March 17 – While focus has been shifted to the 2025 Club World Cup and how teams will qualify, or have qualified, FIFA have also said they will run a global club competition every year.
By Samindra Kunti in Kigali, Rwanda
March 17 – FIFA said it has tripled the ‘prize money’ for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand as president Gianni Infantino lashed out at broadcasters for not offering enough money for the tournament’s broadcast rights.
March 17 – While details of the hosts for FIFA’s 32-team Club World Cup in 2025 are still to be announced, nine of the world’s biggest clubs have already qualified for the event as champions of their confederation’s leading club competitions.
March 17 – LaLiga CEO Javier Tebas says he has resigned from the European Leagues body saying that it does not take its role seriously and has done nothing to fight what he says are the financial abuses of the Premier League and state-backed clubs.
March 17 – Mondelēz International brand Cadbury is rolling out its sponsorship renewals in the Premier League in what is understood to be another series of three-year terms.
March 17 – Fortaleza Esporte Clube has unveiled online bookmaker Novibet as the team’s main sponsor in a two-year deal starting this season.
By Andrew Warshaw
March 16 – No sooner had he been re-elected FIFA president for another four years than Gianni Infantino indulged in yet another unexpected monologue today, this time defending his organisation’s global standing and, more tellingly, his own personal reputation.
By Samindra Kunti in Kigali, Rwanda
March 16 – Gianni Infantino has been re-elected FIFA president by acclamation for a four-year term until 2027. Football’s boss has also cleared a path that could see him seek to stay in power until 2031.
By Samindra Kunti in Kigali
March 16 – With FIFA’s wealth at an all-time high and his power base consolidated, FIFA president Gianni Infantino called on “unity” in the football family with the world federation in a “strong” and “stable” position, having “regained the trust of sponsors and institutions”.
March 16 – Speaking at the FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, FIFA’s chief of global development Arsene Wenger outlined plans for FIFA to create a youth development academy in every country of the world by 2026.
March 16 – Spain’s La Liga has thrown the book at FIFA for overhauling the international match calendar without sufficient consultation, in particular expanding the Club World Cup from seven to 32 teams from 2025.
March 16 – The umbrella body representing all of Europe’s major leagues has slammed FIFA for acting “unilaterally” in introducing a new 32-team Club World Cup and playing 104 matches – 40 more than in the past and including a new round-of-32 stage – when the World Cup is expanded to 48 nations in 2026.
March 16 – Holders Real Madrid cruised into the Champions League quarterfinals as French superstar Karim Benzema’s second-half goal secured a 1-0 win over Liverpool in their last-16 second leg tie that wrapped up a 6-2 aggregate victory.
March 16 – German champions Bayern Munich have formed a partnership with Major League Soccer champions LAFC to identify and develop young talent for their own teams but also for the international market.
March 16 – Consumer electronics brand TCL, has become an official sponsor of Conmebol’s Copa Libertadores club competition for the 2023-2026 cycle.