October 20 – Danish head coach Kasper Hjulmand has criticised FIFA’s biennial World Cup consultation process with the world federation telling national team coaches from around the world that it will push ahead with plans that will dramatically overhaul the international match calendar and reduce the quadrennial cycle of the world’s leading sporting event.
October 20 – The final group qualifiers to fill the remaining 11 slots for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 will now be played as single round robin ties at centralised venues.
October 20 – UEFA has opened up a new cryptocurrency rights category, inviting bids for the licensing rights to the Champions League for the 2021-24 cycle.
October 20 – Brazilian broadcast giant TV Globo has lost exclusivity to the digital rights for the 2022 World Cup, with FIFA breaking out streaming rights and offering packages to Youtube, Facebook and TikTok.
October 20 – US finance and technology firm PEAK6 has bought a minority stake in Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers via Wolves holding company Fosun Sports.
October 20 – The Premier League has announced that 68% of players in the English top flight have been fully vaccinated, with 81% of players having received at least one dose, confirming a significant increase in uptake recently.
October 20 – Flamengo and Palmeiras fans will have to splash the cash to attend the 2021 Copa Libertadores final in Montevideo, Uruguay. South American governing body Conmebol has set ticket prices for November’s showpiece match between $200 to $650.
October 19 – It is hard to think that the FIFA statutes will not at some point come into play in the ongoing manoeuvrings over a two-yearly World Cup.
October 18 – Premier League clubs have voted to block new Newcastle sponsorship deals with companies linked to the club’s new owners.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 19 – A biennial Women’s World Cup will help “shine a light” on the sport and help it “stand alone” in terms of visibility and investment but is not a foregone conclusion according to former US head coach Jill Ellis.
By Paul Nicholson
October 19 – Football in Canada is crossing a threshold. With a Gold medal at the Olympics for the women’s team and the men’s team showing they are real contenders for a 2022 World Cup slot, there is a positivity you can almost touch coming from the country that so often lives in the sporting shadow of the US, and, in football terms, Mexico.
October 19 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino is continuing to bang the drum for a biennial World Cup, this time promoting the idea at a news conference in Buenos Aires where, he claimed, the proposal would help spread funds more fairly and away from handful of super clubs.
October 19 – The European Court of Justice will examine UEFA and Belgium’s quota for homegrown players and its compliance with the freedom of labour and competition law following a lawsuit by Royal Antwerp.
October 19 – English hopes of staging the World Cup in 2030 have been dealt a potentially damaging blow after UEFA slapped a stadium ban on the country following the disgraceful scenes that marred the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
October 19 – Hosts the Netherlands have been drawn alongside world and European champions Portugal as well Ukraine and Serbia/Belarus in the draw for Euro 2022.