By Samindra Kunti in Doha
November 30 – With the backdrop of the most politically-charged encounter of the World Cup so far, the United States defeated Iran 1-0 to progress to the last 16. However, the encounter was marred by security incidents as Qatari authorities tried to prevent political protests.
November 30 – On the day of Iran’s exit from the World Cup in Qatar following a 1-0 defeat to the US, the Iranian regime released two former national team footballers who had been arrested for joining nationwide protests prompted by the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.
November 30 – Ukraine’s bid to stage the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal has suffered a potentially serious blow after its FA president Andriy Pavelko (pictured) was arrested on suspicion of embezzling his organisation’s funds.
November 30 – LaLiga and its president Javier Tebas have wasted no time calling for punitive sporting sanctions against Juventus following the block resignation of Andrea Agnelli and his board on Monday.
November 30 – BeIN Sports, the broadcast rights holder for the MENA region for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, is claiming more than 111 million viewers tuned in for the Opening Ceremony, while a cumulative total of more than 900 million watched the first 16 group stage games.
November 30 – While FIFA is franchising out its FanFest internationally and attempting to establish a brand footprint in the area, the US firm of the same name that has already been working on the ground has struck a deal with Fan Token specialists Socios.com.
November 30 – Italian giants AC Milan have followed the expansion route of city rivals Inter and opened three new academy centres in India.
November 30 – TikTok has further expanded its presence in football stiking a deal with Football Australia for the men’s and women’s senior teams, the CommBank Matildas and Subway Socceroos.
November 29 – World Cup boss Hassan Al-Thawadi has said 400-500 migrant workers have died as a result of work done on construction projects, and is sticking by the figure of just three work-related deaths on World Cup projects.
November 29 – In a bombshell move, the entire board of Juventus, including chairman Andrea Agnelli, has resigned en masse, plunging one of the world’s most famous clubs into crisis.
November 29 – A pitch invader with a rainbow flag interrupted the World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay.
November 29 – The Scottish Football Association (SFA) is to bring in a ban on professional footballers heading the ball in training the day before and the day after a game.
November 29 – The 2023 UEFA Nations League finals will be hosted in the Netherlands and played in Rotterdam and Enschede next summer.
November 29 – The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has struck a deal with Portuguese-based video NFT specialist RealFevr to create digital collectibles of historic and iconic moments of the Copa del Rey.
November 28 – The cryptocurrency winter is biting deep, including into football sponsorship with two of the biggest commercial scalps – FIFA and Brazil’s CBF – being hit with non-payment issues right when a World Cup is in full flow.