Global diary
A comprehensive record of recent events around the world
Friday February 14
AUSTRALIA: At 15 years and 325 days, Mohamed Toure becomes the youngest scorer in A-League history with a goal in Adelaide United’s 2-0 win against Central Coast Mariners.
CAF SUPER CUP: Zamalek beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-1 to win the CAF Super Cup for a fourth time. The Egyptian side’s coach, Patrice Carteron, won the same title last year with Morocco’s Raja.
ENGLAND: Manchester City say they will appeal after they are banned from European competition for the next two seasons and fined €30m for “serious breaches” of UEFA’s club licensing and financial fairplay regulations.
ITALY: The FIGC, Italian football’s governing body, says FIFA should make changes to the VAR system, allowing coaches to challenge decisions and ask for technology to intervene. Serie A began using video assistant referees in 2017.
MOROCCO: VAR is used in a top-flight league game in Africa for the first time as IRT Tangier beat FUS Rabat 2-1.
REP OF IRELAND: Defending champions Dundalk kick off the new season with a 1-0 win over Derry City.
Saturday February 15
NEPAL: Two points behind Nepal Army Club going into the last game of the season, Machhindra beat the A-Division League leaders 1-0 to claim their first title.
NORTHERN IRELAND: Stephen Lowry is on target from the penalty spot as Coleraine beat his brother Philip’s Crusaders side 2-1 in the League Cup Final.
Sunday February 16
PORTUGAL: Moussa Marega walks off the pitch during Porto’s 2-1 win at Vitoria Guimaraes when he is subjected to racist abuse from home fans after scoring what turns out to be his side’s winning goal. Team-mates and opposition players try to persuade him to stay on before he is eventually substituted.
Monday February 17
ENGLAND: Pep Guardiola confirms his commitment to Manchester City despite their UEFA ban, stating: “Whatever league we are in, I will still be here. Even if they put us in League Two, I will still be here. This is a time for sticking together.”
SPAIN: Radio station SER Catalunya claims Barcelona hired a firm to produce disparaging social media posts aimed at its own players, including Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique, in an attempt to protect the reputation of president Josep Maria Bartomeu and damage the image of those who disagreed with him. The club denies any such action and “demands an immediate rectification of the information published”.
USA: Ron Jans steps down as coach of Cincinnati following an MLS investigation into claims that the Dutchman made “extremely inappropriate comments” during pre-season.
Tuesday February 18
INDIA: Goa will be the first club from India to feature in the AFC Champions League group stage after finishing top of the Indian Super League regular season with a 5-0 victory over Jamshedpur.
Wednesday February 19
FIFA: Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi is charged by the Swiss Attorney General in connection with an investigation – allegedly involving ex-FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke and a third businessman – into the awarding of media rights for FIFA tournaments.
Saturday February 22
ITALY: Four Serie A games this weekend – Atalanta v Sassuolo, Internazionale v Sampdoria, Torino v Parma and Verona v Cagliari – are postponed over fears of the spread of coronavirus. Cristiano Ronaldo marks the 1,000th senior game of his career with a goal in Juventus’ 2-1 win at SPAL.
NIGERIA: Kazeem “Kaka” Tiyamiyu, a 21-year-old defender with second-tier side Remo Stars, is knocked down and killed by a vehicle in an apparent hit-and-run while being questioned by police
in south-west Nigeria.
Sunday February 23
EGYPT: Following a brawl at the end of Thursday’s Egyptian Super Cup, in which Zamalek beat Al Ahly on penalties, six players are banned by the FA, with Mahmoud Kahraba of Al Ahly and Zamalek’s Imam Ashour suspended for the rest of the season.
FRANCE: Neymar is sent off as Paris Saint-Germain beat Bordeaux 4-3, with Edinson Cavani becoming the first player to score 200 goals for PSG.
TURKEY: In a derby clash that sees 12 bookings and three red cards, Galatasaray beat Fenerbahce 3-1 to register their first win away to their Istanbul rivals since 1999.
Monday February 24
EGYPT: The day after sanctions were handed to players and officials from both clubs following a brawl in the Egyptian Super Cup, Zamalek
fail to turn up for a league game against Al Ahly.
KOSOVO: Seventeen-year-old Ilija Ivic, who plays for Flamurtari, says he will join Kosovo’s under-19 squad despite his mother being fired from her local government job following his decision to become the first Kosovan Serb to accept a call-up.
SOUTH KOREA: The start of the new K League season is postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Tuesday February 25
GREECE: UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin meets Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and agrees to assist the Greek Football Federation in curbing violence and corruption in its professional leagues.
ITALY: Dries Mertens scores for Napoli in their 1-1 draw at home to Barcelona in the Champions League to equal Marek Hamsik’s record of 121 goals for the club.
ZIMBABWE: Following a CAF inspection, Zimbabwe is barred from hosting international games until further notice after the country’s three main stadiums Barbourfields, Mandava and the National Sports Stadium - fail to meet required standards.
Wednesday February 26
BRAZIL: Flamengo coach Jorge Jesus collects his fifth trophy in eight months as a 3-0 victory over Independiente Del Valle gives his side a 5-2 aggregate win in the Recopa Sudamericana.
