Man City’s Mendy again refused bail on rape charges, trial set for Jan 24
October 12 – Benjamin Mendy, Manchester City’s French defender who is accused of multiple charges of rape, has been refused bail for a third time.
Stood-up? Infantino’s love affair with Club World Cup struggles to find appropriate suitors
October 11 – FIFA is reported to be running out of time to find a host for the much-maligned Club World Cup in December and may be forced to postpone until early next year – an unfortunate public relations blow to Gianni Infantino.
Premier League teams demand explanation over why Saudis were let into their club
October 11 – English football’s 19 other top-flight clubs have reportedly sent a joint complaint to the Premier League after it cleared the £305 million takeover of Newcastle by a Saudi Arabian-backed group.
Boban turns on old boss Infantino’s ‘absurd’ and ‘crazy’ biennial World Cup proposal
By Paul Nicholson
October 11 – Former FIFA Deputy Secretary-General, Zvonimir Boban (pictured), has hammered the idea of a biennial World Cup as an ‘absurdity’ that no ‘normal person’ in football would accept and that “we have to fight it”.
Wenger to swap FIFA suit for Saudi tracksuit for PSG cameo
October 11 – Arsene Wenger has a new gig. The former Arsenal coach and current FIFA director of development is to coach the Saudi select that will play Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain in a friendly in the Riyadh Season, a larger-than-life entertainment festival in the capital of Saudi Arabia.
Mexico open up gap in Qatar 2022 qualifying as US downed by Panama
October 11 – Mexico are back at the top of Concacaf’s Qatar 2022 qualifying after another seesawing round of qualifiers that saw Panama stun the US and Canada draw with Jamaica.
Shaqiri caught up in Kosovo militia flag row; Serbs quick to reopen deep wounds
October 11 – Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri has been caught up in a new independence dispute involving Kosovo that has caused outrage in Serbia.
Fans vote Rui Costa into Benfica presidency
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.
Covid travel issues force start of Concacaf W Qualifiers back to February 2022
October 11 – Concacaf has been forced to push back the start date of its Concacaf W Qualifiers to the FIFA Women’s Window in February 2022. The new timetabling has been necessary because of issues with travel and different quarantine restrictions across the region due to the Covid pandemic.
AFC lines up D’Hooghe to keynote 7th Medical Conference; opens up ‘free paper sessions’
October 11 – Dr. Michel D’Hooghe, chairman of the FIFA Medical Committee, will deliver the keynote address at on the 7th AFC Medical Conference Qatar 2022 next March 6-10.
Mbappé goal puts France back on top of Europe with Nations League win over Spain
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.
Trinidad and Tobago chaos over who actually owns the House of Football
By Paul Nicholson
October 8 – The soap opera of the Trinidad and Tobago FA continues to lurch from storyline to storyline with seemingly no end to this high seas Caribbean drama that FIFA’s Normalisation Committee were meant to draw a line under.
New toon on Tyneside. Saudis take control of Newcastle United
By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – Newcastle United, one of the English game’s proverbial sleeping giants, look set to become European football’s latest superpower after the long-drawn-out £300 million+ takeover of the club by a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium was finally completed.
David Owen: EA Sports ‘review’ puts new question-mark over FIFA’s expansionist agenda
By David Owen
I can well imagine how much FIFA boss Gianni Infantino looks forward to my words of advice, dispensed periodically via this website. So let me dredge up another pearl: Mr president, perhaps you should consider focusing a little less on developing grandiose new revenue surges geared to ever bigger and more frequent competitions, and a little more on nurturing the revenue streams FIFA already has.
WC 2022 qualifiers: Saudis stun Japan, Iran dominate group
October 8 – Saudi Arabia moved a step closer to 2022 World Cup participation with a landmark 1-0 victory against Japan to maintain a perfect record with nine points from three matches in Group B in Asia’s third round of qualifiers.