March 3 – Tributes will be paid before Champions League and Europa League games this week in honour of Davide Astori, the Fiorentina defender and former Italian international who died tragically at the weekend aged 31.
March 6 – CONCACAF has unveiled its first ranking of national teams in the North, Central America and Caribbean region. Mexico are ranked top, the USA, despite not qualifying for Russia 2018, are second, and Costa Rica third.
March 6 – The first ever Women’s Football Symposium for the whole of African football has opened in Marrakech designed to chart a new course for the development of the women’s game.
March 5 – Just days after the head of Asian football, Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, called on FIFA to lift its ban on Iraq being allowed to host competitive international matches, two Asian Champions League games have been postponed until April in the hope that FIFA heeds the request.
March 5 – The whole of Italy and the footballing world beyond has registered its collective shock and disbelief after the sudden death overnight on Saturday of Fiorentina captain and Italian international defender Davide Astori at just 31 years of age.
March 5 – Mexico’s football federation (FMF) president Decio de Maria (pictured) has resigned and will leave his post after the 2018 World Cup. Yon de Luisa will take his place.
By Samindra Kunti in Zurich
March 5 – Russia 2018 anti-discrimination chief Alexey Smertin has reiterated that LGBT fans will be welcome at the World Cup this summer. Rainbow flags will be allowed to fly at stadiums during the tournament.
By Samindra Kunti in Zurich
March 5 – Former Tottenham, West Ham United and Sevilla striker Frederick Kanouté has called for a level playing field in football by developing local African leagues.
March 5 – After a detailed study and a two-year experiment, football’s lawmakers have officially approved the use of a fourth substitute being used in extra time, starting with the World Cup.
March 5 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) now has 28 of its member associations using its streaming platform that debuted in July 2016 in Bhutan.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
March 4 – So now it’s official. No turning back. But are there still more questions than answers? As anticipated, video assistant referees are set to be used at this year’s World Cup in Russia after football’s lawmakers, the International FA Board (IFAB), voted to roll out the technology when they met at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Saturday.
By Samindra Kunti in Zurich
March 2 – Gianni Infantino kicked off FIFA’s 4th Conference for Equality and Inclusion with a strong message and call to action to attendees. Although not on the agenda, the ban of women in Iranian football stadiums, in force ever since 1979, provided a subtext to his address.
By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
March 2 – Imagine the scene. It’s the opening game of the World Cup in Russia and the anticipation is at fever pitch in the stadium with billions more eagerly watching on television.
March 2 – English Championship club Nottingham Forest, anxious and ambitious for a return to the Premier League, have announced the “biggest sponsorship agreement in the club’s history” with Italy-based sportswear company Macron.
March 2 – Manchester United have signed sports nutrition experts Science in Sport as their Official Sports Nutrition Partner in the UK and Europe.