Thursday February 27
FIFA: From next season, clubs will be restricted to eight international loans in and out, subject to the approval of FIFA’s players’ status committee and FIFA Council. This figure will drop to six loans in and out from the 2022-23 campaign.
Saturday February 29
ENGLAND: ENGLAND: After 18 successive wins in all competitions, Liverpool lose 3-0 at Watford and miss out on a new record for an English topflight team. Defeat ends a 44-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.
ITALY: Lazio beat Bologna 2-0 to go top of Serie A for the first time since 2010.
Sunday March 1
ENGLAND: Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2-1 to win the League Cup for a third successive season.
GEORGIA: Formed just four years ago, Telavi make their debut in the Georgian top flight and draw 0-0
away at defending champions Dinamo Tbilisi.
SPAIN: At 19, Vinicius Junior is the youngest scorer in El Clasico in the 21st century, getting Real Madrid’s opening goal in their 2-0 victory over Barcelona.
UKRAINE: After 48 league games without defeat, Shakhtar Donetsk are beaten 1-0 at Vorskla.
USA: Inter Miami lose 1-0 to Los Angeles FC on their MLS debut.
Monday March 2
CAF: Mouad Hajji resigns as the Confederation of African Football’s secretary-general for “personal reasons” as he needs a “return to Morocco as soon as possible”.
UEFA: Puskas Arena in Budapest will host the 2022 Europa League Final, with Helsinki and Kazan staging the UEFA Super Cup in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Tuesday March 3
GERMANY: Daniel Batz saves a penalty in normal time and four more in the shoot-out as Saarbrucken beat Fortuna Dusseldorf to become the firstever fourth-tier side to reach the DFB Cup semi-finals.
Wednesday March 4
FRANCE: Kylian Mbappe scores a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain beat Lyon 5-1 to reach their sixth consecutive Coupe de France Final.
SPAIN: The first club outside La Liga to reach the Copa del Rey semi-finals for eight years, secondtier Mirandes’ run ends with a 3-1 loss on aggregate to Real Sociedad.
Thursday March 5
FRANCE: Monaco winger Gelson Martins’ season is over as the Portuguese international is handed a six-month ban for pushing referee Mikael Lesage during his side’s 3-1 defeat at Nimes in February.
GREECE: Defending champions PAOK are deducted seven points for breaching ownership rules and, although still second, now trail leaders Olympiakos by 14 points. Xanthi are deducted 12 points. Both clubs have the right to appeal.
GUINEA: Nine players from second division side Etoile de Guinee are killed in a bus crash on their way to play Karifamoriah in their first match of the new season. A further 19 people are injured, with 17 of those in a serious condition.
SPAIN: Athletic Bilbao beat Granada on away goals and will play Real Sociedad in the first all-Basque Copa del Rey
Final since 1927 at Seville’s Estadio de La Cartuja.
Friday March 6
FRANCE: Saturday’s game between Strasbourg and Paris Saint-Germain becomes the first Ligue 1 game to be postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
GERMANY: The DFB will test a “sin bin” sanction for a second yellow card rather than sending a player off with a red card at eighth-tier games and below next season.
Saturday March 7
ARGENTINA: Carlos Tevez’s goal gives Boca Juniors a 1-0 victory over Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and seals the Primera Division title.
ENGLAND: Liverpool win 2-1 against Bournemouth to create a new English top-flight record with a 22nd consecutive home win.
GERMANY: Jadon Sancho sets up Achraf Hakimi’s winner in Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 victory at Borussia Monchengladbach to equal a club record of 15 assists for the season.
Sunday March 8
ITALY: Cristiano Ronaldo plays his 1,000th professional game as
Juventus beat Internazionale 2-0.
NIGERIA: Chineme Martins of top-flight side Nasarawa United collapses during a game against Katsina United and dies in hospital.
Monday March 9
ITALY: All sport in the country is suspended until at least April 3 because of coronavirus. This includes Serie A games but not
matches involving club sides or national teams participating in international competitions.
WORLD CUP: FIFA and the AFC agree to postpone the Asian World Cup qualifying matches in March and June due to the coronavirus.
Tuesday March 10
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:
Olimpia of Honduras win a game in the knockout stage of the tournament for the first time, beating Montreal Impact 2-1 away in their quarter-final first leg.
INDIA: Former La Liga striker Baba Diawara scores his 10th goal in the last nine games to give Mohun Bagan a 1-0 win over Aizwal and secure the I-League title with four games to spare. UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Last season’s runners-up Tottenham Hotspur are knocked out by RB Leipzig, who are joined in the last eight by debutants Atalanta after they beat Valencia 4-3, with Josip Ilicic scoring all four goals.
Wednesday March 11
HOLLAND: Former Bayer Leverkusen and Beijing Guoan coach Roger Schmidt agrees to take charge of PSV next season.
ITALY: Andrea Pirlo, who retired in 2017 after a short stint in MLS with New York City FC, is reported to have agreed a return to Juventus next season as coach of their under-23 side, who play in Serie C.
UEFA CHAMPS LEAGUE: Atletico Madrid knock out holders Liverpool, while Paris Saint-Germain beat Borussia Dortmund.