March 13 – On the eve of the FIFA Congress in Rwanda where Gianni Infantino will be re-elected FIFA president, the Italian-Swiss football official has been further embarrassed following a report in Swiss Sunday newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung that Qatar spied in 2017 on Infantino and then Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber.
March 13 – Real Madrid are to join an official complaint filed on Friday by prosecutors against Barcelona and two of its ex-presidents over millions of dollars allegedly paid to a company that belonged to the former vice president of Spain’s refereeing committee.
March 13 – Canada’s women players have told a government hearing they don’t trust the sport’s governing body to negotiate a fair labour agreement after Canada Soccer went public with proposals for equal pay and division of prize money.
March 13 – Ultras of Serbian club Partizan Belgrade, increasingly frustrated with club management over the poor performance of the team, made their dissatisfaction clear at the weekend, locking the main entrance to the club stadium and sending a message to officials.
March 13 – Iraq, Japan, South Korea and Uzbekistan sealed their places at the U20 World Cup in Indonesia later this year, all coming through a dramatic set of quarter finals at the AFC U20 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan on Sunday.
March 13 – The European Club Association (ECA) has approved a further 10 clubs with 11 projects as part of its Ukraine relief programme that provides funds, in conjunction with the UEFA Foundation for Children, for initiatives to support displaced Ukrainian families and children.
March 13 – The BBC staged a u-turn and reinstated its highest-paid tv presenter Gary Lineker today following a near-mutiny over its decision to take the former England captain off the air because of his criticism of the rhetoric around government migration policy.
March 13 – Mental health has become a critical issue in today’s footballing landscape with the growing recognition across the game that it is as important as physical health. This is still relatively new, following decades of an unhealthy emphasis on bottling up emotions. It is a habit that is gradually being deconstructed with England’s top flight clubs increasingly at the forefront of a revision of attitudes.
March 12 – Brazilian club Botafogo has been told to renegotiate with creditors after failing to settle around Reais 10 million (€1.8 million) in debt. Failure to do so will result in the club’s assets being frozen.
March 13 – Qatar’s World Cup coach Felix Sanchez has a new role. He will succeed Gustavo Alfaro as head coach of Ecuador on a four-year deal, with qualification for the 2026 World Cup his main challenge.
March 10 – The follow-up and fall-out from the FIFAgate scandal is still working its way through US courts with the former head of Fox International Channels Hernan Lopez convicted on charges that he participated in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials.
March 10 – A majority of players from the World Cup in Qatar do not want the tournament to be staged in winter again, according to the global players’ union Fifpro.
By Paul Nicholson
March 10 – Relevent Sports Group’s ambition to stage LaLiga regular season games in the US has been given a lifeline after a US federal appeals court ruled they could go to court with their antitrust lawsuit against FIFA and the US Soccer Federation (USSF).
March 10 – UEFA could be forced into tweaking its homegrown player rule after a senior lawyer at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said it was partially incompatible with the European Union’s free movement laws.
March 10 – Real Madrid have rejected UEFA’s compensation offer to fans affected by the chaos at last season’s Champions League final when spectators were funnelled by police into overcrowded bottlenecks and hit with tear gas.