Inside World Football - Page 1471 of 2274 - For the Business of Football

Gold Cup 2025

Pochettino happy with USA’s new-found ‘fight’ but wary of the Guatemala challenge

July 2 – Having looked like a team that were struggling to find any cohesion or common purpose after four straight losses, including a miserable performance in March at the Concacaf Nations League final, suddenly the USA look as though, if not the real deal, they are certainly worth a reappraisal.

USA clinch last four slot with penalty win over Costa Rica

Guatemala dump man-down Canada in penalty shoot-out

Mexico find the way to San Jose despite Saudi road blocks

Honduras stun Panama with penalty shoot-out win for spot in semi-finals

Gold Cup’s breakthrough strikers make case for Golden Boot and glory

News

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Teams

New FIFA, old heads. Legends to make their mark on FIFA thinking?

By Paul Nicholson

May 17 – Seemingly at the centre of everything FIFA president Gianni Infantino did during the FIFA Congress in Mexico City last week were his band of legends. Whether it was accompanying him on his whistle stop visits to confederations, being introduced one-by one and embraced at the opening ceremony, sitting in the front row of the Congress itself, or Infantino sitting on the bench while the icons played 9-a-side knockabout matches in the iconic Azteca Stadium,

Integrity

Mexico signs up to global sport integrity alliance

Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros

May 17 – The fledgling Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) has signed its second country and the first in North America to its membership.

Euro Championships

England back youth in bid for Euro 2016 glory

May 17 – Manchester United’s 18-year-old striker Marcus Rashford (pictured) is the surprise selection in England manager Roy Hodgson’s initial 26-man squad for next month’s European Championship finals in France that will be trimmed to 23.

Europe

Brugge top Anderlecht to win Belgian title after 11-year wait

By Samindra Kunti

May 17 – Club Brugge have been crowned Belgian champions for the first time since 2005 after hammering arch-rivals Anderlecht 4-0 with two match days to spare.

FIFA

FIFA desperately closes ranks to save ‘independent’ face and Infantino’s reputation

By Andrew Warshaw

May 16 – FIFA have gone into overdrive in an attempt to play the victim following the rift between Gianni Infantino and his independent financial watchdog Domenico Scala that led to Scala’s dramatic resignation less than 24 hours after the FIFA Congress in Mexico.

FIFA

Indonesians back in the game but Kuwaitis cry political foul play

Indonesian fans

May 16 – Indonesia’s suspension from international football over government interference in the country’s national federation has ended after almost a year.

FIFA

Gibraltar and Kosovo prepare for World Cup qualification debuts

FIFA shadows

By Andrew Warshaw

May 16 – Kosovo and Gibraltar seem certain to be fast-tracked into the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign starting in September after being accepted as the 210th and 211th members of FIFA even though Serbia says it will fight Kosovo’s entry by legal means.

Euro Championships

Top Euro cop says France 2016 faces huge security challenges

France 2016

May 16 – The head of the European Union’s police agency says he is “extremely concerned” about a possible attack on Euro 2016 in France, saying the tournament is an “attractive target” for terrorists.

FIFA

Fake bomb costs Man Utd £3m as season potentially blows up in Van Gaal’s face

May 16 – A suspicious package that led to the evacuation of Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium on Sunday and the postponement of the club’s final Premier League game of the game ended up being a fake device accidentally left behind by a private firm after a training exercise.

Man Utd blast out another quarter of big money earning

ManUtd piggy bank

May 15 – Manchester United unveiled third quarter revenues up 29.9% to £123.4 million, predominantly the result of a controlled explosion in commercial revenues which rose 37.7% for the quarter to £65.8 million.

FIFA

Scala quits FIFA as Infantino hammers through an end to ‘independent’ ethics

Domenico Scala2

By Andrew Warshaw

May 14 – Domenico Scala, head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee and one of the organisation’s most important independent watchdogs, dramatically resigned today after his position was rendered untenable by Gianni Infantino, prompting the first major crisis of Infantino’s three-month-old presidency.

FIFA

The iron-fist of democracy: Infantino underfire for ripping apart reform agenda

By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson in Mexico City

May 13 – Just when he promised the world he would be leading FIFA into a new era of transparency and good governance, Gianni Infantino faces new accusations of undermining the corruption-plagued organisation’s entire reform process after less than three months as president.

FIFA

Infantino opens Congress unveiling Fatma Samoura as FIFA’s new CEO

By Paul Nicholson in Mexico City

May 13 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino took the unexpected step of unveiling the first key appointment of his regime today, naming Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura (pictured) of Senegal as his Secretary General, the first woman in its history to be handed FIFA’s most senior management position.

Concacaf

Canada’s Montagliani wins CONCACAF presidency, fracturing the Caribbean vote

By Paul Nicholson in Mexico City

May 13 – After a five-month wait CONCACAF at last has a new president. Canadian FA chief Victor Montagliani won the presidential election in Mexico City at CONCACAF’s Congress. Montagliani takes over world football’s most dangerous post, though the presidency of CONMEBOL would run it close.

FIFA

Andrew Warshaw: Legends everywhere but Infantino’s first Congress kicks off with one missing

When delegates from FIFA’s 209 member federations convene for their annual congress in Mexico later today, the man who wanted so much to be king will be conspicuous by his absence. Had the cards fallen differently, it would almost certainly have been Michel Platini and not Gianni Infantino taking centre stage in Mexico City at the start of the post-Sepp Blatter era.