By Paul Nicholson
October 18 – With EA Sports review of its FIFA license increasingly looking like bringing an end to its FIFA branded game at the end of the current rights cycle, FIFA has issued a statement saying that it will be widening its own gaming and eSports portfolio.
October 18 – The idea of increasing halftime breaks to 25 minutes to provide the kind of entertainment that exists in US sports will be discussed this month by the game’s lawmaking body, the International FA Board.
October 18 – Gerhard Milletich, 65, has been elected the new president of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB). He replaces Leo Windtner, who had been in charge since 2009.
October 18 – FIFA has sanctioned both Panama and El Salvador for discriminatory chants by their fans during recent World Cup qualifiers. Both incidents incurred in games against the US.
October 15 – When Arsene Wenger rolled out the bought and paid-for FIFA legends in Qatar to sycophantically support FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s unrelenting push for a biennial World Cup, he probably wasn’t expecting quite the backlash from football’s biggest stakeholders.
October 15 – Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland has overtaken PSG’s Kylian Mbappé as the most valuable player in the world with a market value of €144 million, according to new analysis by the KPMG Football Benchmark.
October 15 – With UEFA reportedly about to rule on whether to punish English football for the disgraceful scenes that marred last summer’s delayed Euro 2020 final when scores of ticketless fans rampaged through Wembley, new figures show that 92 football-related arrests were made at England’s home matches during the 2020-21 season – all but two them at the Euros.
October 15 – The Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain have injected another €171 million into the club to help ease the financial burden created by the global health crisis.
October 15 – The Albanian FA says it deplores the violent behaviour of its fans at this week’s World Cup qualifying defeat to Poland but in an attempt to gain the moral high ground blamed visiting Polish fans for provocation.
October 15 – Conmebol wants to stage the Copa Libertadores final in Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario in front of 45,000 fans, a quarter more than the stadium capacity anticipated by local authorities.
October 15 – With the global pandemic having decimated the global Women’s competition calendar in 2020 and seen the cancellation of both FIFA U17 and U20 age-group tournaments, the AFC Women’s Football Committee has rolled forward teams from its 2019 competitions to represent the confederation in the rearranged 2022 finals.
October 15 – Scores of female players, including members of the national team, were evacuated from Afghanistan on Thursday on a flight to Doha in the latest move to escape Taliban rule.
October 15 – The Portuguese Professional Football League (Liga Portugal) has committed to going through SIGA’s Independent Rating and Verification System (SIRVS), as well as committing to become a member of the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA), via a co-operation agreement.
October 14 – Next week, FIFA scrutineers will return to conduct World Cup 2026 bid city inspections, visiting all of Kansas City, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Monterrey, San Francisco and Seattle.
October 14 – Denmark, which qualified for the World Cup this week, will go to the finals even though it was the “wrong decision” to allow Qatar to be hosts according to Danish sports minister Ane Halsboe-Joergensen.