Football

Football’s global governing body, Fifa, has sacked its deputy secretary general, Markus Kattner, after claiming that he had breached financial rules.

French authorities have vowed to tackle security concerns raised following Saturday’s Coupe de France final ahead of the country’s staging of the Uefa Euro 2016 national team football tournament, which begins next month.

The European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) organisation has called for a more “democratic” means of distributing revenue from continental club competitions and has reiterated its opposition to the formation of a ‘Super League’, while Uefa has reached settlement agreements with four more clubs in relation to its Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

Four Chinese investor groups are believed to be involved in a bidding war for Stellar Group, the UK-based athlete representation agency that has been the subject of takeover speculation in recent weeks.

The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee of world football’s governing body has today (Friday) recommended a two-year ban for Fifa Council and Uefa Executive Committee member Wolfgang Niersbach in a corruption investigation related to Germany’s successful bid for the 2006 World Cup.

The English Football League, which operates the three divisions below the top-tier Premier League, has unveiled plans for a major overhaul of its structure that would lead to a fourth division being established.

France’s parliament has extended a national state of emergency that has been in place since the Paris terrorist attacks in November to cover the Uefa Euro 2016 national football team tournament and Tour de France cycling event, both of which are due to take place this summer.

Chinese businessman Tony Xia has secured an agreement to acquire English football club Aston Villa for £60m (€78/$88m).

Crisis-hit Eredivisie club FC Twente has signalled its intention to battle against the Dutch Football Association’s (KNVB) decision to relegate it to the second-tier Jupiler League for “repeatedly and deliberately misleading” football authorities and other clubs about its finances.

Uefa, football’s European governing body, will stage a presidential election on September 14, with Michael van Praag the first individual to step forward as a candidate to replace the banned Michel Platini.

Anti-drone technology will be introduced to aid security measures at the Uefa Euro 2016 national team football tournament, officials have confirmed.

Everton has abandoned its plans to build a new stadium on the Walton Hall Park site in Liverpool, with the English Premier League football club instead turning its focus to two other brownfield sites in the city.

Football officials from the US and Mexico have held talks about lodging a possible joint bid to host the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

Domenico Scala has quit as head of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee after claiming that the watchdog committees of football’s global governing body have lost their independence.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has entered into a two-year alliance with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) in a move designed to increase cooperation between the two governing bodies.

Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura, a Senegalese veteran of United Nations programmes, was appointed as the new secretary general of football’s global governing body Fifa this (Friday) afternoon.

The Turkish Super Lig has announced plans to revamp the domestic top-tier club league as part of an effort to establish the country as one of the world’s top footballing nations by 2020.

Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani has today (Thursday) been elected as the new leader of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) as the organisation seeks to move on from a troubled recent history.