October 11 – Mexico are back at the top of Concacaf’s Qatar 2022 qualifying after another seesawing round of qualifiers that saw Panama stun the US and Canada draw with Jamaica.
October 8 – Saudi Arabia moved a step closer to 2022 World Cup participation with a landmark 1-0 victory against Japan to maintain a perfect record with nine points from three matches in Group B in Asia’s third round of qualifiers.
September 23 – The English Premier League looks set to break for an unprecedented six weeks to incorporate the 2022 World Cup, the first ever to be staged in winter.
September 8 – FIFA has confirmed it has opened disciplinary proceedings against Brazil’s and Argentina’s Football Associations following the farcical scenes that led to their eagerly anticipated World Cup qualifying clash being suspended after just five minutes when Brazilian health officials stormed the pitch to question the quarantine status of certain players.
September 8 – Iran, Australia and Saudi Arabia have taken early advantage in the last round of Asian Qualifying for Qatar 2022. All three won their opening two games and top Groups A and B in the 12 team qualifiers.
By Samindra Kunti
September 7 – Brazil’s federal police are investigating Argentina’s four Premier-League based players whose presence prompted health officials to storm Sunday’s World Cup qualifier in Sao Paulo, which led to the match’s abandonment.
By Samindra Kunti
September 6 – In an extraordinary and unprecedented sequence of events, officials from the Brazilian health authority Anvisa stormed on to the pitch of the World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina after four minutes to deport four Argentine players from England’s Premier League, leading to the match being abandonment.
September 2 – The Netherlands stumbled to a disappointing 1-1 draw against Norway in World Cup qualifying on Louis van Gaal’s return to the Dutch dug-out, prompting the veteran coach to call his own team “sloppy” with pressure growing on Oranje.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – The World Leagues Forum (WLF) has slammed FIFA’s decision to amend the international match calendar without consultation and which has seen the rescheduling of South America’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers that had originally been due to be played in March 2021 to extended triple match windows in September and March.
August 1 – Belarus have been ordered to play their home World Cup qualifying matches against both Belgium and Wales on neutral territory in Russia because of travel sanctions against the country.
July 14 – Qatar isn’t just building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, it is also building towns, metro and road systems, and new hotel accommodations to house visitors as the country.
June 21 – Qatar will only allow those fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to attend next year’s World Cup.
June 21 – Norway will not boycott the 2022 World Cup in Qatar following a vote at an extraordinary meeting of Norway’s Football Federation (NFF) that dismissed the move with a strong majority, despite strong pressure from the grassroots levels over alleged human rights abuses of migrant workers in the Gulf state.
June 26 – Canada’s journey back towards Concacaf competitiveness continued with 3-0 home win over Haiti (4-0 on aggregate), taking them to the final round of World Cup Qualifying for the first time since France 98.
June 14 – The knockout play off series to decide the final three slots in the eight team Concacaf final round of 2022 World Cup qualifying began at the weekend with opening advantages being gained by Canada, Panama and El Salvador.