Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany has hinted that his international career would be over after the forthcoming World Cup 2018 in Russia.

The Belgium international has battled regular injury concerns in recent years.

In the last two years Kompany has played just 25 games in the Premier League. He returned to the team to help Pep Guardiola’s men finish strongly. While he is hoping to play in Russia next year, he said it could be his “last season with Belgium.”

Kompany said the tournament was “always a big motivation” when he was down but that he might not be able to go beyond it. He says it was important that he returned to the team as they were doubts.

The Citizens’ skipper said he was not afraid of the impact of the injuries else he “would have already stopped his career.” He says for now he wants to be reintegrated into the national team so he has spoken with Coach Roberto Martinez. Continue reading “KOMPANY TO RETIRE AFTER WORLD CUP 2018” →

Even as FIFA struggles to get sponsors for its event following the corruption scandal that has rocked the body, Qatar Airways has announced a partnership with FIFA.

The national career of the Middle Eastern nation agreed a deal with FIFA to be the official airline for the next five years.

The multimillion dollar deal will see the airline’s brand on upcoming football related events around the world including the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The total value of the deal was kept under wraps but is seems to be a mutually beneficial one.

FIFA said the deal was “one of the biggest sporting sponsorships in the world and the largest in the history of Qatar Airways. With the way the statement from the world regulatory body was worded, the deal would likely be worth hundreds of millions of dollar as the deals with Coca cola, Hyundai and Adidas. Continue reading “QATAR AIRWAYS BECOMES FIFA OFFICIAL AIRLINE” →

The FIFA World Cup has traditionally been one of the most viewed sporting events in the world. According to FIFA, the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup which was played between Argentina and Germany had over 1 billion people watching the match.

It’s because of this high amount of viewership that sponsors from all over the world are usually working hard to make their brand appear in either the commercials or the banner space in stadiums as this has been an effective way to promote their respective products.

Things however, have taken a turn for the worse as the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup has struggled trying to attract a high amount of sponsors as they have historically been able to do. Continue reading “Sponsors aren’t as motivated anymore for the 2018 FIFA World Cup” →

Argentina has sacked their coach Edgardo Bauza after their poor performance in the World Cup qualification so far. Indeed the Argentina national team is currently fifth in the South American group table.

The Argentina football federation has stated that they have reached an agreement with the coach and that both parties have agreed to cancel the contract. He believes that this will be in the best interest of the national team.

Pressure has been mounting on Bauza ever since Argentina lost an important game against Bolivia who is considered among the weakest team in the confederation.

The search is already on for Argentina as they will need to find a new coach before their important game against Brazil which is schedule in June. There are various names that have been rumored such as Diego Simeone, but the latter has denied being contacted for the Argentina job. Continue reading “Argentina sack coach” →

US national team coach Bruce Arena says that he will be cautious with his players ahead of the upcoming World Cup 2018 qualifying games for the national team.

The US national team comes into the games against Honduras and Panama hoping for a major improvement in form. Since arena was appointed as the national team coach in November 22, he has been able to get the solitary victory over Jamaica in 2 matches. It is a disappointing run for the former LA Galaxy manager, who succeeded Klinsmann after the German failed to impress with recent results.

There is cause for concern ahead of the games against Honduras and Panama, as the US national team is suffering from injuries to key players. It is likely that players like Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and Geoff Cameron will be unavailable due to injuries. Continue reading “Bruce Arena Ready to Adopt Careful Approach for World Cup 2018 Qualification” →

The 2018 edition of the FIFA World Cup is 1 year and 4 months away from kicking off but before this date even arrives, there are a number of things that have to be settled and completed.

One of the most important things is the condition of the stadiums.

When the previous 2014 FIFA World Cup was edging nearer and nearer, there were stadium deadlines that weren’t met as Brazil was having a variety of issues. There were a number of workers that actually died when renovating a stadium while others were complaining about the extended work hours and minimal pay that they were receiving when working in completing a stadium as soon as possible.

All of these were just a few of the problems that emerged during the previous 2014 FIFA World Cup when Brazil was hosting the event. Continue reading “FIFA is about to make it’s 5th operational tour of stadiums” →

Russian authorities have indicated that the budget for the organization of the 2018 World Cup has increased by $325 million.

This comes as a surprise as the authorities previously announced that they would be looking for ways to cut down on expenses related to the organization of the World Cup.

The total expenditures on the organization of the World Cup now amount to $10.8bn and will all be coming out of government spending.

It was previously believed that the Russian authorities were looking for ways to cut down on their expenses. They said that they will reduce the number of premium hotels and that they will also be looking to save money on various infrastructures.

However, it now appears that the government has agreed to the injection of some $325 million in the organization of the new World Cup. There have been no clarification on where the money will be spent.

It is believed that the money will be spent on the construction or uplifting of Russian stadiums to host the World Cup games. Indeed the Russian venues are quite old and are often in a desolate state. Continue reading “Russia to increase budget” →

January is the month football world will know what FIFA’s plans are for future World Cups.

Current President Gianni Ifantino rode to the hot seat on the back of numerous promises to the 211 member nations; one of which was to increase the number of World Cup participants from 32 to 40.

For whatever reason, the Italian proposed an outright increase to 48 in October last year. As expected, many groups are calling for his head promising to do anything possible to take the president away from his fantasy dream with the Rummenigge-led European Clubs Association being at the forefront.

Well incase they’ve forgotten, decisions like this – just like the American Presidential polls – are never based on popularity votes, instead, delegates run the show and that’s where opposing factions will do well to focus. Even at that, Infatino’s closer proximity with these decision makers only serve to make the rope more twisted.

At the risk of it not sounding as though the whole world is against – because they’re not – citizens of low ranked countries will obviously endorse the president’s proposal and should any of the delegates hail from there he or she is most likely going to go with the background voice of his or her country man. Continue reading “INFANTINO’S DICEY BONE” →