By Paul Nicholson
October 13 – EA Sports has renewed its licensing deal with players’ union FIFPRO in what is described as a “long term commitment”, but at the same time raises further doubts over EA’s ‘commitment’ to FIFA and use of its brand name.
October 13 – Japan reignited their World Cup qualifying campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Australia, ending the Socceroos 11-game winning streak.
October 13 – After a tight and tense fourth round of matches in the Asian Qualifiers for Qatar 2022, Iran cemented their lead in Group A with a draw against nearest challengers South Korea in Tehran.
October 13 – Two World Cup qualifying games were disrupted by fan violence on Tuesday as the race for places in Qatar intensified.
October 13 – Criticism of FIFA’s proposal to stage a biennial World Cup continues to mount up, this time from an unexpected source: one of its own main sponsors.
October 12 – Dimitar Berbatov has failed in his bid to become the president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFS). The incumbent Borislav Mihaylov (pictured) was re-elected for a fifth term.
October 13 – UEFA have launched the bidding process for hosting Euro 2028 with member associations having until March 2022 to declare their interest. The final decision on hosting will be made in September 2023.
October 13 – After an economic 1-0 victory against Austria, Denmark is heading to the World Cup again, seven points clear at the summit of Group F.
By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
October 12 – The tense relationship between Palestinian football and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino reached fever pitch on Monday when a meeting between the two was cancelled by the Palestinian FA who in a statement today said they could not support a PR visit designed around the “support of evangelical Zionist groups that advocate the negation of Palestinian rights.”
By Samindra Kunti and Paul Nicholson
October 12 – The Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has criticised UEFA and FIFA for the congested international match calendar, labelling the third-place play-off between his national team and Italy in the Nations League “a money game”. He argued that UEFA don’t care for player welfare.
October 12 – France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) president Vincent Labrune has said the league’s new commercial subsidiary could raise €1 billion with an investment partner that will be key to the survival of French professional football.
October 12 – Having announced that women would be allowed to attend the crucial Iran vs South Korea Qatar 2022 qualifiers, Iranian authorities appear to have staged a last-minute u-turn in banning fans from attending. It would have been the first time in two years that women would have been allowed to attend such a high-profile fixture.
October 12 – Germany became the first team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after breezing past North Macedonia 4-0 on Monday to claim top spot in Group J with two games to spare.
October 12 – With just 100 days to go until kick-off, the AFC and the organisers of the Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 have unveiled the official tagline of the tournament as ‘Our Goal For All’.
October 12 – The English FA yesterday launched its new campaign – Let Girls Play – to coincide with International Day of the Girl and to force the pace of change in providing girls with equal opportunity to play organised football.