By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
June 18- Under the watchful eye of president Vladimir Putin, Russia kicked off the Confederations Cup with a comfortable 2-0 win against New Zealand, but the tournament’s opening weekend was dominated by controversy over VAR.
By Mark Baber
June 19 – The International Football Association Board (IFAB) and FIFA have formally launched the new play fair! Initiative as part of “a strategy focussing on improving fairness and the image of the game.”
By Paul Nicholson
June 18 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has dismissed talk of 2017 being the last staging of the Confederations Cup, saying that the time now is to focus on the game.
By Samindra Kunti in St Petersburg, Russia
June 16 – With the Confederations Cup set to kick off tomorrow with hosts Russia facing New Zealand in the newly completed Kreztovsky stadium in St Petersburg, CEO of the Local Organising Committee Alexei Sorokin said they could not find corroboration of the “alarming” allegations made in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report into construction workers’ conditions at World Cup stadium sites. Meanwhile, stadia are slowing filling though there are still 7,000 tickets for the opening game.
By Paul Nicholson
June 15 – FIFA has re-inforced a three-stage process that will ultimately give referees at the Confederations Cup in Russia the power to abandon games if discriminatory behaviour by fans gets out of control. This follows a procedure first encouraged by UEFA in 2009 and re-iterated in 2013 following incidents in Italy and the comments of then FIFA president Sepp Blatter that fines were not sufficient to combat the issues.
June 15 – The Video Assistant Referee system (VAR) will be in use at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia as the trail of the system continues.
By Paul Nicholson
June 14 – The Palestine Football Association (PFA) is taking FIFA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) claiming FIFA broke its own statutory rules and denied the PFA its rights over the decision taken by the FIFA Congress not to go to a vote on whether six Israeli teams playing league matches on occupied territory in Palestine should be allowed to continue.
By Samindra Kunti
June 13 – South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has suggested North Korea could be part of a bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup. Moon (pictured) is trying to foster a dialogue with the isolated North Koreans.
June 13 – Australia is to launch a bid to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup after the country’s federal government has pledged its support to stage the tournament.
By Mark Baber
June 13 – As China continues to increase its investments in football, at home and abroad, Wednesday’s meeting between President Xi Jinping and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Beijing has ignited speculation on a potential Chinese World Cup bid for 2030.
By Paul Nicholson
June 12 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has expressed confidence that the diplomatic crisis surrounding Qatar in the middle east will not threaten the 2022 World Cup, but that FIFA is monitoring the situation closely.
June 12 – England won their first FIFA world title for 51 years in Suwon, South Korea after their U20s overcame Venezuela in the final 1-0. Venezuela, in their first ever FIFA World Cup final, had a 75th minute penalty saved in the second half that would have levelled the game.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 9 – One month after suspending the elections of the Sudan Football Association (SFA) at the request of the incumbent SFA officals, FIFA have now threatened to throw out the African country altogether if a controversial government decree is not revoked within the next 24 hours.
June 9 – Executives of Swiss bank Julius Baer have told US prosecutors that a former employee acted alone when he allegedly helped funnel kickbacks and bribery payments to a soccer official in the Americas, according to Reuters.
By Paul Nicholson
June 8 – With the opening of the Confederations Cup tournament in Russia just nine days away, FIFA have received a letter from a Cameroon club claiming that the African team competing in Russia is not the country’s ‘legal’ representative at the tournament, and should not be recognised by the world governing body as such.