After FIFA gave Cristiano Ronaldo a sweet probation ruling to avoid a World Cup ban, now this happy ruling for Otamendi and Caicedo. Tough times these for traditional legal process. apnews.com/article/worl...

Arsenal’s Champions League season is going to live short in the memory. Nothing there for neutral fans to hang on to.

What a season in Europe. Yes, PSG-Bayern is great but look beyond that to Mjällby, Bodo/Glimt, Thun and Hearts. Epic stories.

A case of go big and then go home. Busted for 4 anabolic steroids at age 44 at the World Baseball Classic. apnews.com/article/worl...

Benfica’s Prestianni gets a shorter ban for abusing Vinicius Jr, because racism couldn’t be proven while he admitted a homophobic slur he later said was "a normal insult for us Argentinians”. Still could cost him a World Cup place.

“Trump envoy” is one way to describe Zampolli though maybe doesn’t capture the fuller picture.

The Champions League final on May 30 in Budapest could be a kind of last supper for some of the VIPs....

“perhaps the real legacy of this tournament – and one with implications that go well beyond football – will be to expose the contempt in which the powerful hold the powerless.”

“Fewer international visitors than promised” should always be on every World Cup bingo card.

BREAKING: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concedes defeat to Peter Magyar after "painful" election result, ending 16 years in power.

On Monday, we revealed that the overseer of Fifa's newest sponsor had paid a six-figure sum to settle insider trading allegations. Today, we reveal that the company's newly appointed CEO has close ties to the MEP at the heart of the Qatargate corruption scandal... josimarfootball.com/2026/04/09/m...

FIFA’s logical next commercial step this year would be a World Cup sponsor category for ballroom design.

In the old days it would be shocking that FIFA signed a partnership with prediction/betting crypto site that no one has heard of and has website that doesn’t open. But so much has happened… Anyway, FIFA has its first “Official Partner for the prediction market category.”

They need their own show. Make it happen before the World Cup.

FT Exclusive: A broker for the US defence secretary attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. ft.trib.al/EIVizV7

Nobody who saw a slung-together Kosovo team train beneath the belching Obiliq power plants in 2014, before splashing through a first official game against Haiti, would believe they are on verge of World Cup now. Piece from Pristina with two men who've seen it all: www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Recall that FIFA said in 2016 trial phase a VAR review should take six seconds and, at the World Cup, should happen once "every four or five games".

Seems to have been unfiltered Trump on truth serum at the Saudi event in Miami.

The World Cup stadium near Boston, they seem to have forgotten to finish building it behind one goal. Let’s hope it’s ready in time for Scotland-Haiti.

Ah, this is going to surprise and disappoint a lot of people. apnews.com/article/boxi...

The widespread perception that CAF and African football is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morocco is having a strong month.

Serbia and Albania are hosting men’s Under-21 Euros together next year. Tournament co-hosts at actual war with each other would be new.

Each modern World Cup got fewer international visitors than promised or predicted.

This is a very good read.

In a dire week for English clubs in the Champions League, look how the next generation is doing in the UEFA Youth League quarterfinals...

In the season the Super League officially died and Bodø/Glimt express values-based joy, exactly this....

Includes the punchline “sounds like someone’s about to become the FIFA Secretary of Homeland Security”. That peace prize has turned "FIFA" into an adjective meaning silly and of no value. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2x...

"HERE WE GO!": the lowdown on "football journalist" Fabrizio Romano sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/here-we-go...

New for @josimarfootball.bsky.social. I wish to express thanks and my admiration to Zohreh Abdollahkhani, who found the courage and the strength to write this heart-rending piece, commissioned before Iran was attacked by the US and Israel. josimarfootball.com/2026/03/05/s...

A decade-long zone so flooded that some of the highlights had been forgotten.

Olympic Truce breached by the next Olympics host nation and holder of the FIFA peace prize.

At Crans-Montana, in World Cup ski race week that is why the Swiss resort should be famous. The mood is subdued and respectful of the community's trauma since the New Year's Day fire tragedy. The time for celebration should be the world championships next year. apnews.com/article/skii...

Maybe Britain is totally broken after all.

Separate from Senegal, some of Morocco’s conduct around a home Afcon final – from ball kids to asking CAF, FIFA to re-litigate a ref’s field of play decisions – isn't really worthy of a future World Cup co-host. apnews.com/article/afco...

Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Donald Trump and the European football economy. The falling US dollar value early last year put a $55M foreign exchange loss into UEFA’s annual accounts. apnews.com/article/uefa...

UEFA confirms PSG’s 144.4M euros/$168M topped the Champions League prize money list in last season’s richer new format. 7 teams got 100M euros compared to 5 in the final season of 32-team, group-stage format. Also, a pay freeze last season for UEFA president Ceferin. apnews.com/article/uefa...

The Olympic women’s downhill on Sunday, Feb. 8 with 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn looks the must-see event, at least until a Canada-USA ice hockey medal game becomes a series of 20-player brawls. apnews.com/article/worl...

Checking the Winter Olympics schedule to see what might bring Donald Trump to Italy, and there is men’s ice hockey on the middle Saturday, Valentine’s Day…

Enough to buy AC Milan again just for fun?

Coaches who were fired from their jobs this season - Mourinho, Solskjaer, Ten Hag, Amorim.

If FIFA listened to real world fans in the first place then this damage limitation would not have been needed. It still remains a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of $21 tickets pledged by the co-host FAs when bidding years ago. apnews.com/article/fifa...

Something worked today. A massive climbdown by FIFA and now there will be some $60 tickets for every game, including the World Cup final, for the most loyal fans of the teams playing in those games.

Who can say in which order McTominay, Tierney and McLean will go 1-2-3 in next year's Puskas Award voting? Until then... www.fifa.com/en/the-best-...

FIFA hosting in Qatar all member federations now on these many newly created committees about a year before the next presidential election campaign. Also an ideal chance to raise the subject of World Cup ticket prices.

One week after the World Cup draw, now the teams' most loyal fans have been hit with their ticket price list, and FIFA has united the world in outrage. Some achievement.

Lindsey Vonn is a truly amazing athlete. apnews.com/article/skii...

Russia making real progress in sports politics without making any concessions in real world politics. apnews.com/article/ioc-...

On Egypt-Iran anger at Seattle for having to play during PrideFest, also in Seattle 2 days earlier is Qatar and that game can be vs. Wales. Rainbow-tinged karma for 2022? Also having Pride festivals each June - Madrid and Lisbon. So, more of this at 2030 World Cup. apnews.com/article/worl...

Ahead of World Cup draw, recall when the FAs in US, Canada, Mexico bid in 2018 their aim/promise was to sell 7% of tickets – about 5,000 in each stadium – in lowest category priced at $21 in group stage. For the final, $128. FIFA did it differently.