February 25 – Yet another country has been stripped of hosting rights but this time it is not a regional competition but, unusually, FIFA’s very own under-17 World Cup due to be staged in just eight months’ time.
February 25 – Brazilian elite football has adopted VAR for the upcoming 2019 season after a unanimous vote in favour of the video review technology. Next year the Supercup will be reintroduced, but a measure to limit teams to firing one coach per season was rejected.
February 25 – The end of an era in Russian football has been confirmed with Alexander Dyukov, chief executive of oil giant Gazprom, named as Vitaly Mutko’s replacement as president of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
February 25 – Beach Soccer Worldwide, organisers of FIFA’s Beach Soccer World Cup, have signed LaLiga as an Official Global Partner until the end of the 2020/2021 season.
February 25 – Australian club Western United’s decision to not incorporate ‘Melbourne’ in its name could cost Football Federation Australia (FFA) A$5 million in annual TV rights as Fox Sports seeks to challenge its obligation to increase future payments for the broadcasting deal.
February 25 – Malaysia, Singapore, Solomon Islands and Oman will compete in the inaugural Airmarine 2019 Cup in Malaysia in March.
February 25 – Have you ever seen anything like it? That was the widespread reaction to the extraordinary scenes that marked the climax of Sunday’s English League Cup final won by Manchester City, who retained the trophy on penalties following a goalless draw with Chelsea.
February 25 – Germany and Russia are going head-to-head for the hosting of the 2021 Champions League finals with Munich and St Petersburg as the candidate cities.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 22 – The former head of women’s football in Afghanistan says she would be killed if she ever returned to the country for lifting the lid on the abuse of women players.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 22 – Big-spending Chelsea, in the headlines for much of the season for all the wrong reasons, have been slapped with a two-window transfer ban by FIFA and fined CHF600,000 after being found guilty of illegally signing no fewer than 29 under-age foreign players.
By Samindrra Kunti
February 22 – Bolivia has offered to join Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay in their bid to host the 2030 World Cup, promoting the idea of a pan-South American World Cup.
By Paul Nicholson
February 22 – Goalscoring legend Roy Race, the iconic Melchester Rovers striker who has created more ‘wonder moments’ than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi combined and has never been convicted of tax evasion, has a new boot deal.
February 22 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) will present a number of measures to the technical council of its top league clubs to “advance” Brazilian football. They include adopting VAR in the Serie A, limiting the number of managerial changes and the introduction of a Brazilian Super Cup in 2020.
February 22 – The third edition of the China Cup from March 21-25 in Nanning will kick off with a rerun of the January Asian Cup last-16 encounter between China and Thailand.
February 22 – The first round of Champions League knock-out fixtures once again re- inforced the dominance of Europe’s Big 5 leagues with 14 out of the 16 teams qualified coming from those leagues.