Costa Rica 4 Suriname 3
June 15 – With the baking sun of a sweltering San Diego day in Southern California giving way to a cool evening, Costa Rica went from red hot to freezing cold as they threw away their lead and had to battle back to win with 10 men and a penalty more than 10 minutes into added time.
October 10 – Brazil’s top league, the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, has agreed a $150 million international streaming deal with sports tech startup Fanfoot which will launch its OTT platform in 2019.
October 10 – FIFA has extended the mandate of the current Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) administration until March 2020, but with the requirement to organise fresh elections, bringing the PFF statutes in line with the FIFA statutes.
October 10 – Serial Scottish champions Celtic are set to test their league dominance skills internationally and join the eFootball.Pro eSports league alongside FC Barcelona, Schalke 04 and AS Monaco.
October 10 – Germany’s Bundesliga has joined forces with official licensee EA Sports to launch a new ‘Player of the Month’ award. Fans will vote for their player of the month on the EA Sports FIFA 19 website (bundesligapotm.easports.com).
October 10 – The USL, operator of the second tier of US professional soccer and soon to launch a professional third tier, has granted USL side Penn FC a spot in League 1 for the 2020 season. The club will go dark for the 2019 season and not compete in the USL.
October 9 – Premier League Manchester United with €269 million-a-year ($308.7 million) in commercial deals are top of a ranking of European club sponsorship by value. Barcelona are close behind in second with income of €261 million ($291.5 million).
By Samindra Kunti
October 9 – Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro will face Fernando Haddad in a run-off vote for the Brazilian presidency on October 28 in an election that has been marked by the campaign involvement of a large number of Brazilian footballers.
October 9 – FIFA, rarely praised on integrity issues and often the butt of fierce government criticism, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Council of Europe with an initial focus on the protection of children from sexual exploitation, the fight against match-fixing and to “co-ordinate their efforts for the preparation of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on the safety, security and services aspects of football matches.”
By Samindra Kunti
October 9 – The Netherlands and Switzerland have taken pole positions to reach next month’s play-off final for the last European qualifying spot for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. In the first legs of the play-offs the European champions defeated Denmark 2-0 on home soil while the Swiss came back twice to draw 2-2 in Belgium.
October 9 – Premier League West Ham, one of the first English clubs to sign professional esports players, will also be one of the first to host their own esports tournament with online qualifiers open now.
October 9 – Arsenal have confirmed they are switching from Puma to Adidas for their kit deal from the 2019/20 season in a five-year ageement.
October 9 – Jamshedpur FC’s teenager Gourav Mukhi scored a goal within minutes of coming off the bench this weekend against Bengaluru FC in the Indian Super League, but the 16-year-old sensation’s age has been questioned as the ugly spectre of age cheating rears its head again in Indian football.
October 9 – The football esports calendar is becoming as crowded as the match schedules for clubs and players. FIFA and EA Sports, hard on the heels of the success of the 2018 eWorld Cup, have announced the schedule for 2019 FIFA 19 Global Series.
By Paul Nicholson
October 8 – Growing fears within the UK betting business of a hardline approach to regulating how bookmakers market themselves has prompted one leading bookmaker to put in a pre-emptive strike and call for an industry-imposed ban on TV ads before the 9pm watershed.
By Samindra Kunti
October 8 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has launched another stinging attack on his successor Gianni Infantino, accusing the latter of “selling out the people’s game,” alluding to Infantino’s expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and his mysterious $25 billion investment plan.