Mexico 2-0 Suriname:
June 18 – The Mexican national team is perhaps the only country in world football that plays home matches in two countries. The Azteca Stadium in Mexico City is, of course, their spiritual home; however, in Los Angeles – where they roared to victory over the Dominican Republic – and tonight in the heart of Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington versus Suriname, the team is welcomed by partisan support and rapturous anticipation.
October 12 – Sepp Blatter may not be able to take part in any footballing matters while under suspension by FIFA’s ethics committee but he says he is proud of his achievements, according to a Swiss newspaper.
October 12 – Russia has officially named the 12 stadia in the 11 cities that will host the 2018 World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 – and eight of them are named after the cities in which they will be held.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 12 – Just like the man he is endeavouring to succeed, UEFA president Michel Platini is appealing against his provisional 90-day suspension imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee while they further investigate his receipt of that infamous SFr2 million payment.
October 12 – Barcelona are standing behind their mercurial superstar Lionel Messi in his fight against being punished for alleged tax fraud.
By Ben Nicholson
October 10 – The one-off CONCACAF Cup game between Mexico and the US, which Mexico won to decide who will be the region’s representative at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia, was well and Trumply politicised. A record 93,000 crowd packed the Rose Bowl and viewing figures are also expected to have broken records for a national team game.
October 9 – Another of the seven FIFA executives arrested at their hotels in Zurich on May 27 has had US extradition requests approved by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice.
As rumours swirled around Zurich on Wednesday that ethics investigators were about to throw the book at Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s headquarters was bathed in thin autumn sunshine and looked a paragon of normality. From the outside at least.
By Mark Baber
October 9 – Serbia’s team coach was attacked by stones, smashing one of the windows, ahead of Thursday’s Euro2016 qualifier in the central Albanian town of Elbasan. Violence was predictable following the abandonment of the earlier fixture in which a drone with a Greater Albania flag was flown over the stadium in the Serbian capital causing crowd trouble and the Albanian team to refuse to continue the match.
By Matt Scott
October 9 – Olympiacos, the Greek champions whose owner is under criminal investigation for alleged match-fixing, have signed a title-sponsorship deal with an online-betting company.
FIFABy David Owen
October 9 – The most powerful administrator in world sport has added his voice to the mounting clamour for far-reaching reform at FIFA.
From my name, you might think me as Welsh as a laverbread breakfast. But I’m not, so I have been able to observe the recent Welsh sporting resurgence with cool, objective detachment.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 9 – Sepp Blatter has become the first of football’s suspended powerbrokers to officially appeal against his 90-day sanction imposed Thursday by FIFA’s ethics committee.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 9 – Banned former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon is determined not to go quietly and to keep alive his hopes of becoming the organisation’s new president.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 9 – Michel Platini has re-iterated his innocence in the light of being suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee as his top brass at UEFA closed ranks and said they were firmly behind their beleaguered president.
October 9 – The world’s best-known and most talented footballer faces a possible jail sentence after a Spanish court ruled that Argentine and Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and his father should stand trial on tax fraud charges, rejecting a request by prosecutors to drop the charges against the mercurial superstar.