May 29 – FIFA’s events have become like buses. You wait for four years for one and then suddenly you get four of them at the same time. With the Club World Cup set to kick off next month and the draws for the U17 World Cup and Arab Cup in Qatar held last week, today FIFA focus is on the draw for U20 World Cup Chile 2025.
May 28 – On the tenth anniversary of FIFAGate, FairSquare, NGOs, academics, writers, whistleblowers and football supporters’ groups have argued that “FIFA is arguably more poorly governed today than a decade ago”.
FIFA has responded that it is “a completely new organisation”, and that 2015 marked the beginning of a process of “fundamental change”.
May 28 – Abdullah Ibhais has said that he will sue his former employer, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), as well as FIFA after spending more than three years in a Qatari prison on trumped-up charges.
May 28 – FIFA held the official draws for two of its 2025 tournaments to be held in Doha on Sunday, with the Arab Cup and the newly expanded U-17 World Cup set to return to Qatar later this year. The dual-event draw was hosted at the Raffles Hotel.
May 27 – The Los Angeles World Cup 2026 Host Committee gathered leaders from 88 cities and communities at the GRAMMY Museum last week to outline countywide participation opportunities for the tournament. Los Angeles will host eight matches at SoFi Stadium, including the U.S. Men’s National Team opener and a quarterfinal.
May 27 – Violence erupted between LA Galaxy and San Diego FC supporters following their Major League Soccer (MLS) match this weekend, raising uncomfortable parallels to England’s notorious football hooliganism of the 1970s and 80s. The incident at Snapdragon Stadium has prompted questions about whether American soccer is importing more than just tactical innovations from abroad.
May 22 – Morocco has launched the construction tender for the Grand Stade Hassan II, a centrepiece of its 2030 World Cup ambitions and a strong contender to host the tournament’s final.
May 22 – Human rights research and advocacy NGO Fairsquare has accused FIFA of “ad hoc and selective enforcement of its rules” following the world governing body’s failure to act against the Israeli Football Association (IFA).
May 22 – German telecommunications entity Deutsche Telekom has landed the German broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup, according to domestic tabloid Bild.
May 22 – FIFA has confirmed its special Club World Cup transfer window has been approved by the 20 member federations that have teams in the 32-team tournament that kicks off June 14 in the US.
The special 10-day window (June 1 -10) means that teams will be allowed to sign new players for the tournament. Closing on June 10, the European summer transfer window will open fully June 16 and close September 1.
May 19 – In potentially the richest match either team has ever played, Major League Soccer’s (MLS) LAFC and Liga MX’s Club América will face off in a crucial Club World Cup qualifying playoff match on May 31 at BMO Stadium. The victor will be just seven matches away from a potential $125 million payday should they win the entire tournament.
By Samindra Kunti in Asuncion, Paraguay
May 16 – European football leaders staged a dramatic walkout at the FIFA congress in protest against Gianni Infantino’s delayed arrival following his Middle East Trip with US President Donald Trump.
Tensions boiled over at what had promised to be a routine Congress. Europe’s Council members walked out was supported by a sizable number of European football associations.
May 16 – He may have turned up four hours late, and have key members of his ‘football family’ walk out on him at the interval in protest, but FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino barely missed a beat as he rattled through all the talking points that in his ivory tower make him a global powerbroker and now seemingly bigger than the sport he was elected to administer.
May 16 – FIFA and its administration have once again kicked the issue of Israeli settlement clubs into the long grass, a tradition the world governing body has maintained for more than a decade.
By Samindra Kunti in Asuncion, Paraguay
May 16 – South American football boss Alejandro Dominguez has once again beat the drum for a 64-team World Cup in 2030 to celebrate the tournament’s centenary. Taking the stage in his home country of Paraguay it was a remarkable exhortion of FIFA’s members to “think in a different way”.