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.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 2 – With a sense of inevitability, Turkey’s media have reacted furiously to last week’s failure to land the 2024 European Championships, taking particular aim at UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
October 2 – The long and often controversial footballing dynasty of the Lowy family in Australia is effectively over following the endorsement of widespread governance reforms that ended a two-year power struggle and even threatened the country’s FIFA membership.
October 2 – Despite resisting the idea in the past over misplaced beliefs that they could lose their independence within FIFA, Britain’s four football associations have agreed to allow a combined women’s team to try to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
October 2 – Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian president and owner of AC Milan, is back in football club ownership having bought Serie C club Monza.
October 2 – FIFA has once again stepped into the internal power struggle in Sierra Leone by calling on the government to allow national FA president, Isha Johansen (pictured left), back into the organisation’s headquarters.
October 2 – The Danish Football Association and the country’s players’ union have reached a new collective pay agreement which means the country will no longer have to call on part-timers for international fixtures.
October 2 – The Canadian Premier League (CPL), which is scheduled to kick off its inaugural season in 2019, has signed a long-term deal with Italian apparel company Macron.
October 2 – German Bundesliga gaints FC Bayern Munich has signed a new regional partner for China.
By Paul Nicholson
October 1 – Saudi Arabia has been hit with a two-pronged billion dollar offensive from broadcaster beIN and the Qatar state over the on-going copyright theft of pirate broadcaster beoutQ. A consortium of rights holders including FIFA and the Premier League are expected to follow suit in the coming days as the Saudis rapidly turn themselves into the pariahs of the sports rights business.
By Paul Nicholson
The three biggest football presidencies in global football come up for election in 2019 with FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and UEFA all voting on new presidential terms. At present the only election of the three that will be contested will be in Asia – current president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa announced his intention to run again last week.
October 1 – LaLiga and Unilever have reached a worldwide sponsorship agreement for Unilever’s Clear Men and Rexona brands in a deal that covers the remainder of this season and the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – Danny Jordaan’s bid to take up one of Africa’s top positions at the heart FIFA suffered a crushing blow at the weekend when he was heavily beaten in the ballot for a place on the FIFA Council.
October 1 – No rival candidate has yet come forward to challenge Gianni Infantino when he bids for re-election next year but if anyone does, African football will stand firmly behind the present incumbent.
By Samindra Kunti
October 1 – Atletico de Kolkata were beaten 2-0 by Kerala Blasters in the opening match of the fifth season of the Indian Super League on Saturday. But while the league has started, doubts remain about the league’s commercial blueprint on what was a somewhat understated season kick-off compared to previous years.
October 1 – The decision on whether to give the green light to Cameroon to stage the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has been deferred yet again – this time until November.