Gianni Infantino, the ninth President of FIFA, has found himself increasingly in the news of late, which we’ve come to learn is never, ever a good sign when it comes to FIFA presidents. The 51-year-old’s latest fixation is a biennial World Cup that’s been panned by everyone with a genuine love for the game, so it’s only a matter of time before the plan becomes reality.
Few words more quickly evoke decades-old video game franchises quite like “FIFA.” It ranks in the echelons of “Mario” and “Sonic,” “Doom” and “Half-Life,” “WoW” and “Madden.” But EA Sports seems ready, willing even, to change the name of its best-selling series.
EA Sports Group General Manager Cam Weber released a statement on Thursday talking about the “future of football.” In it, he made a not-so-humble brag about early sales numbers for FIFA 22 before trying to give lip service to fans about improving the game series.
Then he dropped this little bombshell.
The National Women's Soccer League has fired commissioner Lisa Baird and FIFA has launched a preliminary investigation in the wake of a report detailing allegations of misconduct against former North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley.
I heard once, I can’t remember from where, that the greatest measure of your time remaining on this planet was in how many more World Cups you could reasonably expect to witness before death. Instead of saying “I am 30,” you could say “I hope to see 12 more World Cups.”
That struck me as a reasonable philosophy.
Birthdays start to come and go with an increasing desire to make less of what starts to seem like a doomsday countdown, but the World Cup — with its quadrennial rarity — stands out as a month-long celebration of the best of our outward reality.
Euro 2020 finalists England pushed world champions France out of the top three in world soccer body FIFA's latest men's soccer rankings published on Thursday.
Belgium remained the top ranked side, followed by Brazil. European champions Italy, on a record unbeaten international run of 37 matches, are fifth with Argentina sixth.
Third place equals England's highest ranking since 2012. Gareth Southgate's side lost on penalties to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley in July and were World Cup semifinalists in Russia in 2018. France went out of Euro 2020 in the Round of 16.
MANCHESTER, England - FIFA says it has fan backing for the much-criticized plan to shift to a biennial World Cup after releasing a summary of the results of an opinion survey of supporters.
The proposals, which have been outlined by FIFA's head of Global Football Development, former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, have been met with widespread opposition from within the game.
MANCHESTER, England - FIFA's proposals for the World Cup to be held every two years, rather than the traditional four-year gap, have been met with strong opposition from European soccer body UEFA and major leagues, the following is a Q&A on the issues:
WHAT IS FIFA DOING?
México nunca perdió un partido de eliminatorias ante Panamá. El récord, eso sí, casi se mancha este miércoles en la visita del Tri al Estadio Rommel Fernández. Los canaleros tuvieron a la selección mexicana entre las cuerdas y casi se queda con una victoria histórica, sino hubiera sido por el gran trabajo de Jesús Corona.
El partido presentaba una oportunidad única para el Tri: conseguir por primera vez tres victorias consecutivas en el arranque de un proceso mundialista. Panamá, sin embargo, luchó para no convertirse en un hito estadístico.
Prometía ser una linda tarde de fútbol con un Brasil vs Argentina por las Eliminatorias Sudamericanas en el menú, pero al final millones de personas terminaron viendo un papelón.
El siempre esperado partido debió ser suspendido cuando el reloj apenas marcaba cinco minutos y luego de que oficiales sanitarios de Sao Paulo ingresaran al campo para intentar deportar a cuatro jugadores de la Albiceleste.
Brasil y Argentina vuelven a verse las caras después de la final de la Copa América 2021, que significó el primer título internacional de la Albiceleste desde 1993. Esta vez, la excusa son las Eliminatorias a Catar 2022 y el duelo ocurre en un contexto marcado por la negativa de la Premier League de facilitar futbolistas a distintas selecciones, escudándose en una lista roja del gobierno británico ante la Covid-19, la cual discrimina abiertamente a naciones latinas, africanas y asiáticas.