“FIFA has accused FIFPro, the global players’ union, of “blackmail” and a lack of financial transparency as tensions between the two bodies escalated. On Thursday, Sergio Marchi, the new FIFPro president, told The Athletic in an exclusive interview that ‘the autocracy of FIFA’s president (Gianni Infantino)’ was the ‘biggest obstacle’ to his union. Following a meeting with 58 player unions in the Netherlands on Friday, FIFPro doubled down on those criticisms, releasing a statement accusing FIFA of ‘seriously undermining’ players’ rights with its ‘autocratic system of governance’. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
FIFA accuses players’ union FIFPro of ‘blackmail’ and lack of financial transparency
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“If Anthony Martial hadn’t been injured in the warm-up, and Manchester United hadn’t already been missing 12 players, Marcus Rashford wouldn’t have played. It hadn’t seemed a particularly significant game: the second leg of a 
“Players are the focus of any football transfer storyline. Managers, agents and club owners add to the intrigue, of course, but it’s a relatively new role which has been garnering increased attention with every transfer window — the sporting director. Fundamentally, the remit of the sporting director is to be a link between the coaching staff and the club’s hierarchy, providing continuity, sustainability and a stable strategy in the club’s football operations. …”
“It was the brown envelopes that kept falling through the letterbox that filled Dean Windass with foreboding. Windass was a spiky but effective striker whose 18-year senior career had taken him through all four divisions, including spells in the Premier League with Bradford City, Middlesbrough and Hull City, plus the Scottish top flight with Aberdeen. While he was never one of the game’s superstars, he had earned good money at a time when English football was booming. …”
“For one of the key architects of Belgium’s golden generation, his aim was simple — ‘I want to teach the most difficult football.’ Bob Browaeys sits back in his chair at the Belgian FA’s base in Tubize, just south of Brussels. The 56-year-old coach is affable, a former goalkeeper with huge hands and a propensity to push his seat away from the table in excitement when he talks. This is a space-age facility — underlighting in the boardrooms, 11 first-grade pitches, and the literal footprints of the country’s former greats leading towards its doors. …”
“World Cup 1962, hosted in Chile, is up there with World Cup 1938 as the least fabled editions of the tournament. There’s a common link between them: they’re the only two World Cups where the defending champion has triumphed. And this one came as little surprise — it was almost impossible to find a tournament preview that didn’t imply that Brazil were strong favourites. …”
“At Trump Tower, the new home of FIFA in Manhattan, Gianni Infantino hailed the Club World Cup a ‘huge, huge, huge success’ on Saturday. The president of soccer’s world governing body later posted on Instagram that the tournament had ‘taken over the United States and united people in joy’. FIFA has been on a victory lap since Chelsea’s 3-0 victory against Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s final in front of an 81,118 crowd at MetLife Stadium, a few miles to the west in New Jersey. … Dynamic pricing and empty seats. FIFA adopted a dynamic pricing approach to tickets, where prices fluctuate according to supply and demand. For high-interest sports and music events, this can lead to prices skyrocketing in value but during the Club World Cup, where not a single game was a complete sellout, these costs often tumbled instead due to a lack of demand. … Similar deals emerged with different universities during the tournament as FIFA scrambled to avoid tens of thousands of empty seats becoming a regular occurrence. The group-stage games recorded an average of 35,000 spectators, but the size of the venues chosen — largely NFL stadiums with capacities of more than 60,000 — left big gaps in the stands. The dynamic-pricing market made for some absurd fluctuations. Standard admission pricing for the semi-final between Chelsea and Brazil’s Fluminense at MetLife was 
Empty seats were an issue at Club World Cup games
“The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, also marketed as FIFA Club World Cup 25, is the ongoing 21st edition and the first of the expanded 
“The Hungary national football team represents 
“The final for the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup is set. After a valiant fight from teams across the globe, from South America, to the Middle East, to Africa, East Asia and Oceania, it is two European titans who collide in the showpiece final on Sunday, July 13. Much has been made of the gruelling calendar the summer tournament has thrust upon its participants, but Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain have outlasted the rest in the searing American heat in their hunt for the trophy — and healthy prize fund on offer. …”
“‘Let’s hear it for the boys — make some noise!’ cries the voice over the public address system at Park Hall Stadium on a beautiful summer evening. It’s July 8, in Oswestry, an English market town that’s only three miles from the Welsh border and where the whistle has just sounded to start a Champions League first qualifying round first-leg tie between The New Saints (TNS), the Cymru Premier title winners, and KF Shkendija of North Macedonia. Typically, the kick-off in these early Champions League fixtures is regarded as the curtain-raiser to the new season and a sign that club football is finally back. Except club football never went away this summer. …”
“Sixty-two games down, one game to go, 192 goals scored and almost 2.5million people through the turnstiles. The Club World Cup has thrown up more questions than answers, but when it comes to identifying the best team on the planet, there is surely no debate. Any lingering doubts were blown away in the stifling heat of East Rutherford, New Jersey, as 
“Joao Pedro scored two brilliant goals as Chelsea secured their place in the Club World Cup final with victory over Fluminense. The Brazilian, who started his career with Fluminense before moving to Britain, scored with a brilliant finish from outside the area in the first half and then calmed his celebration against his former club. …”
“When it comes to Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid, nothing seems to be a coincidence, and that applies to the emergence of Arda Guler. Madrid’s new coach has been taking care of every detail since he took over in May, with the 20-year-old Turkey playmaker one of the main beneficiaries of his arrival. After their 
“For those unaware, FIFA has established its own Technical Study Group (TSG) to analyse the Club World Cup this summer. Led by their chief of global football development, Arsene Wenger, the panel contains former players and coaches — with Esteban Cambiasso, Aliou Cisse, Tobin Heath, Jurgen Klinsmann, Roberto Martinez, Gilberto Silva and Pascal Zuberbuhler unpicking the key insights from each game. 
