By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – UEFA are reportedly set to discuss the idea of a new so-called ‘Nations League’ competition, dividing its 54 members into a number of divisions offering club-style promotion and relegation.
March 4 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has acted swiftly to open an investigation into the racist abuse that 17-year-old East Stirlingshire suffered in a Division 2 match away to Peterhead last weekend. Tapping was visibly distressed and substituted to prevent having to endure any further taunts.
March 4 – Poland’s Ekstraklasa has said that its disciplinary committee will meet this week following fan violence last Sunday at the match between Legia Warsaw and Jagiellonia Bialystok. The match was abandoned after 45 minutes.
March 3 – The Poland vs Scotland international friendly this Wednesday is being streamed live on the internet rather than broadcasting via more conventional TV channels outside of host country Poland. The webcast will be free of charge on the Daily Record and Daily Mirror websites (www.dailyrecord.co.uk and www.mirror.co.uk).
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 3 – Budapest Honved has announced plans to build a new stadium in the Little Pest district of Hungary’s capital. The football club will receive funds for the investment under a 40 billion forint (€128.6 million) government programme to modernise and expand 27 football stadiums by 2016.
March 3 – Northern Irish officials have confirmed that this week’s friendly in Cyprus will go ahead despite the bombing of local referee Leontios Trattou’s (pictured) car on the island last Friday. Trattou is scheduled to referee the Ukraine vs US friendly on the island. All first division matches were suspended at the weekend.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 3 – After months trying to clear his name, Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong businessman who bought English club Birmingham City, faces a lengthy jail term after being found guilty of five counts of money laundering by a court in Hong Kong. Last month Yeung resigned as a director of both the club and its parent company Birmingham International Holdings Ltd (BIHL) as he awaited the verdict of a trial that had lasted 50 days having already lost two appeals to get it thrown out.
By Andrew Warshaw in Geneva
March 1 – Almost a third of the teams that entered UEFA’s two club competitions this season are in danger of breaking financial fair play regulations. UEFA administrators and legal experts revealed today that 76 clubs out of the 237 who started in the Champions League and Europa League were being probed for potentially failing strict break-even rules.
February 28 – With the UEFA Europa League now entering the last 16 phase of competition, the first round of ticket sales for the final at the Juventus Stadium, Turin, on Wednesday May 14 have opened. Available exclusively on UEFA.com, the sales window will be open until March 25.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 27 – Phoney football agents are defrauding young players by demanding huge sums of money for fake trials and contracts at a raft of top clubs, including several in the English Premier League, according to an investigation undertaken by the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 26 – Gornik Zabrze has signed a sponsorship contract with Browar Lomza, owner of the Lomza beer brand. The company is the new main sponsor of the Polish football club, Gornik said in a statement.
February 26 – The takeover of Leeds United by controversial Italian agricultural entrepreneur Massimo Cellino has still not been approved by the relevant authorities, it has emerged. The Football League has said it “remains in discussions” with the club even though the 57-year-old Italian businessman exchanged contracts with current owners GFH to buy a 75% stake in the Championship club earlier this month.
February 26 – Borussia Dortmund, last season’s beaten Champions League finalists, have banned a supporter from their stadium until 2020 for shouting “Sieg Heil” during a minute’s silence before last weekend’s game at Hamburg SV.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 26 – The political crisis in Ukraine has forced the country’s March 5 friendly against the United States, scheduled to take place in Kharkiv, to be moved to Cyprus due to the unstable and often violent situation.
By Matt Scott
February 26 – Spain’s three leading clubs are exploring major naming-rights partnerships to support their new-stadium construction projects, according to the sponsorship agency Euromericas Sport Marketing.