August 27 – The French league has become the latest major European body to voice concern over FIFA’s World Cup qualifying plans in September. The Professional Football League (LFP) however has not expressly backed clubs who refuse to release players for the international window.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 26 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has personally intervened to try and end the club versus country spat that is seriously undermining next month’s international programme, but his appeal looks unlikely to be granted.
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
August 25 – The US Department of Justice has agreed to hand over $201 million of ‘remission’ money to FIFA, Concacaf and Conmebol from the amount collected from corrupt administrators in the FifaGate scandal.
August 24 – English Premier League clubs and other members of the European Clubs Association look set for a showdown with FIFA by banning players from visiting so-called “red list” countries for September’s international break.
August 24 – The former president of El Salvador’s FA (FESFUT) has changed his plea to guilty over his alleged role in the FIFAgate corruption scandal.
August 20 – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) kicked off the 2021 Beach World Cup in Russia with narrow 4-3 win against two-time finalists Tahiti in the tournament’s opening match.
August 18 – Former El Salvador FA president Reynaldo Vasquez is set to change his plea to guilty over his alleged role in the FIFAgate corruption scandal, according to court records.
By Paul Nicholson
August 16 – The World Leagues Forum (WLF) has slammed FIFA’s decision to amend the international match calendar without consultation and which has seen the rescheduling of South America’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers that had originally been due to be played in March 2021 to extended triple match windows in September and March.
August 13 – Football Australia chief executive James Johnson has played down speculation about a possible Australian bid for the 2030 or 2034 World Cup but says it is still the country’s goal to be hosts.
August 12 – After a long period of covid-inactivity, international has exploded over the summer with Euro 2020, the 2020 Copa America, the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, as well as qualifiers for Qatar 2022.
August 11 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has met with Swiss prosecutors in the latest round of talks over the long-running probe surrounding his CHF2 million “disloyal payment” to Michel Platini back in 2011.
August 11 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday. He was accompanied by the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Patrice Motsepe “to discuss sports cooperation with FIFA, CAF.”
August 10 – FIFA has approved a change to the men’s International Match Calendar in response to the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
August 4 – Four years after he was voted out of office, former African football chief Issa Hayatou has been banned by FIFA for 12 months over a controversial $1 billion TV and marketing rights deal with Lagardere Sports which infringed competition regulations.
August 4 – The president of the Moroccan FA, Fouzi Lekjaa, who with Saudi Arabia led the proposal at FIFA’s Congress for the World Cup to be played every two years, has again led Africa’s call for the concept, issuing a stinging rebuke of UEFA and others who oppose the concept.