“Ignore all the fluff that occurs in the middle of the pitch for a moment. Real Madrid’s winning reputation is built on their clinical efficiency in both boxes. Never was that more true than against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday afternoon, with Kylian Mbappe and Thibaut Courtois showing how fiercely skilled they are in such crucial moments. There was a glimmer of hope for a Dortmund comeback after substitute Maximilian Beier’s goal made it 2-1 in the 92nd minute, but Mbappe’s expert finish restored Madrid’s two-goal lead barely 90 seconds later. …”
“If the starting line-ups contain names such as Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman on one side, with Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the other, there is a high probability of entertainment. Yet how both teams approach the game factors in whether we see the individual flair or not. Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich didn’t disappoint the audience on Saturday, with their proactive and positive approaches resulting in a 
“It was billed as the game of the Club World Cup and it did not disappoint. Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich produced a breathless game that had just about everything in Atlanta, and not all of it good. There was a serious injury to Bayern’s Jamal Musiala, two second-half red cards for PSG’s Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez and late drama with an overturned penalty decision in the French club’s favour. Musiala’s injury was the most serious incident, the German international badly damaging his left ankle in a collision with PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. It left both sets of players shocked and cast a cloud over this occasion. …”
“As the realities faded from what this summer was supposed to be into what it was going to be, the goal of the tournament for the United States men’s national team never truly shifted. The Gold Cup was meant to be the month when Mauricio Pochettino and his staff finally got some time with the group that they would lead into next year’s home World Cup. … On Sunday night in Houston, a group of players who have used this summer to try to force their way into the World Cup picture will get that chance against rivals Mexico. After 
“With apologies to the fans of the clubs that have been eliminated from the FIFA Club World Cup, it’s a relief that this tournament’s penchant for upsets and excitement hasn’t ended after the group stage. Like 
“This is where the Club World Cup gets serious. Football’s new-look global competition may not have convinced every sceptic so far, but the line-up for the last eight offers an intriguing mixture of European aristocrats, Brazilian excellence and even an outsider in 
“A frustrated Jobe Bellingham will miss out on a first competitive meeting with brother Jude after being booked in Borussia Dortmund’s 2-1 win over Monterrey in their Club World Cup last-16 game. Earlier in the day, Jude Bellingham helped Real Madrid defeat Juventus 1-0 to set up a potential quarter-final against his brother at MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on Saturday. …”
“It is nine weeks since Sheffield Wednesday last played a home game but the flyposting around Hillsborough helps to illustrate a long summer of rancour. ‘Chansiri out’ is the simple, scrawled message, set against a collage of cult heroes and trophy lifts. Wednesday’s happiest recent times in the early 1990s, when they were regulars in the upper echelons of the top flight and frequent travellers to Wembley in cup competitions, seem a long time ago. It is 25 years since they were last in the Premier League and Wednesday now resemble a decaying club under the ownership of Dejphon Chansiri, a 57-year-old businessman whose family own the Thai Union Group (TUG), the world’s largest producer of canned tuna. The money has dried up and so, too, has hope. …”
“FIFA president Gianni Infantino has received a letter signed by over 90 civil society groups, the majority of which are based in the United States, expressing ‘deep concern’ about immigration policies and enforcement measures in the U.S. and their potential impact on the 
“Gonzalo Garcia kept up his 
“Al Hilal eliminated Manchester City from the Club World Cup in a landmark victory for the Saudi Arabian team, winning a remarkable last-16 game 4-3 in extra time to cap a day of upsets. The Saudi side have shopped significantly for European stars since the state’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took control of four teams in the Saudi Pro League in 2023 as 
“This summer’s FIFA Club World Cup is a valuable indicator for what we might expect at next year’s World Cup in the U.S.. For players, it is a wake-up call as to 
“Fluminense are through to the Club World Cup quarter-finals after beating Inter 2-0 in Charlotte on Monday. Renato Gaucho’s side started quickly and took the lead after only three minutes via an opportunistic header from German Cano. Inter fans might have hoped that an early setback would spur their side into a concerted response but there was little evidence of that in the rest of the first half. Cristian Chivu’s team eventually managed to build some momentum in the second half but some obstinate Fluminense defending — and the woodwork — kept the Italian side at bay. And, as Inter pressed ever more desperately for an equaliser, Fluminense broke and sealed the game in injury time via a tidy finish from Hercules. …”
