LONDON—Lionel Messi landed another prestigious award in soccer—barely. The Argentina star needed a tiebreaker with Erling Haaland to win FIFA’s best men’s player prize on Monday. He has national team captains to thank. The voting breakdown showed Messi and Haaland with 48 points each after voting by a global panel of national team coaches and […]
PARIS—World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbappé again, this time to take FIFA’s best men’s player award on Monday. The best women’s player was Spain’s Alexia Putellas for a second straight year. After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic final against Mbappé’s France last year in Qatar, Messi won the best […]
American soccer journalist Grant Wahl, who collapsed and died while covering the World Cup match between Argentina and Netherlands in Qatar last weekend, died of a ruptured blood vessel, according to autopsy results. The autopsy, conducted by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office, shows that Wahl died from the rupture “of a slowly growing, […]
BELLINZONA, Switzerland—Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were acquitted on charges of defrauding FIFA by a Swiss criminal court on Friday, a rare positive outcome for the pair who were among soccer’s most powerful figures before being embroiled in corruption investigations. The case was centered around a $2 million payment from FIFA to Platini with Blatter’s […]
FIFA announced the full list of cities that will host matches for the 2026 World Cup. Besides New York City, the Levi Stadium in Santa Clara California is another one of the lucky bidders to get approved. Excited fans in the San Francisco Bay area celebrated.
NEW YORK—The 16 cities of the first World Cup spread across three nations were revealed, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino made a bold statement summing up the goal of the 2026 tournament, to be played largely in the United States. “By 2026, soccer—or futbol—will be the No. 1 sport in this part of the world,” […]
Soccer fans across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are awaiting an exciting moment. On Thursday afternoon in New York City, FIFA will announce the host cities for World Cup 2026. Let’s take a look at what areas are on the short list—and which ones are expected to make the cut.
FIFA and UEFA jointly decided on Feb. 28 that all Russian teams, including the national team, will be banned from qualifying for all international tournaments following the attack on Ukraine. “All Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice,” FIFA […]
FIFA announced a number of restrictions against Russia on Feb. 27, but the sports governing body won’t immediately expel the country from qualifying for international tournaments. The unanimous ruling by the FIFA Bureau, featuring the six regional soccer confederation presidents, said in a statement that Russia’s national team will no longer be allowed to compete under […]
WARSAW, Poland—Poland’s refusal to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gained wider support when Sweden followed with its own plans to protest to FIFA on Saturday. Polish soccer federation president Cezary Kulesza announced Poland’s decision and said it was in talks with other federations to […]
Qatar will require spectators at the 2022 World Cup to have received coronavirus vaccines to get into games, the government has announced. Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani told Qatar newspaper editors that the Gulf nation is trying to secure a million vaccine doses to immunize fans wanting to watch the […]
NEW YORK—A former president of Brazil’s soccer federation was sentenced on Aug. 22 by a U.S. judge to four years in prison after being convicted on corruption charges related to the bribery scandal at FIFA, the sport’s governing body. Jose Maria Marin, 86, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn, New York. […]
NEW YORK — A former South American soccer official was acquitted Tuesday of a corruption charge stemming from the FIFA bribery scandal after two others were convicted last week, capping a trial in which U.S. prosecutors sought to expose a culture of greed and corruption among the powerful men who oversee the world’s most popular […]
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP)—Several hundred cases of wrongdoing in soccer were under active investigation when FIFA ousted its ethics leadership, the outgoing prosecutor said Wednesday. Swiss prosecutor Cornel Borbely said the process of bringing corrupt officials to justice will now stall as new ethics officials have to learn how to navigate the global FIFA structures. “We […]
Officials from Canada, the United States, and Mexico got together for a joint proposal on the 2026 World Cup. The three countries want to have 60 games in the United States, 10 games in Mexico, and 10 games in Canada. They will submit their proposal to FIFA for approval. “We have the full support of […]
