October 22 – The international window at last saw a return to a significant numbers of national team matches with FIFA reporting 120 games played in October, the bulk of them in the UEFA and Conmebol region. The top five nations in FIFA’s men’s national team ranking all remained the same.
October 22 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said he is not interested in the plotting behind the scenes in European football and the creation of a Super League, but he remains committed to the world federation’s revamped but delayed Club World Cup.
October 22 – Trials of permanent concussion substitutes could begin in January, the game’s law-makers have announced.
By Samindra Kunti
October 15 – Conmebol is to receive a windfall $37 million from the Swiss bank accounts of Nicolas Leoz and Eduardo Deluca after the Swiss attorney general stated that “the forfeited funds will be returned directly”.
October 15 – FIFA has restructured its esports tournaments with three new competitive pathways and a combined prize money pot of $4.35 million. It has also rebranded with a new design under the tagline ‘Fame your game’.
By Paul Nicholson
October 14 – A Trinidad and Tobago court has ruled that FIFA’s replacement of the board of the Trinidad and Tobago FA by a Normalisation Committee in March was illegal and that FIFA’s statutes are inconsistent with local law that formed the TTFA in 1982.
October 9 – With Spain and Portugal having confirmed their joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup, their two top leagues have similarly renewed their vows, extending a cooperation agreement signed in 2017 for a further three years.
October 9 – With the rules of football under more scrutiny than ever – offside, handball, VAR etc – FIFA’s recently appointed Head of Global Development, Arsene Wenger, has come up with some forward-looking ideas he believes will improve the game.
October 8 – On the day they played each other in an Iberian friendly, Spain and Portugal announced Wednesday they were pushing ahead with a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
October 8 – More than 200 national association members of FIFA have signed up for the Arsene Wenger-led Talent Development Programme.
By Paul Nicholson
October 7 – The Trinidad and Tobago FA have been given a deadline of December 18 by FIFA to get their suspension lifted or face exclusion from the Qatar 2022 World Cup Qualifiers. The TTFA has been given the same deadline for the 2021 Gold Cup.
October 7 – When FIFA football isn’t being played in an international window, politics will be. FIFA president Gianni Infantino was in Paris earlier this week to meet French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, also present was French FA president Noël Le Graët.
By Paul Nicholson
September 28 – The soap opera that is the United TTFA’s desperate politicking to regain control of the Trinidad and Tobago FA took a couple of more plot turns over the weekend with the withdrawal of the notice to withdraw the court proceedings against FIFA on Friday, and the news from Concacaf that they were keeping the TTFA in the Gold Cup draw, at least for now.
By Paul Nicholson
September 24 – FIFA’s patience with the former leadership of the Trinidad and Tobago FA (TTFA) has inevitably run out. The world governing body tonight suspended the TTFA “with immediate effect and until further notice”.
September 23 – Swiss prosecutors have called for Paris Saint-Germain president and beIN Media supremo Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and former FIFA number two Jerome Valcke to go to jail for alleged corruption in the allocation of World Cup TV rights.