By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – It has taken a tournament for unaffiliated nations, stateless peoples, breakaway diasporas, indigenous communities and ethnic minorities to launch what is being hailed as one of football’s most refreshing innovations to cut down on dissent and improve respect for officials.
By Samindra Kunti
June 6 – Argentina has cancelled a World Cup warm-up match with Israel following political pressure from Palestine. The cancellation of the highly controversial friendly has thrown Argentina’s World Cup preparations further into disarray.
June 6 – Iran were the first team to arrive in Russia ahead of the 2018 World Cup, which kicks off next week. The Iranians have been paired in group B with Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but their preparations have been blighted by logistical problems.
June 6 – Italian giant Internazionale have opened three new academies, one in Slovakia and two more in China taking the number of Inter Academies in the world’s largest country to six.
June 6 – Veteran Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has been suspended for three games by UEFA in the wake of his red card and behaviour during Juventus’ Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
June 6 – UEFA will give a record €2.04 billion to clubs playing in the Champions League and Europa League next season, a more than €800 million increase on last season.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – Morocco’s 2026 World Cup bid leaders have been refused permission to make a final presentation to FIFA’s South American voters ahead of the all-important ballot on June 13.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino suddenly appears to be backtracking on bringing forward plans for a 48-team World Cup to the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
June 5 – Tony Xia (pictured), Aston Villa’s Chinese owner who bought the club from American Randy Lerner for £62 million in 2016, is looking for new funding for the club after failure to win the Championship play-off against Fulham that would have returned the club to the monied land of the Premier League.
June 5 – The financial crisis that has hit Yonghong Li’s ownership of AC Milan has seen the Chinese owner reportedly in secret emergency meetings in Italy attempting to refinance the club’s debt and potentially bring in new ownership partners.
June 5 – So do we now know the real reason for one of most calamitous goalkeeping displays of recent years or is it too cynical to suggest we are just being fed convenient excuses?
June 5 – Just weeks after receiving a rapturous send-off after his final game for Manchester City, Yaya Toure has launched a remarkable broadside against title-winning coach Pep Guardiola.
June 5 – Tunisia’s World Cup players appear to have discovered an ingenious way of breaking their Ramadan fasts in the build-up to the tournament.
June 5 – Osiris Guzman, the Dominican Republic federation president who famously once used a speech to compare Sepp Blatter to Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill all rolled into one, has found himself going the same way as FIFA’s former president after being banned by FIFA’s ethics committee from all involvement in the game for 90 days pending a full inquiry.
June 5 – Manchester City’s Premier League-winning manager Pep Guardiola has been handed a two-game suspension by UEFA for his conduct during the defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals.