Canada 2-0 El Salvador
June 24 – Fresh from emerging from a Concacaf-imposed timeout, Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch returned to the technical area at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, knowing any more misbehaviour would send him back to the naughty room. He needn’t have worried as their opponents El Salvador simply imploded in a red mist.
September 2 – Argentine football is back: the domestic league has resumed and the national team defeated Uruguay 1-0 in World Cup qualifying; but the state of the Argentine FA, the AFA, remains precarious.
September 2 – Asian qualifying for the Russia 2018 World Cup opened with all 12 teams in action and a shock 2-1 for the UAE over Japan. Australia and Saudi Arabia also had campaign opening wins in the group.
September 2 – Video replays, for years rejected by FIFA as too great a step to take in modernising the game, were used for the first time in an international fixture on Thursday and hailed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino as “football history”.
September 2 – With the focus of UEFA’s men Champions League turning to clubs naming their squads for the last group qualifying stages, the Women’s Champions league round of 32 draw was held throwing up a rematch of Wolfsburg vs Chelsea clash from last season.
September 2 – The US overhaul of its youth training and playing structures have continued with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), the world’s largest coaches organisation, unveiling a suite of new coaching education programmes and qualifications that focus on small-sided games.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – Despite continually protesting his innocence over any involvement in manipulating the vote that handed Germany the 2006 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer, his country’s most revered footballing figurehead who led the bid process, is being investigated by Swiss prosecutors as part of a corruption probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – He described his original $2 million pay offer as “insulting” yet now he is getting even less. Or is he? After six months in charge, and having failed to sign a contract that had been on the table since March, Gianni Infantino has now apparently agreed an annual salary of 1.5 million Swiss francs.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 1 – Of all the countries taking part in the forthcoming World Cup qualifying programme, none is surely anticipating the occasion with more relish than Kosovo who make their competitive international debut on Monday. Yet the Balkan state, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, still needs confirmation from FIFA whether a raft of players can switch nationality to join them.
September 1 – Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer has expanded its sponsorship portfolio into Asia agreeing a four-year deal with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It will become the Official Timekeeper & Official Watch of the AFC’s national competitions including the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Final Round (that starts tonight), the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the AFC Asian Cup in 2019.
September 1 – The idea of scrapping extra time after draws in knockout European matches was discussed at UEFA’s annual seminar for elite coaches and ex-coaches this week.
September 1 – Manchester City has expanded its regional sponsorship agreeing an ‘Official Beer Partner’ deal with Nigeria’s Star brand, owned by Nigerian Breweries.
September 1 – A Russian panel which handles player contract disputes is unfairly weighted in favour of executives from the league and clubs according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
September 1 – Aleksander Ceferin, the Slovenian hoping to succeed Michel Platini as the president of the UEFA in two weeks’ time, said he plans to clamp down on corruption, doping and match-fixing if he is elected.
September 1 – English Premier League clubs forked out more than £155 million on transfer deadline day as summer window spending reached an eye-watering record £1.165 billion.
By Paul Nicholson
August 31 – With 2018 World Cup qualifiers starting this week, Syria, who have made it through to the final group stage of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualification, have been informed by the Macau FA that they will not now be able to host their ‘home’ matches.