Africa pushes for 10 slots in the 48-team World Cup expansion
February 23 – The regional fight for more slots in an expanded World Cup from 2026 is already under way with Africa stating it is looking for 10 places, double its current quota.
New Caledonia make history with first qualification for U17 World Cup finals
By Samindra Kunti
February 23 – New Caledonia and New Zealand have qualified for the Under-17 Football World Cup in India after defeating Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea in two nail-biting semi-final clashes at the U17 OFC Championship.
Britain’s betting breaches are just the tip of a global iceberg
February 23 – A total of 53 footballers in Britain have been reported over potential breaches of betting rules according to the BBC.
Qatar awards seventh main construction contract for 2022 stadium build
February 22 – The 40,000-seat stadium to be built in the Al Thumama district of Doha, Qatar, for the 2022 World Cup, will have as its main contractor a joint venture between Qatari construction firm AlJaber Engineer and Turkey’s Tekfen Construction.
Twitter: Chelsea hit the 8m mark but gap to Arsenal is not narrowing
February 22 – Chelsea have passed the 8 million mark in twitter followers, third only to Arsenal with 9.2 million and Manchester United with 10.2 million. Looking at the weekly figures Chelsea’s gain was still almost 16,000 behind Arsenal’s 67,400 new followers for the week.
FIFPro names 55 top scoring players in voting for Women’s World XI
February 22 – FIFPro have released the list of 55 female players who received most votes for the 2016 World XI. The list includes six players from Germany’s Olympic Gold medal team, though the US has most naems on the list with nine, and France has eight players.
Chinese on verge of completing €740m AC Milan buy
February 22 – The long awaited completion of the sale of Italy’s AC Milan to a group of Chinese investors looks now to be set for March 3.
Liverpool plan for new £50m first team training base
February 22 – Premier League Liverpool are to spend £50 million on the development of a new academy and first team training site, moving from its famed first team training ground at Melwood where the team has trained since the 1950s.
Sutton’s goalkeeping pie eater lands himself in hot sauce after Arsenal FA Cup game
February 22 – It was the biggest night in tiny Sutton United’s history: a fifth-round FA cup tie against 12-time winners Arsenal – four divisions higher – with the eyes of the world on the most romantic fixture in this season’s competition.
Everton pair with The Open for cross-sport media partnership
February 22 – Everton have teed off a media partnership with The Open Championship which will play its 146th Championship at Royal Birkdale in July.
Prosecutors demand jail as Neymar loses fraud case appeal and heads for trial
February 21 – Barcelona’s troubles on the field are being matched by a serious distraction off it with the news that Brazilian star Neymar has lost his final appeal and will stand trial on corruption charges relating to his transfer from Santos to Barcelona four years ago.
A new future for Africa? Hayatou challenger Ahmad focuses on the money
February 21 – Issa Hayatou’s rival in next month’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election says he intends to totally overhaul the Continent’s financial transparency as he bids to bring to an end to the long autocratic reign of Issa Hayatou.
Discrimination: Luiz wants to move on but Serbs stay rooted in a racist tradition
February 21 – The Brazilian at the centre of the latest disgraceful outburst of racist abuse in Serbian football says he wants to forget the incident as soon as possible despite being in floods of tears at the final whistle – pictures that were flashed across the world.
Infantino encourages ASEAN nations to bid for World Cup 2034
By Paul Nicholson
February 21 – The prospect of a 48-team World Cup is opening up new frontiers and finding new friends for FIFA President Gianni Infantino who was in Myanmar last week meeting ASEAN members (a sub-region of the Asian Football Confederation) encouraging them to consider how they could participate in the expanded format.
Salman shows support in Thailand and welcomes new Indonesian boss to AFC family
February 21 – While FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been active in the South-east Asian region, the Asian Football Confederation’s own president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has similarly been travelling inaugurating a new Football Association of Thailand (FAT) headquarters in Bangkok on Saturday and yesterday visiting the new President of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) Lt General Edy Rahmayadi.