By Samindra Kunti
February 22 – On his pan-African tour, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, addressing the general assembly of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA), in South Africa, called on African teams to step up and leave a mark on the 2026 World Cup, the first global finals to be staged in a 48-team format.
February 22 – Britain’ health secretary Matt Hancock has shot down a newspaper report which suggested the UK may be ready to host next summer’s delayed Euro 2020.
February 22 – UEFA has announced that Qatar Airways as the official airline of this summer’s Euro 2020 tournament.
February 22 – With two weeks to go to the Web Summit on Female Leadership in Sport, SIGA has released details of the programme content and speakers.
February 22 – Two Mali players with Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg have been handed three-month doping suspensions.
February 22 – Video gaming took a step into the broadcast mainstream in the UK at the weekend with the first broadcast by Britain’s public broadcaster, BBC, of the FIFA 21 Global Series European Regional Qualifiers.
February 22 – The trial date for the gender discrimination lawsuit brought by US women players against the US Soccer Federation has been pushed back from May 5 to June 16.
February 22 – Women’s football in South Sudan took a major step forward this weekend with the inauguration of a new domestic league.
By Paul Nicholson
February 19 – International travel and quarantine restrictions have pushed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to reschedule the majority of its March qualifiers for World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup China 2023 qualifiers, with the likelihood of matches being played at centralised venues.
February 19 – Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Development since the end of 2019, has hit out at proposals to overhaul the Champions League, warning that fans will be turned off if the competition is watered down.
February 19 – The president of the European Leagues Lars-Christer Olsson (pictured) has sounded a warning about the proposed Swiss model for the Champions League, saying extra European fixtures will ‘cannibalise’ domestic TV rights across the continent.
February 19 – English Premier League chief executive Richard Masters (pictured) and his Bundesliga counterpart Christian Seifert have both opposed the much-rumoured plans to form a breakaway European super league to replace the Champions League.
February 19 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s latest stop on his tour of Africa during the global health crisis – Africa’s football governance is similarly facing a major health crisis – has been the Central African Republic.
February 19 – FIFA have released their first World Ranking of 2021 but in a period where only 43 full internationals were played, the top of the 32 places in the rankings remain unchanged with only the African nations showing movement.
February 19 – Veteran Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been fined €5,000 by the Italian Football Federation for blasphemy.