent years that the Scots have earned a lucky reprieve.
August 8 – Luis Suarez’ appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has begun in Switzerland, the outcome determining whether the Uruguay international will have to serve a four-month ban for infamously biting an opponent at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – US sportswear giant Nike has outpaced its German rival Adidas in supplying kit to Europe’s top five leagues ahead of the 2014/15 season for the first time since 2009-10 according to new statistics supplied by Sports marketing research group Repucom and PR Marketing.
August 7 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the newly merged body running club football in the country, has announced an increase in its broadcast partnerships that are “worth a substantial six-figure sum to be distributed across all 42 clubs.”
By Mark Baber
August 7 – German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach has repeated his comments that his country may withdraw from the bidding to host the latter stages of Euro 2020, being spread across the entire continent, in order to concentrate on staging 2024 on its own.
August 7 – England’s leading referee Howard Webb, who took charge of the 2010 World Cup final, has ended his 25-year career on the pitch – and will now scrutinise the performances of his colleagues instead.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
August 6 – Serbian Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport Vanja Udovicic said that the government is working on a strategy to privatise the country’s football clubs. Under the plan, the clubs are to model their operations on those of Greek football sides Olympiakos and Panathinaikos.
August 5 – The new season of European club competition may have only just started but already discrimination by fans has led to UEFA’s disciplinary authorities being called into action.
August 5 – Italian Serie A soccer champions Juventus have renewed their long-running deal with carmaker Fiat. The Turin-based company, who have long been inextricably linked with Juve, has agreed a six-year extension to its shirt sponsorship deal which will now run until the end of the 2020/21 season.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 5 – Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men’s professional team in a competitive match in a major European country on Monday but ended up on the losing side as Clermont Foot narrowly went down 2-1 at Brest in the French second division.
August 4 – UEFA has opened an investigation into the crowd trouble that marred last week’s Champions League qualifier between Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Copenhagen in Ukraine.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 4 – Strict new betting rules previously announced by English football authorities to prevent players, managers, club employees and match officials from gambling on any football-related matter worldwide have now come into effect.