January 3 – A 2030 World Cup final in Manchester or Liverpool? It is what senior Tory figures have asked newly elected UK prime minister Boris Johnson to back in a bid to recreate “something like the London Olympics.”
December 21 – Belgium will finish 2019 as the world’s top ranked team, ahead of France and Brazil – the same positions they held in December 2018 in the FIFA/Coca-Cola men’s World Rankings.
December 20 – FIFA has received nine bids for the commercial rights to the new expanded 24-team Club World Cup being held in China in 2021.
December 20 – FIFA has imposed a life ban on a former member of both its Ethics and Disciplinary Committees, who at one time helped judge the wrongdoing of others, for himself taking bribes.
By Andrew Warshaw
December 17 – Why now? It’s a question many are pondering after FIFA on Monday confirmed reports last week that it is filing a civil lawsuit against veteran former president Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA president Michel Platini to recover the CHF 2 million paid to Platini in 2011 on Blatter’s authority, which led to long bans for both of them.
December 16 – Bids to stage the 2023 Women’s World Cup are conspicuous by the absence of any application from Korea, both south and north.
December 16 – The Brussels Court of Appeal has dismissed Doyen and FC Seraing’s effort to overturn a ban on third-party ownership (TPO), ending the financing practice. FIFA welcomed the verdict.
December 16 – Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says English teams should seriously consider whether they would want to take part in rumoured global Super League.
December 13 – FIFA has released its final Women’s National Team world rankings for 2019 which show the USA ending the year as they began it at the top, following their impressive all-conquering unbeaten run to the France 2019 World Cup title.
December 12 – FIFA to launch legal action against former president Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA president Michel Platini to recover the CHF 2 million paid to Platini in 2011 on Blatter’s authority, which led to long bans for both of them.
December 12 – FIFA and the European Parliament (EP) have not always sat cosily alongside each other with the EP having warned in the past that it would force regulation on football’s governing body across a host of commercial and social policy areas if it didn’t reform.
December 12 – The German FA vice-president Rainer Koch will not run for a seat on the FIFA Council, the DFB announced on Thursday. His candidacy has been withdrawn in favour of the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) Noël Le Graët.
By David Owen in Lausanne
December 10 – The bizarre spectacle of a Russian football team qualifying for the 2022 World Cup as Russia, but then being obliged to assume a neutral guise in the finals was conjured up on Monday at a press conference featuring leading figures from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the bowels of a Swiss hotel.
December 10 – Organisers of the Club World Cup, which kicks off on Wednesday in Qatar, have been left red-faced after being forced to switch the venue for the tournament’s showpiece final because the so-called Education City Stadium is not ready.
By David Owen
December 6 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino is finally set to enter world sport’s most prestigious club. The 49-year-old is one of three new International Olympic Committee (IOC) members proposed for the next IOC Session in Lausanne on January 10.