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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
October 8 – The sky might be the limit on the field for Newcastle United following the takeover by a Saudi-led consortium but the club could soon become a pariah off it – the one everyone loves to hate.
October 8 – The US and Mexico have gone joint top of the 8-team final qualifying group for the Qatar 2022 World Cup after four matches, but a feisty Canada are not letting them run away with qualification, forcing a 1-1 draw in Mexico City and sitting two points behind them in the group.
October 8 – Ahead of the Netherlands’ World Cup qualifiers against both Latvia and Gibraltar, the Dutch FA (KNVB) is accelerating its ‘Football supports change’ campaign, which seeks to achieve sustainable change for labour migrants in Qatar.
October 8 – The US and Mexico have gone joint top of the 8-team final qualifying group for the Qatar 2022 World Cup after four matches, but a feisty Canada are not letting them run away with qualification, forcing a 1-1 draw in Mexico City and sitting two points behind them in the group.
October 8 – UEFA and players’ union FIFPRO are pushing the Red Button whistleblowing app as the go-to platform for players to report possible match-fixing incidents.
October 8 – Manchester’s two Premier League giants top a European ranking of highest squad transfer values, with both United and City worth more than €1.2 billion. Their nearest rival is Chelsea who are more than €200m behind them with an estimated squad value of €946 million.
October 8 – An American judge has recommended that a civil case against Cristiano Ronaldo over an alleged rape should be thrown out.
October 8 – The MLS has renewed its sponsorship with Continental Tire for a new multi-year term. The tyre brand has been an MLS partner since 2010.
By Samindra Kunti in Turin
October 7 – With a phenomenal rearguard action, world champions France came from two goals down to triumph 3-2 over neighbours Belgium and book a place in the Nations League final against Spain.
By Paul Nicholson
October 7 – The decision by Saudi Arabia to lift a four-year ban on Qatar-based broadcaster beIN Sports could remove a key impediment in the way of the Saudis taking ownership of Newcastle United.