“Inside the corporate monstrosity hides something that’s actually quite lovely and joyful and organic. It’s burrowed down real deep, beneath layers and layers of maximalist nonsense. But it’s in there somewhere, a good soccer tournament, cloaked by all the avarice and bombast, in spite of itself and those responsible for it. It’s true: the Club World Cup and its new summer format haven’t been all bad. The group stage, which concluded on Thursday, offered fun and competitive teams. It served up a few genuinely enthralling games, especially in the clashes between the European and South American sides. …”
“The knockout rounds of the Club World Cup begin this weekend, starting with Palmeiras and Botafogo returning to Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field just two days after 64,811 fans withstood the pouring rain to watch Vinicius Junior come alive with Real Madrid. Everyone’s hoping for some magic in the round of 16 and, if the group stage matches were any indication, we can expect plenty more drama too. With the final whistle of group play now behind us, one of the major talking points from this competition so far has been the volume of disciplinary action handed down by referees. Across 48 games so far, 10 red cards have been issued. …”
“The group stage of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup has concluded and 48 of the tournament’s 63 matches have now taken place. The competition, which is being hosted in the United States, drew plenty of criticism in the build-up — including for how many games were being held in large, out-of-town stadiums in cities traditionally lacking in football (
“It had been a long day. Much, much longer than Enzo Maresca had wanted. Play was suspended for nearly two hours waiting for the weather to pass over Charlotte, but the storm whipped up by the Chelsea coach’s post-match comments threatens to rumble on much longer. ‘It’s a joke,’ he said after Chelsea’s Club World Cup knockout clash with Benfica was held up for 113 minutes, the sixth storm-enforced delay of the tournament and the third hour-plus interruption. And he kept using those words — ‘a joke’ — while making clear he did not see the funny side, despite seeing his team run out 4-1 winners after extra time in a match that kicked off at 4pm local time and did not conclude until 8.38pm. …”
“With the group stages of the FIFA Club World Cup over, it’s a good time to catch our breath and take stock. From the searing heat and dodgy pitches, to the major shocks and stars of the future (both in the dugout and on the pitch). The Athletic asked our reporters covering the tournament to give their assessment of the group stages in the United States and what they want to see in the knockout rounds… …”
“As temperatures rose towards 90F at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium on Saturday while Borussia Dortmund played South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, the German team posted on social media: ‘Our subs watched the first half from inside the locker room to avoid the blazing sun — never seen that before, but in this heat, it absolutely makes sense.’ The message was accompanied by a picture of players who would usually be pitchside instead sitting in shorts and T-shirts around a table stocked with drinks. Players, coaches and supporters were already concerned about high temperatures during matches in the opening week of the Club World Cup, and now 
“The word ‘soccer’ remains at the heart of one of the most enduring, if comparatively low-key and petty fronts of the culture war. At its most basic level, it’s a transatlantic disagreement over language, but there seems to be more to it than that. The most basic and probably most sensible point of view is that it’s simply one country — America, though there are others — using a word to differentiate one extremely popular sport from a slightly less popular sport. But use the word in the wrong context — which is to say, ‘in England’ — and you can expect paroxysms of disgust from people who seem to think it represents something much deeper. These people are, admittedly, those who are far too easily outraged (check their sent email files and there’s a reasonable chance they have also complained to a TV station about a newsreader not wearing a tie), but it seems like these people think of this as somehow chipping away at the identity of the game, and even themselves. It’s an Americanism, as everyone knows, and this is apparently something to be suspicious of. …”
“This is a public service announcement. You may think that this Club World Cup is an American affair. You probably looked at the list of host cities, saw FIFA president Gianni Infantino 
“After beating Esperance de Tunis with 
