Blatter says Morocco have a right to pitch full FIFA Congress their 2026 bid
By Andrew Warshaw
April 12 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has added his voice to growing discontent over the criteria for selecting the 2026 World Cup hosts.
Author: Paul Nicholson
Pep’s pushy protestations put him on penalty path, Liverpool already there
April 12 – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been charged with improper conduct following during Tuesday’s Champions League defeat by Liverpool.
Manchester City builds on-line gaming presence in Korea with Nexon deal
April 12 – Korean gaming company Nexon has become Manchester City’s official social football gaming partner in South Korea. Nexon already has a partnership with Manchester United that was signed in 2015.
Man City and PSG line-up for inaugural ICC Women’s tournament in Florida in July
April 12 – The International Champions Cup (ICC), the summer pre-season ‘tournament’ from US marketing agency Relevent Sports, is to launch a four-team women’s summer competition including Manchester City, Paris St. Germain, and North Carolina Courage from the National Women’s Soccer League in the US.
Stability equals success? Barca and Real Madrid top ranking of player contract lengths
April 11 – Player stability breeds more club success would be conclusion drawn from the latest CIES Football Observatory stats that rank clubs in Europe’s Big 5 leagues by the the longest average contract duration of first team squad members.
Andrew Warshaw: UEFA Champions League ref failures make a decent case for VAR
April 11 – They say goals change games. So do referees’ decisions. The introduction of video assistant referees from the World Cup onwards may have split opinion but if ever there was a case for the system to be used, it was surely in Tuesday night’s Champions league quarter-finals.
Are the Gunners shooting themselves and the league in the foot with their crowd figures?
April 11 – It has hard to know who Arsenal are trying to fool, but reporting an official crowd attendance of 59,374 when there were more like 45,000 in the stadium smacks of the vain kind of hope that Arsene Wenger is suddenly going to get it all right and they are going to win the Premier League.
Caboclo keeps Brazilian clubs on the outside as he lays groundwork for CBF post-Del Nero
By Samindra Kunti
April 11 – The future president of the CBF, Rogerio Caboclo, has summoned presidents of Brazil’s state federations to fill four of the confederation’s vice-president roles in an early move to cement his political permanence.
Player pay row puts pressure on parsimonious Panathinaikos
April 11 – Greek football, plagued by a raft of controversial incidents on and off the pitch in recent months, has been plunged into yet more turmoil after Panathinaikos players went on a brief strike in protest over unpaid wages from last year.
El Haddadi looks for CAS support for his Moroccan heritage in time for Russia 2018 start
April 11 – Barcelona forward Munir El Haddadi has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in his bid to switch national allegiance from Spain to Morocco ahead of the World Cup.
Film fund tax avoidance schemes catch more English players in HMRC snares
April 11 – Scores of English professional footballers are facing huge fines for investing in a tax avoidance scheme, according to the country’s Daily Mirror newspaper.
Concacaf Champions League: Toronto face Chivas in revamped 2-leg final
April 11 – FIFA’s 2026 evaluation committee had only just left Mexico City and its Azteca stadium when the iconic venue returned to the real business of play in the Conacaf Champions League. Toronto FC endured a far tougher examination in the Azteca than the FIFA bid bods were likely to have given it.
UEFA wary of Infantino’s $25bn Nations League and Club World Cup buyout plan
By Tim Röhn
April 10 – UEFA has refused to comment on a proposal by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to seek approval for a secret $25 billion donor to buy the new UEFA Nations League and the Club World Cup.
China lead AFC qualifying for France 2019 Women’s World Cup with Asian Cup win
April 10 – China became the first nation to join hosts France in the 2019 Women’s World Cup with a 3-0 win over Philippines in a Group A game of the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan on Monday.
South Americans line up cities for 2030 World Cup bid with Argentina taking the lead
April 10 – Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have agreed on the 12 cities they want for the centenary World Cup in 2030 should they win the right to host, but are not naming them yet.