March 20 – FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to expand the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams and sharing hosting rights with Qatar’s neighbours risks worsening tensions in the region, according to a new survey.
March 20 – Brussels’s King Baudouin Stadium could be remodelled to become a 40,000 all-seater ‘Golden Generation Arena’ by 2022 in plans backed by the Belgian FA (KBVB). The Belgian capital had been chosen to stage Euro 2020 matches, but the proposed ‘Eurostadium’ never got beyond the planning stages.
March 20 – A Bangladesh court has decided to grant bail to FIFA council member Mahfuza Akhter Kiron just days after she was arrested for allegedly defaming the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for saying nothing more than that she was neglecting football in the cricket-mad country.
March 20 – Brighton and Hove Albion on England’s sunny and clearly not-so-easy going south coast is one of the most likely place in Europe’s top league’s where you are going to get a kicking if you are a professional player, according to new data from the CIES Football Observatory.
March 20 – Women’s football is on a commercial roll. With nine nations confirmed as formally expressing interest to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup yesterday, the France 2019 Local and Organising Committee and FIFA have announced the sixth National Supporter sponsor for the World Cup to be played June 7 to July 7.
March 20 – World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps is keen on leading France until the 2022 finals in Qatar. He guided Les Bleus to a second world title at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. On Friday, France open their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign against Moldova.
March 20 – The United Soccer League, operator of professional tier two and three leagues in the US, has boosted its protection against match-fixing and betting related-fraud via a deal with integrity specialists Sportradar.
March 19 – A record nine nations, including a ground-breaking joint initiative from north and south Korea, have expressed interest in hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup, further evidence of how the global women’s game is growing in popularity.
By David Owen
March 19 – Saudi Arabia may be appearing to play an increasingly prominent role in football business and politics in the Gianni Infantino era. But the Kingdom seems to be ignoring the FIFA President’s offer of largesse via the beefed-up FIFA Forward programme.
March 19 – The Russian Football Union is set to investigate remarks made by former international striker Pavel Pogrebnyak regarding black players competing for the national team.
March 19 – Bengaluru FC won their maiden Indian Super League title against 10-man FC Goa in Mumbai with a 1-0 victory in the final, but the future of the India’s domestic game remains muddled in controversy.
March 19 – With the end to the prohibition of online sports betting in the US, sports now starting to see the licensing of digital gaming operators, sports bodies have been quick to seize the marketing and sponsorship opportunities.
March 19 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has teamed up with social media platform Twitter in a broadcast deal for the Brazilian women’s top flight, the 2019 Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino.
March 19 – Victims of the mosque shootings in New Zealand will be remembered at Wembley ahead of England’s European Qualifier against Czech Republic on Friday.
March 19 – UEFA, which last week issued a tender splitting its beer sponsor package into 12 pieces for the EURO 2020 championships, has these week awarded an exclusive sales agency contract to IMG to be its official hospitality sales agent for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.