March 2 – FIFA’s choice of Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima as its first global fan ambassador five months before the Women’s World Cup has been lambasted as “tone-deaf” by Moya Dodd, a former FIFA executive committee member and one-time leader of the organisation’s taskforce for the women’s game.
March 2 – Six clubs from Bulgaria elite division, efbet Liga, have combined debts due to the National Revenue Agency (NRA) of BGN 14.5 million (€7.25 million). The news was part of a naming and shaming announced by the NRA through Bulgarian National Television.
March 2 – Austria captain David Alaba says it was a team decision for him to vote for Lionel Messi over his own Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema as men’s player of the year at the recent Best FIFA Awards.
March 2 – Just Fontaine, the French football legend who in 1958 scored a record 13 goals in the World Cup finals in Sweden – a remarkable feat that has withstood 16 editions since and seems unlikely ever to be matched – has died, triggering an outpouring of tributes.
March 2 – After a gap of five years, the AFC’s U20 Championship burst into action with hosts Uzbekistan in a near capacity Bunyodkor Stadium beating Syria and Vietnam continuing their progression on the world stage with a win over Australia.
March 2 – South Korea have turned to former Germany and United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann to lead them through to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. First he will have to navigate them through qualifying.
March 2 – FIFA is sticking with its Fan Festival format for this summer’s Women’s World Cup but has lengthened its name from ‘fest’ to ‘festival’.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 1 – Disgraced former French FA president Noel Le Graet looks as if he will still be given carte blanche by FIFA to oversee its office in Paris despite being forced to resign over a series of allegations including sexual misconduct.
By David Owen
March 1 – Liverpool’s remarkable 2021-22 season has helped to restore the Merseyside club to profit. The Reds have served notice that pre-tax profit weighed in at £7.5 million in the year to end-May 2022; this compared with a loss of £4.8 million the previous year.
This is the tale of ‘The Old Man who can’t See’: a French autocrat, adorned with Napoleonic complexities, was handed his Waterloo by two women. At 81, after 12 years at the helm of French football, he resigned yesterday, only to assume a new assignment next week. You guessed it: at Infantino’s FIFA.
March 1 – Juventus have lodged an appeal against the massive 15-point penalty for false accounting related to artificially inflated transfer dealings meted out last month, according to Italian reports.
March 1 – Concacaf is expanding the top tier of its Nations League to 16 teams and has unveiled new competition formats and qualification routes for the 2023-26 cycle of men’s national team competitions, taking them up to the 2026 World Cup to be hosted in the region.
March 1 – Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal stormed into the final of the AFC Champions League 2022 Final with a thumping 7-0 win over Qatar’s Al Duhail in Doha.
March 1 – The president of leading Egyptian side Zamalek, Mortada Mansour (pictured), has been jailed for a month for “verbally insulting” his counterpart at bitter Cairo rivals Al Ahly.
March 1 – In a disgraceful indictment of Turkey’s autocratic regime, supporters of Fenerbahçe, who chanted anti-government slogans during a previous match, have been banned from attending this weekend’s game against Kayserispor.