Dark nights at the FIFA Museum as staff warned of job cuts
January 24 – FIFA’s much-touted but loss-making museum, which opened only a year ago, is on the verge of losing another raft of employees in a move to save costs.
FIFA
Less is more? FIFA appoints heads of its slimmed-down committee structure
January 23 – As part of its reform process to streamline its top-heavy bureaucracy, save costs and respond to the worst crisis in its history, FIFA has slashed the number of standing committees from 26 to nine.
Mutko refuses to bow to Infantino pressure to withdraw from Council election
By Andrew Warshaw
January 23 – Russia’s under-fire senior football powerbroker Vitaly Mutko, allegedly caught up in the country’s damning doping scandal, reportedly ignored a private request from FIFA president Gianni Infantino to withdraw from the spotlight.
FIFA end Chirakal’s football career for good with life ban
By Andrew Warshaw
January 23 – Any hopes Gianni Infantino may have that FIFA has buried its toxic past have again been laid bare with yet another former prominent official banned for life by FIFA’s own ethics committee.
Video refs coming to Europe: Bundesliga to lead way with trials this season
January 2 – Germany’s Bundesliga will become the first major league to use video assistant referees next season for game-changing decisions.
Van Basten puts forward radical plan for sin bins and an end to offside rule
By Andrew Warshaw
January 19 – Not to be outdone by the innovations of his boss Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s new technical director Marco van Basten has come up with arguably the most ground-breaking blueprint ever for the future of football including scrapping offside and introducing sin-bins in place of yellow cards.
Club vs country: Matip waits in Liverpool’s wings as eligibility fog set to clear Friday
January 18 – Liverpool expect to discover on Friday whether Joel Matip is eligible to play for them as confusion continues over the defender’s availability.
FIFA passes the buck, leaving Liverpool in lurch over ruling on Matip eligibility
By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – FIFA faces accusations of buck-passing and shirking its responsibility after effectively telling Liverpool to make up their own minds and suffer the consequences over whether to select Cameroon defender Joel Matip after he declined to represent his country in the African Nations Cup.
Palestine’s Rajoub under fire from media watchdog as Israeli supporters up the ante
By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – An Israeli-based media watchdog has sent a detailed and highly damning file on Palestine football leader Jibril Rajoub to FIFA in the latest tit-for-tat exchange over the sensitive issue over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian players and officials in the occupied territories.
$ billions more or $ billions less: does FIFA really have its World Cup numbers right?
January 16 – The British sponsorship consultant widely acknowledged as one of the pioneers of modern sports marketing has described as “absurd” FIFA’s decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.
2026 World Cup hosting: Morocco could challenge US’s ‘done’ deal
January 13 – Is Morocco secretly planning to put a spanner in the works of a 2026 CONCACAF World Cup bid?
‘Are you Blatter in disguise?’ goes the chant
By Andrew Warshaw
All the benefits with no negatives. So proclaimed Gianni Infantino immediately after this week’s seismic decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams. This is not about politics, he said. This is not about money. This is purely about serving football and redressing the game’s imbalances. Does anyone in their right mind really believe that?
Watch out, there’s a thief about. Six €93K timepieces go missing at FIFA
January 12 – Different regime, new ‘Watchgate’ probe. FIFA has filed a report with police in Switzerland after six Hublot watches embarrassingly went missing before Monday’s Best Awards gala in Zurich.
Infantino defends 48 team World Cup as a 21st Century-looking, ‘football fever’ decision
By Andrew Warshaw
January 11 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, insisting the change from 32 was based on “sporting merit” and not a money-making exercise despite his need to find promised additional revenue for FIFA’s 211 members.
Montagliani backs expanded 2026 as CONCACAF looks set for co-hosting bid
By Andrew Warshaw
January 11 – CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani has given another strong hint that the first 48-team World Cup could be jointly staged by the USA, Mexico and his native Canada.