By David Owen
May 26 – Manchester United’s annus horribilis has pushed them down to third place in a listing of the 50 most valuable football club brands drawn up by Brand Finance, the brand valuation and strategy consultancy. United have swapped places with Real Madrid, the newly-crowned European champions, having seen almost $100 million wiped off their brand value since 2013, according to Brand Finance’s assessment.
May 23 – In her first major press conference since being appointed as the first female coach in the top two divisions of any of Europe’s major leagues, Helena Costa said she just wants to be treated like her male colleagues.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 23 – In a move that seems bound to be strongly opposed by the game’s authorities, the Dutch football federation (KNVB) wants to introduce video technology from next season. For the past year the Dutch have been experimenting with an unofficial pilot scheme but will need the permission of the game’s lawmakers, the International FA Board, to make it permanent.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 23 – Seven consortia of construction companies have submitted bids to build a new stadium for Poland’s Widzew Lodz. The facility will have a capacity of between 15,000 and 18,000.
May 22- Paris St Germain have been called before Uefa’s disciplinary commission over allegations of racism by their fans at last month’s Champions League clash against Chelsea in Paris.
May 21 – IMG Licensing has been appointed by UEFA as the master licensee for Euro 2016 and will have global rights until the end of the following year. The contract, to be run from IMG’s Paris office, also covers the UEFA European U21 Championship, the UEFA European Women’s Championship and the UEFA Futsal Euro.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – The FIFA vice-president leading the campaign to wipe out racism in football says there must be no let-up in the effort to spread the message and punish the offenders. Jeffrey Webb, President of CONCACAF and head of FIFA’s anti-discrimination Task Force, was a guest speaker at Tuesday night’s star-studded 20th anniversary of Britain’s Kick It Out movement and called for collective solidarity and inclusion.
By Paul Nicholson
May 21- Bloomberg have released their ‘BSports Power 50’ ranking of the top European footballers over the 2013/14 season. Liverpool’s Luis Suarez tops the ranking while, not surprisingly, Spain’s Atlético de Madrid were the top represented club with eight players in the top 50.
May 20 – The announcement of Louis van Gaal as Manchester United manager – football’s most open secret – has been widely hailed as the best possible appointment to restore the club to its former glories at home and in Europe after the one-season disaster under the luckless David Moyes.
By Tom Parsons
May 20 – Football clubs and media have increasingly turned to Twitter as their platform of choice for getting their audiences to vote for events and individuals as the end of term football awards season gets into full swing.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 20 – Gornik Zabrze has signed a two-year sponsorship deal with betting operator Totolotek who will become the Polish club’s new main sponsor.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 20 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has failed in its bid to become a public company listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The failed IPO sold only 360,000 shares – the minimum requirement for the club to become publicly traded was 1.4 million. 3 million shares had been released for sale at the nominal price of BGN 3 (€1,5).
By Andrew Warshaw
May 20 – Two months after its top clubs voted against goalline technology, the subject has moved back into the spotlight in Germany following a controversial decision in last weekend’s domestic cup final between rivals Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
May 19- Highlighting football’s perceived ability to provide a marketing push to a vast array of brands in different fields, Barcelona has unveiled a partnership with the power tools group, Stanley Black & Decker.
May 19 – Cypriot football, which has often been in the news for positive reasons in recent months as officials try to unify the sport on both sides of the island, has been rocked by an unwanted end-of-season incident that saw one of its many foreign players hit by an object thrown from the crowd.