USA 2 Costa Rica 2 (USA win 4-3 on pens)
June 29 – You’d hate to use the word ‘sterile’ to describe a Concacaf Gold Cup quarter-final, but following the drama and passion of Guatemala versus Canada, it all felt a little flat as the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) and Costa Rica kicked off for the right to face Guatemala in St. Louis. After 90 minutes and the drama of penalty kicks,
By Duncan Mackay
May 29 – Former FIFA President João Havelange has been released from hospital in Rio de Janeiro, more than two months after being admitted with a serious infection on his right ankle.
By David Gold
May 29 – Poland and Spain have both confirmed their respective squads for this summer’s European Championship, which gets underway in just under two weeks’ time, with no David Villa or Carles Puyol in the title holders’ 23-man selection.
By David Gold
May 28 – Reigning Olympic champions the United States has named its women’s team for London 2012, with a relatively inexperienced selection from coach Pia Sundhage.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – For the first time since his infamous “kick up the backside” comments, FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke is flying to Brazil today to resume his duties as the organisation’s main negotiator for the 2014 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – A bid to throw last year’s cash-for-votes whistleblower Chuck Blazer out of FIFA’s inner sanctum failed when not enough nations supported the move.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – Antonio Conte (pictured below), who has just coached Juventus to the Serie A league title in his first season in charge, is reported to be among a number of high-profile names being questioned in the latest development in the Italian match-fixing probe.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 28 – Shocking new evidence of entrenched racism and violence in Ukrainian and Polish football has cast a dark shadow over the 2012 European Championship which starts on June 8.
By David Gold
May 27 – Three people have reportedly been killed with five others badly injured in violent clashes following a heated match in the rebel Indonesia Super League.
By Alan Hubbard
May 27 – The British Government are considering whether to join a political boycott of the upcoming European football championship in protest at Ukraine’s human rights record.
By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 26 – FIFA’s Asian vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan (pictured), the modernist who has led a tireless campaign to overturn the ban on Muslim women footballers wearing the hijab, says he is “shocked and disturbed” by suggestions there are still medical objections.
By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 26 – English FA chairman David Bernstein (pictured), strongly opposed a year ago to Sepp Blatter running uncontested for FIFA President, now believes the organisation has finally “seen the light”.
By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 25 – The first wave of reforms to clean up FIFA were ratified as expected today with the man who drew them up pleading with world football’s governing body not to return to the ills of the past.
By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 25 – After years of club-versus-country debate over who should pay for players injured on international duty, FIFA today laid out the terms of the groundbreaking insurance policy by revealing that a maximum $9.7 million (£6.2 million/€7.7 million) per player would be paid out covering a period of just over two years.
By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest
May 25 – The automatic British vice-presidency of FIFA, which has been in place since 1947, looks almost certain to be scrapped as part of the drive to make football’s world governing body more forward-looking and less anachronistic.
By Tom Degun at the Sport Accord Convention in Québec City
May 25 – International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge has dismissed the threat posed to a successful Istanbul 2020 Olympics and Paralympics bid by the European Championship finals bid from Turkey insisting that only the bid for the Games has the support of the Turkish Government.