AL RAYYAN, Qatar (AP) — Belgium’s foreign minister wore a “One Love” armband when she met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino at her country’s World Cup match against Canada on Wednesday.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — European soccer showed its public frustration with FIFA president Gianni Infantino again Wednesday at the World Cup — this time in the Denmark camp.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA earned record revenues of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the governing body of soccer said Sunday.
The last three sponsors — two American and one from the Middle East — were announced hours before the opening game: YouTube, Visit Las Vegas and Fine Hygienic Holding, all in the third-tier category of regional sponsors.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Gianni Infantino said he feels gay. That he feels like a woman. That he feels like a migrant worker. He lectured Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record and defended the host country’s last-minute decision to ban beer from World Cup stadiums.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino downplayed Qatar's last minute ban on the sale of beer at World Cup stadiums as nothing more than a brief inconvenience to spectators.
AL-RUWAIS, Qatar (AP) — German soccer federation president Bernd Neuendorf has criticized FIFA for its attempts to restrict national teams’ political activities when it comes to human rights.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino is getting four more years in charge of soccer's governing body after no candidate stepped up to challenge him.
FIFA said Thursday the 52-year-old Swiss lawyer was the only person to enter the race by the time the deadline passed overnight — exactly four months before election day on March 16 in Kigali, Rwanda.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino urged world leaders on Tuesday to call for a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine during the World Cup that starts this week.
When Gianni Infantino told a gathering of European soccer officials in Vienna he hoped the winner of the World Cup came from their continent, the FIFA President quickly stated — with a smile — he adapts the comment to whichever region he’s in.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA's top officials have urged the 32 teams preparing for the most political World Cup in the modern era to focus on the game in Qatar and avoid handing out lessons in morality.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Broadcasters were criticized by FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Saturday for what he called unacceptably low offers for rights to screen the Women’s World Cup next year.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The president of soccer's world governing body met with Indonesia's president on Tuesday and pledged to help improve stadium safety to prevent a repeat of a tragedy in which police fired tear gas at a match, causing a crush that killed 132 people as spectators attempted to flee.
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — South American soccer leaders have given their backing to Gianni Infantino’s bid for re-election as FIFA president as they prepare a four-nation bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — When FIFA president Gianni Infantino dashed from Geneva to Paris to watch World Cup favorite Brazil in its final warmup game before Qatar, he cannot have expected to be confronted by such visual proof of the racism that continues to infect soccer.
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Trade Organization said Tuesday the benefits of working with FIFA to create more jobs in Africa outweighed concerns about the controversies around Qatar hosting soccer’s World Cup this year.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA has formally moved the World Cup start up by one day to give host nation Qatar an exclusive Sunday evening slot with a global audience.
GENEVA (AP) — Host nation Qatar is set to play in the opening game of its own World Cup tournament after all — and on a stand-alone day being added to the schedule barely 100 days before kickoff.
Soccer's marquee tournament is now set start one day earlier than originally scheduled seven years ago in a move that would allow Qatar to play Ecuador on Nov.
The Olympic soccer competition at the 2024 Paris Games will conclude with the women's final — instead of the men's — for the first time.
FIFA announced the Olympic soccer competition schedule on Wednesday.
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Alex Morgan never gets tired of winning championships, even after so many titles already.
Morgan converted on a penalty in the 78th minute and the U.S. women's national team won the CONCACAF W Championship 1-0 over Canada on Monday night to secure one of the region's spots in the 2024 Olympics.
NEW YORK (AP) — 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.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said migrant workers gain pride from hard work when he was questioned on Monday about workers suffering in Qatar while building World Cup infrastructure.
Despite the abuses, Infantino claimed workers would feel proud at being given the chance to construct stadiums for this year's tournament in the Gulf nation, earning a living rather than being given charity.
PARIS (AP) — Former France great Michel Platini has filed a criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
A statement on behalf of Platini, who previously served as president of UEFA and was Infantino’s boss at the time, was released Tuesday.
LONDON (AP) — In a small ground-floor office suite in London's affluent Mayfair district, FIFA's control over world football was eroded with a handshake and low-key unveiling.
The deeper alliance between the two most powerful football confederations from Europe and South America — by opening a joint office — comes just as FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been left chastened by the collapse of his pursuit of biennial World Cups.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The appearance by video of the head of Ukrainian soccer, wearing an armored vest from the streets of Kyiv, brought the impact of Russia’s war into the FIFA Congress on Thursday.
“We have regularly received sad news of the deaths of members of the Ukrainian football community,” Andriy Pavelko said in a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar including delegates from Russia.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Through the enduring howls of outrage over Qatar, Gianni Infantino is not completely isolated from the divisiveness of the looming World Cup.
“I was one of those as well criticizing when I was elected president,” the FIFA leader recalled.
