UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body rendered its verdicts on the proceedings relating to the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg between Real Madrid and Barcelona on April 27th. Real Madrid coach José Mourinho, who was dismissed from the bench in the first leg and made an inappropriate statement during the post-match interview, has been suspended […]

The controversy surrounding Manchester United's signing of 16-year-old French prospect Paul Pogba has been cleared up. FIFA have ruled that Manchester United did not contravene any FIFA regulations in their recruitment of the young midfielder – specifically Article 19, which focuses on the protection of minors. United had been accused by French club Le Havre […]

UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services. Last year, the number of games being […]

In what has to be considered a poor decision, the UEFA Appeals Body has reduced the initial three-match stadium closure to a two-match behind closed doors sentence, with one match deferred for two years. Consequently, Atlético must play their next home fixture in the Champions League, against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday  November 26th, without any […]

I had a great conversation with Jonathan Starling of the Third Half podcast last week. We discussed the upcoming UEFA Cup group stage, UEFA's stance on debt-laden clubs, the situation at Ajax and many other topics. I've posted the Champions League Talk segment of the show here as a separate podcast file but if you'd […]

After a number of twists and turns, the FC Porto saga came to a close. At least for this season ! UEFA, European football's governing body, issued the following statement: "As communicated on Friday 13 June, the disciplinary case regarding FC Porto and their entry to the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League season has been referred […]

UEFA have annulled an earlier decision to exclude Porto from next season's Champions League. Porto were initially expelled from Champions League play over alleged bribery of referees in the 2003-04 season. UEFA's appeals body decided to send the issue back for consideration to their Control and Disciplinary Body, effectively annulling the June 4 decision to […]