July 11 – FIFA is doubling its minimum ban for racist incidents to 10 games and will in future allow players to make victim statements at disciplinary hearings as part of an overhaul of its disciplinary code – the first for 15 years – taking effect from Monday.
July 10 –The total potential sponsorship value of women’s football globally is currently undervalued by a massive $1.2 billion globally, according brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.
July 7 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino has strongly rejected allegations that he has personally not done enough to tackle the sexual abuse scandal pervading Afghan women’s football.
July 7 – FIFA has confirmed that eight countries have expressed an interest in bidding for the 2021 edition of its men’s under-20 World Cup.
July 5 – FIFA has gone on the attack following stinging criticism of its alleged lack of action to deal with the scourge of sexual abuse pervading the women’s game.
July 5 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he is “living in peace” despite his ban from the world game but has accused his critics, notably his successor Gianni Infantino, of showing “no respect” for his 41 years at the organisation including 17 in charge.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – Afghanistan women’s coach Kelly Lindsey, one of those who blew the lid on sexual abuse by the country’s federation chief and others, has blasted FIFA president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of not doing nearly far enough to stamp out the scourge.
July 4 – FIFA has held the first meeting of its Professional Women’s Football Task Force which aims to bring together women’s football stakeholders to influence decisions on the growth of the women’s professional game.
By David Owen
July 1 – International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has dropped a strong hint that the doors of sport’s most prestigious club might finally be opened to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino.
June 27 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s participation in the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ workshop in Bahrain have raised plenty of eyebrows in the Middle East with his own personal history being that of aggressor rather than peacemaker.
In one picture, a cut-away from an Al Jazeera broadcast on Twitter, you see him sitting next to a UK war criminal has-been in Manama, where a laughably androgynous Kushner delivers a ludicrous proposal for Mid-East Peace. [THIS “Pax Americana” risks to be a still-birth similar to Infantino’s neo-colonial football proposal to “Save Africa” (from itself, I take it?). What Kushner and other far-right bozos are planning to do to the Palestinians (if the rest of the world lets them),
June 26 – Refereeing at the Women’s World Cup has been under severe scrutiny with VAR and other interventions wrecking the natural rhythm of the game, but FIFA’s head of referees Pierluigi Collina has shrugged off the storm of criticism, saying that the tournament is not “an experiment” for new rules using the VAR.
June 24 – Amid widespread condemnation, a new rule that states goalkeepers at the Women’s World Cup must be cautioned for stepping off their goal line at penalties has been suspended.
By Paul Nicholson
June 20 – The corruption-riddled, ungoverned FIFA-fiefdom that Africa has become has now impacted on the offices of the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino. In an act of demagoguery that may come to define his leadership, and in order to protect his own powerbase, FIFA has stepped in to take charge of Africa.
By Andrew Warshaw
A new rule agreed by football’s lawmakers in the spring which gained little publicity at the time has suddenly burst into controversy within days of taking effect and threatens to cause widespread consternation across the game.