By Samindra Kunti in Kolkata
October 26 – England made history by reaching their first ever U-17 World Cup final as Rhian Brewster broke Brazilian hearts with a hat-trick in a commanding 3-1 semi-final victory. The Young Lions will face European champions Spain, who eliminated Mali with the same scoreline.
October 25 – Real Madrid and Barcelona top the ranking of Big-5 clubs that have trained the most footballers playing in the Big-5 European leagues on October 1. Manchester United rank 5th while PSG come in at 14th.
October 23 – Retired Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt says he wants to pursue his dream of playing professional football but admits he will not “embarrass” himself.
October 20 – Everton are the dirtiest team to have played in the Premier League since it was formed in 1992. The Merseysiders have collected more ‘dirty points’ that any other club and are almost 700 points ahead of second placed Chelsea.
October 18 – Napoli, out gunned by Manchester City in the Champions League last night, nevertheless lead a ranking of European clubs for the highest figures for shots on target per match this season.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 18 – Just how short-sighted can you get? If ever a club was the victim of its own success, that club is surely Leicester City. The season before last, Leicester upset every prediction in the book by famously coming from nowhere to win the English Premier League, perhaps the greatest miracle in team sport.
By Samindra Kunti in New Delhi
October 16 – Hosts India were eliminated from their first World Cup on home soil following a 4-0 trashing by Ghana. England, France, Brazil and Germany marched into the knock-out phase with ease.
October 13 – After yet another bitter Scottish disappointment, Gordon Strachan has stepped down as manager of the national team after their failure to qualify for the playoffs of the World Cup.
October 10 – Professional footballers and other athletes who have suffered from concussion are more likely to get depression and other problems including sleep disturbance when their playing careers end, according to new research carried out by FIFpro.
October 10 – The epithet that the English Premier League is a league that just happens to be played in England is reinforced by the latest stats ranking from the CIES Football Observatory that show 12 of its clubs in the top 100 in Europe according to the percentage of domestic league minutes played by expatriates since the start of the season.
October 6 – England may have qualified for next year’s World Cup finals but that should fool no-one and their chances of success are next to nil judging by reaction to the last-gasp win over Slovakia that sealed their place in Russia.
September 29 – German giants Bayern Munich have sacked coach Carlo Ancelotti following the club’s crushing 3-0 defeat to Paris St Germain in the Champions League.
September 29 – The Chinese Super League is taking further steps to boost the quality of its league saying that it will likely bring in experienced referees from Europe and America for the 27th round of the current league competition. The CSL has already committed to bringing in video assistant referees (VAR), now scheduled for the 28th and 29th rounds.
September 26 – Possession stats have become a staple of the TV presentation package and an indication of how games are progressing – generally winning teams have the majority of possession. Celtic top a ranking of European clubs this season, with a thumping 70.8% of ball possession.
September 25 – With Europe’s giant clubs setting up academies, coaching schools and grassroots initiative across China, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has stepped in to bring some kind of order to the chaos.