By Paul Nicholson
June 4 – The bid by Spain and Portugal to host the 2030 World Cup will get an official stamp tonight before a friendly match between the two countries at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid.
June 4 – Follow the stats and France will win the Euro 2020 championships. Second favourites are Germany, followed by Spain and England.
June 4 – The Concacaf Nations League final on Sunday will be a repeat of the 2019 Gold Cup final with both the US and Mexico winning their semi-finalsat Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado. But it took an 89thminute header and a penalty shoot out to see them through.
June 4 – Having missed out on the Champions League final for two straight years because of Covid-19, Istanbul has again been snubbed in favour of Belfast for August’s traditional Super Cup fixture, this time between Chelsea and Villareal.
June 4 – France will downsize its top tier Ligue 1 from 20 to 18 clubs in the 2023-24 season. The decision was taken at the LFP’s general assembly and is an immediate consequence of the crisis in French football since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
June 4 – A-League clubs Sydney FC, Melbourne City FC and Brisbane Roar have withdrawn from the Asian Champions League, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed today.
June 4 – Rodney Michael, who waged a long-running battle with the outgoing Sierra Leone FA president Isha Johansen for control of the federation, has been cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to run in Saturday’s election.
June 4 – FIFA have awarded the TV rights for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 to Optus Sport in the host market Australia, the world federation announced on Thursday.
June 3 – At a UN General Assembly event, FIFA president Gianni Infantino once again presented the global governing body as a reformed organisation, stressing the importance of a transparent transfer market, proper bidding processes and praising the partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
June 3 – Isha Johansen, whose eight-year reign as president of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has been fraught with in-fighting and power struggles, has ruled herself out of Saturday’s elections and will not stand again.
June 3 – Belgian head coach Roberto Martinez (pictured) has downplayed some of his players not taking a vaccine before the kick-off of Euro 2020, even though the ‘Red Devils’ were fast-tracked to get a first dose in time for the continental finals.
June 3 – Conmebol president Alexandre Dominguez (pictured) has defended the ruling body’s last-minute and controversial decision to shift the Copa America from both Argentina and Colombia to Brazil following criticism from the international players’ union FIFPro.
June 3 – The English Football league (EFL) has reported a record level of subscribers to its iFollow streaming services that was launched in 2017.
June 3 – CBS Sports has bought into the AFC’s expanded competition calendar acquiring exclusive media rights for the US to the Asian Football Confederations key competitions, including the Asian Qualifiers for Qatar 2022, the AFC Champions League, Women’s Asian Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023home of AFC competitions.
June 3 – Spain’s LaLiga has expanded its North American 50/50 joint venture with the US-based Relevent Sports Group to include Mexico as part of the territories that it manages.