Paul Nicholson

September 9 – Manchester United have confirmed SumUp as their new sleeve partner, with the fintech firm’s logo going on the men’s, women’s and academy shirts across all competitions, plus branding at Old Trafford and the women’s Progress with Unity Stadium. The men’s team first wear the patch on their return to the Champions League against Sabah on Thursday. SumUp replaces DXC Technology, whose four-season deal ended in August, leaving United to wear Premier League patches for their opening games while the slot sat empty, Read more …

September 9 – Premier League stadiums were operating at 98.85% of capacity across Matchweek 3, the strongest occupancy rate of the opening three rounds of the season. The stats show that the ten fixtures attracted 387,204 supporters from a possible 391,724 seats, leaving just 4,520 unfilled. That marked a sharp improvement on Matchweek 2, which welcomed a larger number of supporters (422,208) but the overall occupancy rate dropped to 97.78%. The larger total crowd reflected a weekend which included home games for the biggest grounds – Read more …

September 9 – Rights group FairSquare has gathered the support of more than 100,000 people to file a new FIFA ethics complaint against world football boss Gianni Infantino. Filing the complaint on Tuesday, the NGO wrote that eights incidents linked to Donald Trump provided “compelling evidence that the FIFA President has, at a minimum, abused his power, violated his duty of political neutrality, and violated his duty of loyalty in his efforts to ingratiate himself with the US President. Read more …

September 9 – European Leagues is broadening its legal battle against FIFA, slamming the governing body’s abuse of power over the women’s match calendar and regulatory decisions in an updated complaint to the European Commission. The stakeholder reiterates that Fifa’s conflict of interest as a competition organiser and governing body is seen as an infringement of EU competition law, this time in relation to a lack of meaningful engagement with women’s professional leagues. Read more …

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Three weeks before the closing of the Bayside Cutoff, there was a fire on Jacoby Creek Road.

September 10 – UEFA responded yesterday to FIFA’s bid in the US to get their request for discovery information thrown out, asking the Manhattan court yesterday to reject the world governing body’s American subsidiaries attempt to obtain evidence for a potential Swiss criminal case against FIFA president Gianni Infantino. UEFA argued that FIFA (Americas) Inc and FWC2026 US Inc cannot act as stand-ins for FIFA or Infantino as they have no direct legal interest in the case and are not the targets of the potential criminal case or the investigation. Read more …

September 11 – The Premier League has brought back its traditional Boxing Day programme for 2026-27, after a stripped-back festive schedule last season. A year ago, Manchester United against Newcastle was the only top-flight game on Boxing Day, a break forced by calendar complexities around the league’s obligation to stage 33 rounds of games at weekends. This time there are seven matches on Saturday, December 26, with the other three on Sunday, December 27. Read more …

September 11 – Hawk-Eye Innovations has struck a multi-year deal with the Football Association of Singapore to roll out a full set of centralised Video Assistant Referee (VAR) services across the Singapore Premier League. The package includes Hawk-Eye’s VARdict system and goal-line cameras. It covers all four SPL venues, each fitted with a Referee Review Area and monitors, feeding into a central VAR Replay Centre staffed by IFAB-approved operators and Hawk-Eye specialists. The technology itself is the same used at the top of the world game. Read more …

September 11 – The French Football Federation (FFF) has officially withdrawn its backing for FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s bid for another term, following his controversial plan to sell off all FIFA’s World Cup and event organising rights. The FFF said the executive committee’s decision was unanimous, and it doesn’t hold back on the reasoning. “Whilst support had initially been given to the FIFA president, who was then the sole candidate for his own succession, Read more …

September 11 – The United Soccer League’s (USL) men’s professional clubs have approved a new revenue-sharing model, the latest in a run of significant changes reshaping the league. It comes under president and CEO Paul McDonough, with backing from BellTower Partners, led by former Carlyle Group chief Kewsong Lee, whose investment has helped sharpen the USL’s vision. The model gives clubs a defined way to share in the growth of national league revenue, Read more …