August 21 – Spain and Japan reached their maiden U-20 Womens World Cup final after eliminating hosts France and England respectively. The tournament will culminate on Friday in Vannes with the final showdown.
August 20 – Marco Villiger, the brains behind much of FIFA’s decision-making for over a decade, parted company with the organisation today as Gianni Infantino’s regime completed a clean sweep of the old guard that served under Sepp Blatter.
August 20 – The long-awaited sentencing of former Brazilian supremo Jose Maria Marin (pictured right) is scheduled for Wednesday (August 22) in Brooklyn, New York, with federal prosecutors reportedly pushing for a 10-year jail term for the 85-year-old.
August 17 – Authorities in Ghana finally appear to have backed down in their determination to snub a FIFA directive ordering them to stop interfering in football or risk a global ban.
August 16 – The Women’s U-20 World Cup has reached the business end of the competition with heavyweight quarter-finals set to decide the last four. Hosts France take on reigning champions Korea DPR, Spain meet Nigeria and Germany face Japan. Debutants the Netherlands play England in the last quarter-final.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 16 – Ghana’s authorities appear to be digging in their heels over FIFA’s ultimatum to get their house in order by August 27 or be thrown of international football.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 15 – Nigeria and Ghana, whose respective federations have been gridlocked for several weeks, have been warned by FIFA to halt “undue influence” in their affairs by outside authorities or risk being thrown out of international football.
August 13 – FIFA has banned Zambia’s former federation chief Kalusha Bwalya for two years following an investigation into his links with disgraced ex-Asian football boss Mohammed Bin Hammam and fined him CHF100,000.
August 10 – Mexican broadcaster Televisa is failing to shake off allegations that it bribed its way to the broadcast rights to the 2018, 2022, 2026 and 2030 World Cups, with an amendment to a March complaint in the NY Federal court being filed this week.
August 8 – The 2018 World Cup qualifications were riddled with accusations of match-fixing in Africa in particular – including FIFA for the first time ordering one game to be replayed – but the finals tournament itself was clean.
August 6 – France kicked off the U-20 Women’s World Cup on home soil with an emphatic 4-1 win over Ghana, on an opening day of the tournament held plenty of surprises with defending champions DPR Korea slipping to defeat against England, debutants the Netherlands defeating New Zealand and Mexico recording a first-ever win over Brazil.
August 6 – Saudi Arabia may have collapsed at Russia 2018 but their fast-fingered eSports champion Mosaad ‘Msdossary’ Aldossary struck a blow for the country hammering Belgium’s Stefano ‘StefanoPinna’ Pinna 4-0 in the final of the FIFA eWorld Cup at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 2 – England has moved a step closer to deciding whether to bid for the 2030 World Cup even though they would face strong opposition from a joint South American bid as well as one from north Africa.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – One of the most politically driven and controversial decisions of FIFA’s ethics body has been revisited by the FIFA Appeal Committee. Gordon Derrick, the former general Secretary of the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association and President of the Caribbean Football Union, has had his ban reduced from six to four years.
August 1 – While most French fans in Moscow were able to celebrate their team’s World Cup triumph, one supporter was apparently not so lucky after being detained allegedly for simply displaying a Tibetan flag.