November 8 – Despite growing doubts about the system’s efficacity, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology will be used for the first time in an official game in the UK during England’s prestige friendly against Germany at Wembley on Friday.
By Paul Nicholson
November 7 – Jury selection began yesterday in the trial of three South American football officials arrested as part of the FIFA corruption scandal charged with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.
November 7 – After a lengthy campaign for better treatment of its members, the world players’ union FIFpro has dropped its legal bid against FIFA to outlaw football’s transfer system believing it has won significant concessions.
By Paul Nicholson
November 3 – You couldn’t make this up. FIFA, under fire in this publication last month via its women’s rankings that showed a lack of women’s development in nations where three Confederation presidents reign, has in the latest edition of its FIFA 1904 magazine not bothered to even publish the women’s rankings page. The men’s rankings were, of course, published.
November 2 – FIFA have concluded a five-year TV deal with public broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) for rights to all its events starting with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and concluding with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
November 2 – FIFA says it is waiting for information over a Delhi High Court ruling which has booted out the Indian football federation’s (AIFF) Praful Patel as the body’s president.
By Andrew Warshaw
November 1 – Tokyo Sexwale, the under-fire South African official who headed FIFA’s doomed Israel-Palestine mediation effort, insists he did exactly what was asked of him and has questioned why his eagerly awaited report was thrown out by FIFA’s all-powerful Council headed by Gianni Infantino.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – The full extent to which FIFA washed its hands of football’s Israeli-Palestinian impasse by throwing out a detailed report from its chief mediator for the region can today be exposed.
October 31 – The four British associations will request permission from FIFA to wear the poppy symbol on their kit during November’s international matches to honour the victims of World War 1 and II.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – As anticipated, last week’s astonishing decision by FIFA to close down its Middle East mediation initiative has prompted an angry backlash with Palestinian sports officials accusing world football’s governing body of deceit and leaving them in the lurch.
By Samindra Kunti in Kolkata
October 30 – The president of the African Football Confederation Ahmad Ahmad has queried CONCACAF’s unity for the region’s 2026 World Cup bid. CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani downplayed the United States’ elimination from the 2018 World Cup as a destabilising factor for his confederation’s bid. Last August Morocco joined the race to land the first 48-team tournament.
By Samindra Kunti in Kolkata
October 30 – At the close of the U-17 World Cup in India, All India Football Federation president Praful Patel pitched the country’s bid to stage the U-20 World Cup to the FIFA Council. FIFA president Gianni Infantino dubbed the tournament “a resounding success” but didn’t offer clues about the next U-20 World Cup host. The Bureau of the Council will take a decision early next year.
October 30 – The Confederations Cup, the traditional World Cup warm-up tournament, could eventually be scrapped in its present format and replaced with a revised and far more credible version of the Club World Cup, a much-maligned annual tournament featuring the champion of each Continent but which has not caught on in the way FIFA might have hoped.
By Samindra Kunti in Kolkata
October 29 – England’s wonder kids completed a miraculous 5-2 comeback against Spain to lift the U-17 World Cup. Philip Foden, the player of the tournament, and Rhian Brewster, the golden boot, starred in a remarkable second-half comeback, the culmination of a successful first World Cup on Indian soil.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 27 – After years of delays and buck-passing, FIFA has officially closed down its much-troubled Middle East mediation initiative, a highly provocative move that could enflame tension in the region and seems bound to infuriate the pro-Palestinian lobby like never before.