By Samindra Kunti and Paul Nicholson
October 12 – The Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has criticised UEFA and FIFA for the congested international match calendar, labelling the third-place play-off between his national team and Italy in the Nations League “a money game”. He argued that UEFA don’t care for player welfare.
October 12 – France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) president Vincent Labrune has said the league’s new commercial subsidiary could raise €1 billion with an investment partner that will be key to the survival of French professional football.
October 12 – Germany became the first team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after breezing past North Macedonia 4-0 on Monday to claim top spot in Group J with two games to spare.
October 12 – The English FA yesterday launched its new campaign – Let Girls Play – to coincide with International Day of the Girl and to force the pace of change in providing girls with equal opportunity to play organised football.
October 11 – Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri has been caught up in a new independence dispute involving Kosovo that has caused outrage in Serbia.
October 11 – Rui Costa is the new president of Benfica, winning the election this weekend with a landslide. In his victory speech, the former Portugal midfielder who played 121 times for Benfica, promised a new dawn for the club.
By Samindra Kunti in Milan
October 10 – Forget Euro 2020 and that painful second-round exit at the hands of Switzerland, France have mastered the art of the comeback. They came from behind the second time in four days to defeat Spain 2-1 with a contentious goal from Kylian Mbappé in the Nations League final and win the tournament’s second edition.
October 8 – Manchester’s two Premier League giants top a European ranking of highest squad transfer values, with both United and City worth more than €1.2 billion. Their nearest rival is Chelsea who are more than €200m behind them with an estimated squad value of €946 million.
By Samindra Kunti in Turin
October 7 – With a phenomenal rearguard action, world champions France came from two goals down to triumph 3-2 over neighbours Belgium and book a place in the Nations League final against Spain.
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”.
By Samindra Kunti in Milan
October 6 – Spain and Ferran Torres overpowered Italy 2-1 in a fluent, attacking display to end the European champions’ world-record unbeaten run of 37 games and claim a spot in the Nations League final.
October 6 – Berlin hosted the launch of the brand identity for EURO 2024 at the Olympiastadion along with the tournament tag line ‘United by Football. Vereint im Herzen Europas’.
October 6 – European governing body UEFA has opened investigations into racist behaviour from both Union Berlin and Sparta Prague fans in recent European club competitions.
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 3 – Business magnate and controversial former Olympique Marseille president Bernard Tapie has died at 78 after a long battle with stomach cancer. He led the French club to the Champions league crown in 1993, a victory later overshadowed by a match-fixing scandal in the French league.