October 7 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini will go before a Swiss court to decide their case concerning the CHF2 million ‘disloyal payment’ made by FIFA to Platini in 2010.
October 7 – FIFA has launched the bid process for hosting the 2023 Beach Soccer World Cup with a deadline for declarations of interest of 29 October 2021.
By Samindra Kunti in Turin
October 7 – France captain Hugo Lloris (pictured centre) has voiced his opposition to FIFA’s plans to stage the World Cup every two years, arguing that the global finals should be protected as “something rare”.
October 6 – FIFA is scrambling to find new organisers of this year’s Club World Cup after South Africa announced they have withdrawn their interest to host the tournament in December.
October 5 – Leading bodies and figures from across the women’s game in Europe have joined forces to attack the concept of a biennial World Cup in the latest opposition to FIFA’s proposals to radically change the global status quo.
October 4 – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has taken the UK government to task over their change of heart in offering Premier League players exemptions if they are travelling to Covid red-list countries during this month’s international break.
October 4 – FIFA is reportedly considering relocating its headquarters from Zurich to the United States and is looking at both east and west coast venues.
October 4 – Winger Pany Varela starred with two goals to crown Portugal futsal world champions with a 2-1 victory over Argentina in the World Cup final in Lithuania, reclaiming the title for Europe for the first time since 2004.
October 4 – Following the lead of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the South African Football Association (SAFA) has endorsed the proposal for a biennial World Cup, with the governing body’s strongman Danny Jordaan arguing that the tournament in its current form “has not brought progress in African football over the last 100 years”.
October 1 – In a further effort to garner support for his organisation’s much-criticised plan to stage the World Cup every two years, FIFA president Gianni Infantino held a summit with more than 200 national federations Thursday in which he banged the drum for how the game should look going forward.
October 1 – Belgium coach Roberto Martinez, whose team top the world rankings but have failed to win the world championship, opposes FIFA plans to stage the World Cup every two years, arguing the frequency would “devalue” the tournament.
October 1 – France has emerged as the first major European footballing country to give tacit conditional approval to staging the World Cup every two years.
October 1 – FIFA’s new Football Tribunal comes into operation officially today (October 1) as the world governing body seeks to further streamline and modernise its dispute processes into a more efficient decision-making system.
September 30 – One international match calendar FIFA is having no trouble expanding is its esports programme. Electronic Arts have announced a further growth of its competition ecosystem for the launch of the FIFA 22 game next month.
September 30 – The UK government looks to be close to agreeing a set of criteria that will allow Premier League clubs to release players to travel to red-list countries without having to quarantine on their return.