FIFA

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been handed a further six years and eight months ban from the game and fined a million Swiss francs ($1.07 million) by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.

The latest investigation looked into World Cup bonus payments made to Blatter and some former top FIFA officials, including former general secretary Jerome Valcke, former vice-president Julio Grondona and ex-finance director Markus Kattner.

The new bans start when the current suspensions of 85-year-old Blatter and Valcke, 60, end in October 2021 and October 2025, respectively.

Following international criticism of the dress code rules for women at the beach volleyball tournament in Doha, the organizers have now withdrawn the originally planned restrictions on women's workwear. Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) has "confirmed that there will be no restrictions on female players wearing standard uniforms during the event in Doha if they so wish" according to a spokeswoman for the world federation

Since the awarding of the 2022 World Cup ten years ago, over 6500 guest workers have died in the host country Qatar. This is the result of an evaluation by the "Guardian", which was published on Tuesday.

According to the report, the information about the deaths comes from inquiries to the governments of the countries of origin; the victims come mainly from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

According to the newspaper, the actual death rate is probably considerably higher: The figures presented do not include workers from the Philippines and Kenya, which also make up a large number of the guest workers in Qatar, according to the Guardian. Cases from the last months of 2020 are also not included.

The Bayern Munich completed a sextuple of titles in the 2019-2020 season with a 1:0 win against Tigres, from Mexico. Benjamin Pavard scored the solo goal for the German side.

The other silverware for Bayern were the UEFA Champions League, the European Supercup, the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Supercup.

Mohamed El Shenaway saved two penalties in the shootout as Al Ahly edged Palmeiras 3-2 to finish third at the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 after 90 minutes had ended with the score 0-0.

As FIFA prepares to turn the competition into a 24 team format to be contested in China next year, human rights supporters point out that not enough is being done to prevent the abuse of workers in this year's host country, Qatar.

FC Bayern faces Tigres UANL at this Thursday's final, and is also facing criticism, having gone as far as banning a fan for a critical banner display.

Rumours about a breakaway Super League received an official remark from FIFA today, stating that any players competing in such competition would be barred from FIFA and its affiliated competitions.

Poland and FC Bayern München striker Lewandowski was named The Best FIFA Men's Player for the first time in his career.

Likewise, defender Lucy Bronze is also a maiden recipient of The Best FIFA Women's Player Award after rounding off an impeccable spell with Olympique Lyonnais in style before returning to England to play for Manchester City WFC. 12).

Jurgen Klopp was declared the winner after a close race with Hans-Dieter Flick (FC Bayern München), with the outcome, decided on voting by the national team coaches.

Stephanie Frappart from France is the first woman to whistle the Men's Champions League. The 36-year-old whistled 3-0 in the match between Juventus and Dinamo Kiev and received much praise for her unagitated and assertive performance.

According to the new FIFA regulations, professional female soccer players worldwide should be able to take paid maternity leave. For at least 14 weeks, two-thirds of the salary will be paid, and discrimination based on pregnancy will be prohibited. Also, clubs will be obliged to reintegrate the players after their return and to provide medical support. Now the FIFA Council still has to approve the new regulations.

A tweet from the Egyptian FA said that testing results showed "our international player and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah to be infected with coronavirus ... despite not having any symptoms."

Photographs and videos of Salah - in some of the images, without a face mask to protect against the virus - dancing among dozens of people at his brother's wedding, held earlier this week in Cairo, have gone viral on the social media over the past days.

Salah's positive test result comes ahead of Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match on Saturday against Togo.

Swiss special prosecutor Stefan Keller opened a criminal case against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over meetings with former attorney general Michael Lauber. The prosecutors have found indications of criminal conduct related to the meetings between the two men.

Lauber offered his resignation after it was found that the prosecutor had tried to hide a meeting with the FIFA head while his office was investigating FIFA-related corruption.

Infantino released a statement insisting that meeting Lauber is "perfectly legitimate and it’s perfectly legal."

FIFA also said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.

The IFAB Board of Directors has extended the option allowing up to five substitutions during matches to competitions scheduled to be completed by July 31, 2021, and to international tournaments scheduled in July/August 2021. The option was initially approved on May 8 as a direct response to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on soccer calendar and competitions.

FIFA stated, "The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment remains at the discretion of each competition organizer."

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be held in Australia and New Zealand, with 32 teams. The decision was announced on Thursday after a vote taken by the FIFA Council during its meeting held via online conference.

The joint bid from Australia and New Zealand had 22 votes against 13 votes to the submission from Colombia.

The German Football Association (DFB) decided it will not apply any sanctions against Achraf Hakimi, Jadon Sancho (both from Borussia Dortmund), Weston McKennie (FC Schalke 04) and Marcus Thuram (Borussia Mönchengladbach) after their protests in solidarity with George Floyd.

“Naturally, the DFB Control Committee always has the FIFA Football Regulations and DFB Regulations in mind. In this specific case, however, these are targeted anti-racism actions by the players, who are thus standing up for values which the DFB also stands for and always advocates. Therefore, no process will be initiated, even not in the case of comparable anti-racism actions in the coming weeks.“ stated Dr Rainer Koch, vice-president of the association.

IFAB has approved a FIFA's proposal of a temporary change to soccer rules, allowing up to five substitutions during matches. This proposal is valid for all competitions scheduled to be completed by 31 December 2020.

The press release from IFAB states: "The temporary amendment comes into force with immediate effect, and has been made as matches may be played in a condensed period in different weather conditions, both of which could have impacts on player welfare. The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment will remain at the discretion of each individual competition organiser, while The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further (e.g. for competitions due to be completed in 2021)."