LONDON (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino remains the proud holder of the Russian Order of Friendship medal from Vladimir Putin. Not even the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has proved enough for Infantino to publicly distance himself from the autocratic leader.
LONDON (AP) — The invasion of Ukraine drew more punitive measures across the sporting world on Friday when Russia was stripped of the Champions League final in St. Petersburg and Formula One dropped the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.
Doubts and disputes over FIFA's push for biennial World Cups contributed to Britain and Ireland dropping plans for a joint bid to host the 2030 edition and opting on Monday to pursue the 2028 European Championship instead.
Throughout his election campaign and first year leading African football, Patrice Motsepe has struggled to shake off the perception of being under FIFA’s influence, particularly when it comes to the push by Gianni Infantino for biennial World Cups.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Long-time African soccer leader Issa Hayatou won an appeal ruling Saturday to overturn a one-year ban for alleged commercial wrongdoing imposed by FIFA where he was once interim president.
BEIJING (AP) — FIFA’s fading plan for biennial World Cups was labeled a threat from soccer to all other sports by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday.
IOC President Thomas Bach chided FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino, an IOC member for the past two years, for not being in Beijing to hear the criticism.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Avram Grant, the former manager of the Chelsea soccer club and one of the most powerful men in Israeli sport, will be investigated by FIFA after being accused of sexually harassing multiple women in an investigative report.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The president of South America's soccer confederation has reiterated that teams from the region would boycott FIFA's plans for a biennial World Cup and said there is “no chance” that such a proposal will go through.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino linked his plan for biennial World Cups on Wednesday to giving more hope to Africans who risk their lives crossing the sea to Europe.
In a speech to European lawmakers, Infantino said soccer was being dominated by the few who “have everything” and it needed to be more global and inclusive.
LONDON (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino assured players during talks Thursday that a reshaped international calendar will tackle their workload and fixture congestion concerns, while backing away from heavily pushing biennial World Cups.
LONDON (AP) — Money talked loudest and clearest when FIFA pitched to more than 200 member countries Monday for its biennial World Cups plan that is opposed by leaders of European and South American soccer plus the Olympics.
Olympic leaders aimed their ire at FIFA’s president over his push for staging more World Cups, during an IOC-hosted meeting that Tibetan students tried to interrupt on Saturday in a protest against the Beijing Winter Games.
GENEVA (AP) — Opponents of the plan for biennial World Cups seem scared of being toppled from the top of world soccer, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Friday.
Infantino’s speech to African soccer leaders was a clear criticism of the European and South American countries which have dominated every World Cup and are threatening a boycott of biennial men’s tournaments.
LONDON (AP) — Premier League clubs united in their opposition to plans for biennial World Cups when they discussed the FIFA overhaul of the international calendar at a meeting on Thursday.
The 20 teams also all opposed a FIFA proposal to reduce the five windows for international men's matches to just two in a year.
GENEVA (AP) — Europe’s top soccer leagues cautioned that FIFA’s biennial World Cup plan is still on the table and they vowed Friday to resist the proposed overhauls of the international match schedule.
If Gianni Infantino was in any doubt how divisive his rule of world football has become, it was revealed to the FIFA president during an hour-long video call with leaders of European federations.
Trying to convince UEFA members to back his plans for biennial World Cups, Infantino instead faced a torrent of criticism in a recording obtained by The Associated Press.
ZURICH (AP) — FIFA is set to make the 2022 World Cup finals tournament draw in Qatar on April 1 — with two of the qualifying teams still unknown because of match schedule delays in the COVID-19 pandemic.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA’s drive to get approval in December for holding World Cups every two years stalled Wednesday, one day after its president met with fierce resistance from European soccer leaders.
More than a dozen European nations are considering the option of last resort in the fight to prevent biennial World Cups: quitting FIFA, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.
Plans to double the frequency of World Cups were pitched by FIFA President Gianni Infantino on a private call on Tuesday with many leaders from the 55 European member associations that are resisting the transformation of the global game.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino believes the suspended World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina should be decided on the pitch.
The Sept. 5 match in Sao Paulo was suspended after seven minutes due to alleged breaches of COVID-19 protocols.
PARIS (AP) — The French football league's board adopted a motion Wednesday to oppose plans to play the men's World Cup every two years, arguing that the tournament is a world heritage that should not be “trivialized" and that such a move would disrupt calendars.
LONDON (AP) — European clubs joined forces on Friday to rebuke FIFA for trying to railroad through plans for biennial World Cups, warning of a destructive impact on world football.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has infuriated the European Club Association, which is accusing the global governing body of being in breach of legal obligations with its rush to radically overhaul the sport and gain more control.
LEUVEN, Belgium (AP) — Cycling’s 2025 road world championships were awarded to Rwanda on Friday in a first hosting by an African country.
The capital city Kigali “will provide a magnificent backdrop” for the weeklong championships which were first held in 1921, International Cycling Union president David Lappartient said.