There was some good news and some bad news from UEFA on Thursday. The good: European football’s governing body announced it will double the prize money available for the 2022 Women’s Euros. The bad: The Women’s Euro prize money is a miniscule fraction of the men’s Euro prize money.
Proposals to hold the World Cup every two years, being pushed by governing body FIFA, are set to be opposed by UEFA and Europe's leading clubs, sources have told Reuters.
Arsène Wenger, FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, has been promoting the idea as part of the organization's review of the international match calendar and this week repeated his support for the change from the established four-year cycle.
The latest list of USMNT roster snubs for September’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers is a group of players with incredible talent. USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter announced the 26-man roster for the first three games of World Cup qualifying and left out some big names.
First, here’s the full 26-man roster.
The squad that will open the 2022 @FIFAWorldCup Qualifying campaign.
Carli Lloyd, one of the greatest women's soccer players to ever grace the game, has announced her retirement, U.S. Soccer said on Monday.
The 39-year-old Lloyd, who was twice named the FIFA Women's Player of the Year, became the second-most capped player in world soccer history (312) during a career that includes two Women's World Cups and two Olympic gold medals.
The reason you won’t see some of the best men's soccer players at the Olympics is sort of peculiar. In order to preserve the status of the World Cup as the greatest international event for men’s soccer, an Olympic soccer age limit was instituted for the men's tournament.
The men's Olympic soccer tournament only features players under 23 years old, with three exceptions for each country.
Round two of Concacaf World Cup qualifying wrapped up on Tuesday and featured one of the worst own goals you'll ever see at the professional level. This Haiti own goal will leave you lost for words.
An own goal from Josue Duverger gives @CanadaSoccerEN the lead pic.twitter.com/qHEWFcmcc0
FIFA will carry out a feasibility study on holding the World Cup and the Women's World Cup every two years after backing a proposal at its annual congress on Friday.
The two competitions are currently held every four years but the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) put forward a proposal for a study of the impact of switching to every two years.
The Saudi proposal of hosting World Cup every 2 years had been accepted by the FIFA pic.twitter.com/E2qfQ2hGBE
While there were no headlining matchups, the latest cycle of international qualifying across the globe provided us with some unexpected upsets — if you know where to look.
North Macedonia over Germany and Luxembourg beating the Republic of Ireland were tabbed as the biggest surprises of the international break, but there plenty more stunning results from across Europe and beyond.
These were the best of the bunch:
Arsene Wenger says FIFA should consider holding the World Cup and Euros every two years and that a review of the international match calendar will consider compressed qualifiers and enforced breaks for players.
The former Arsenal manager is Chief of Global Football Development at world soccer's governing body and a close advisor to president Gianni Infantino.
Wenger said the current four year wait for a World Cup is unfair to players and the focus should be on "competitions of meaning," including the European Championships.
The Mars Pathfinder launched on Dec. 4, 1996, NASA’s first attempt to land a rover on another planet. Since then, the U.S. has landed more rovers on Mars than the USMNT has World Cup wins. That’s where we’re at as a country after the rover Perseverance landed successfully on Thursday.