October 11 – It’s been on the cards for a while and now the decision has finally been made. England captain Wayne Rooney, his country’s most-capped outfield player with 117 appearances, has been dropped for tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.
October 11 – FIFA has begun the sales process for the broadcast rights to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, launching an invitation to tender (ITT) for the UK media rights.
October 10 – The number of national qualified players playing in the first teams of the top league in their country is often said to dictate the health of national team. If that is true then England’s 1-0 loss to Iceland at the Euros might have actually been a good result for the country.
October 10 – A year and a half after his arrest as part of the FIFA corruption scandal, Costa Rica’s Eduardo Li pleaded guilty on Friday to three charges in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, admitting he took hundreds and thousands of dollars in bribes.
By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – The idea of an enlarged World Cup to 40 teams, or even 48, is gaining momentum with Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa adding his voice, with some caution, to the debate. But caution or not, Salman said that in any enlarged World Cup the AFC would expect to be a major beneficiary.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino says a joint British Olympics football team would not endanger the four home nations’ independent status.
By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – For the regular season just finished, the USL, the third tier of the US professional leagues, hit record aggregate attendances of 1.5 million for the season, a 40% increase on previous years. But it is not just attendances that are growing for this challenger league in the US.
By Paul Nicholson
October 10 – Finding ways to monetise digital engagement and turn digital eyeballs into value-holding data is a holy grail for clubs as their digital teams increase in size alongside their digital followers.
October 10 – Bob Bradley, the first American appointed to coach a top-flight European team, says he aims to disprove those who believe he will find the Premier League too hot to handle.
October 10 – Spanish international defender Gerard Piqué says the 2018 World Cup in Russia will be his final tournament with the national team because he feels he is no longer wanted.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – Leading leagues across Europe say they have won vital concessions from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin over plans to revamp the Champions League.
By Paul Nicholson
October 7 – In what can be a positively perceived next step for an organisation still working through ways to define itself, the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) has announced a set of Universal Standards that underpins its philosophy, perhaps the longest mission statement ever issued.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – In an extraordinary move given the significance of the occasion and the media interest worldwide, FIFA have scrapped staging a press conference following next week’s eagerly awaited first full meeting of its new 36-member ruling Council.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 7 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino seems unlikely to face an ethics prosecution over his role in a loan to the Slovenian Football Association while he was UEFA general secretary.
Who would have thought that a group of Norwegian bloggers could shatter the glass walls of FIFA, UEFA, etc. What they delivered in terms of conspiracy theories about UEFA’s new boss, and FIFA’s new Audit and Compliance chief is pretty cool – time will prove how correct their suppositions are but questions have been asked.