“Arsene Wenger had a lot to get off his chest in the autumn of 2015. His Arsenal side were in danger of exiting the Champions League at the group stages and their 2-1 loss away to Dinamo Zagreb had become an acute source of irritation. Not because Arsenal had stumbled against their weakest opponents, but because the Croatian side had triumphed with a player — Arijan Ademi — who had returned a positive drugs test after playing the full 90 minutes. Ademi would eventually be given a four-year suspension (later reduced to two on appeal) after traces of the banned steroid stanozolol were found in a routine urine sample, but Wenger bristled at Zagreb facing no disciplinary sanctions from UEFA, European football’s governing body. ‘That means you basically accept doping,’ he said. …”
“Off-target shots are football’s missed opportunity, in more ways than one. As the analytics revolution began to sweep through the sport in the early 2010s, shots on goal quickly became a key area of interest, with the aim of identifying the game’s most ruthless finishers firmly in mind. Some years after expected goals (xG) came expected goals on target (xGOT) — a metric that estimates the quality of on-target shots, taking into account factors such as the angle from which the shot was taken from, and its placement within the goal frame, to give an indication of how likely the subsequent effort was likely to find its way in. …”
“The 
“Timothy Weah sounded like someone who felt he had been ambushed. ‘It was all a surprise to me, honestly,’ the United States national-team player told reporters of 
“There was a theme in Xabi Alonso’s first post-match press conference as Real Madrid head coach: improvement will take time. After Madrid’s 1-1 draw with Al Hilal in their opening game in the Club World Cup, Alonso portrayed a calm figure who knew his side were still early in the process. … After a season when Madrid looked porous out of possession regardless of their defensive shape, one thing Alonso needs to improve is the team’s structure without the ball. Madrid’s 4-3-3 against Al Hilal morphed into a 4-4-2 when Alonso’s side were defending in a mid-block, with Jude Bellingham or Vinicius Junior slightly behind Gonzalo Garcia. …”
“… It was a passage of play that featured no-look passes, a backheeled volley, and a game of keep-ball that turned a Champions League match into ‘a kind of rondo’. Peter Bosz was furious. Furious with his own PSV players. … Back in January, PSV were facing a callow Liverpool side who were down to 10 men and trailing 3-2 in the closing minutes. Against the better judgment of Bosz, the PSV players had decided to showboat. … A couple of months later, in South America, Corinthians were beating Palmeiras 1-0 on aggregate in the second leg of the Sao Paulo state championship final. As the clock ran down, Memphis Depay stood with both feet on top of the ball. …”
“There may be two months to go until the 2025-26 Premier League season gets underway, but the release of the fixture list has whetted the appetite of fans across the division. Consisting of 38 rounds of matches over nine months, with each team playing their 19 rivals once at home and once away, the opening few games are often decisive in building momentum to set the tone for the campaign, or derailing it through diminishing confidence. These early matches alone will not define a season but they play a significant role in shaping its course, and naturally attract the attention on fixture-release day. …”
“Boca Juniors storm beaches. They plant their flags and wade through water. ‘The biggest popular movement on the planet’ is how they define themselves — and when they move, they move. They occupied Copacabana before the 2023 Copa Libertadores final against Fluminense. A sunburnt kid leant out of the crowd, his hair wet and eyes clear. His father had sold his motorbike so they could be there. The boy had also given up his PlayStation to pay for the journey to Rio de Janeiro. They didn’t have match tickets but they didn’t care because, as he said, ‘Look around you! Look at this! This is Boca! Come on, Boca!’ A club for the people, made great by their people. …”
“FIFA has spent over $50 million on marketing to promote this summer’s Club World Cup tournament in the United States, including increasing their original budget by millions in the past month as they sought to drive attendances for the tournament, according to multiple people briefed on their budget. The Club World Cup, a project driven by the organisation’s president Gianni Infantino, had been beset by organisational challenges as FIFA sought to make a splash for the first edition of the revamped 32-team tournament. In a statement released last week, FIFA said they ‘anticipate great attendances and electric atmospheres’ across the twelve venues and eleven cities hosting the competition. …”
“… Gianni Infantino threw his head back in laughter before smiling and nodding along, looking delighted by the United States president’s description of him. It was the same a couple of months earlier at the launch of a White House Task Force for the 2026 World Cup, when Donald Trump described the FIFA president as ‘my great friend’ and ‘sort of the king of soccer… I guess… in a certain way’. He is. Sort of. I guess. In a certain way. As the head of FIFA, football’s governing body, Infantino is the most powerful figure in the sport, able to make what sound like wild, off-the-cuff proposals — a 32-team Club World Cup, 
Scissors Kick 