By Andrew Warshaw
March 6 – Disgraced former French FA president Noel Le Graet, who resigned last week after 11 years in charge amid a slew of allegations, looks increasingly likely to also have to throw in the towel from his privileged position within FIFA’s inner circle of decision makers.
March 6 – Pressure is growing on FIFA to abandon mooted plans for Saudi sponsorship of this summer’s Women’s World Cup after the Australia and New Zealand co-hosts again called for any prospective deal to be scrapped.
March 6 – Hosts Uzbekistan, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan all took big steps towards to the quarter finals of the AFC U20 Asian Cup this weekend as they topped their groups unbeaten after two rounds.
March 6 – The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that controls the rules of the game, is keeping the proposal for temporary concussion subs on the back burner but is advocating the wider global rollout of its accurate calculation of ‘additional time’ that was implemented at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
March 6 – Manchester United have lost more Premier League matches against arch-rivals Liverpool than they have versus any other side in the competition’s history.
March 3 – Brazilian online bookie Esportes da Sorte, has taken in the front of shirt sponsorship of Grêmio ahead of the club’s return to the Brasileiro which kicks off in April.
March 6 – The emblematic statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro glowed in the colours of the Bulgarian flag on the occasion of the National day of Bulgaria, 3rd of March, and the 100th anniversary of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU).
March 6 – The AFC has recognised its medical professionals with a series of awards announced yesterdays as part of the confederation’s 7th AFC Medical Conference in Doha, Qatar.
March 5 – The Sports Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) has elected Italian magistrate Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini as the integrity body’s new independent and non-executive Chair. He replaces Franco Frattini who passed away on Christmas Eve.
By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – FIFA is set to discuss a change to the planned first group stages for the expanded 2026 World Cup – increasing groups from three to four nations – at its next Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, later this month.
By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – LaLiga’s CEO Javier Tebas took another swipe at Europe’s state funded clubs who he says have broken and continue to break all the financial rules, saying it has “taken too long” for the Premier League to bring financial breaches charges against Manchester City.
March 3 – Paris St Germain’s Moroccan international Achraf Hakimi is facing a criminal investigation in France following an allegation of rape, prosecutors have confirmed.
March 3 – Spain’s referees have jointly defended their reputation and profession in the wake of the burgeoning scandal involving Barcelona’s alleged payment of £1.4 million to a company run by a former referee who at the time was acting as one of their top representatives at the Spanish FA.
March 3 – The English Premier League has been urged to re-examine a legally binding promise made by Newcastle United’s Saudi owners that the Middle East state would not have control of the club.
March 3 – Charmaine Crooks has been appointed interim president of Canada Soccer in the wake of Nick Bontis’ resignation while agreement has been reached with the women’s national team on an interim funding agreement that should go a long way to ending a festering dispute.