February 1 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino, speaking at the AFC’s 33rd Congress in Bahrain, emphasised the financial support that FIFA has given the region since he took over as president.
February 1 – Britain’s police chiefs have promised a “cultural change” as they apologised to families of the victims in the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, the UK’s worst sports disaster which saw 97 Liverpool supporters lose their lives.
February 1 – African powerhouse Al Ahly of Egypt and OFC champions Auckland City will today kick off the 2022 Club World Cup, with Real Madrid, the European representative, once again the big favourites to win the competition.
February 1 – Domenico Tedesco is on the brink of becoming the new coach of Belgium, succeeding Roberto Martinez who exited the Red Devils following a disappointing first-round elimination at last year’s World Cup.
February 1 – Austrian football has been plunged into disarray with the resignation of FA president Gerhard Millitech with immediate effect.
February 1 – The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA), the US third tier professional men’s league today, is bringing in three new clubs for the 2023 season, but is losing two clubs from its 2022 roster.
February 1 – UEFA and the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) have entered into a new training and education partnership focussed on increasing the number of people with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills and raising awareness of the importance of immediate CPR treatment in cases of cardiac arrest.
Argentina qualified as one of the four Conmebol guests at the W Gold Cup with a third placed finish at the 2022 Copa America Feminina.
Having qualified thanks to winning the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship, hosts USA will be looking to recover from a severely underwhelming World Cup campaign that saw them lose their place at the top of the FIFA world rankings.
What to expect
Unbeaten in the past year, Mexico enter the W Gold Cup as dark horses to lift the trophy. Ranked 30th in the FIFA world rankings, they haven’t made the list of tournament favourites but certainly have an outside shot at going all the way.
The qualified via winning League A Group A, dominating all four games versus Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago, conceding just once whilst scoring 12 of their own.
The Dominican Republic qualified for the preliminary knock-out stage as winners of Group B in Concacaf Nations League B, winning five games and losing just once, scoring 24 goals in the process.
El Salvador qualified for the preliminary play-off after topping Group B of League B in the Concacaf Nations League when they won all six of their matches, with 24 goals from a number of different players.
Panama qualified for the W Gold Cup by topping their League A Nations League group ahead of Guatemala and Jamaica.
Paraguay qualified as one of the Conmebol guests for the Concacaf W Gold Cup by finishing fourth in the 2022 Copa America Feminina.
