History and Background
Since the Confederations Cup began in 1992, Mexico have only missed out on three occasions — making them joint leaders in participation alongside Brazil with seven appearances. They hosted the tournament in 1999 and ended up winning it, beating their arch-rivals the United States in the semifinals and then Brazil in the final.
FIFA is up to some nonsense this week. Like, even more nonsense than usual.
The two men overseeing FIFA's ethics committee investigations and sanctions have been let go, as well as all but two ethics committee members.
Per The Guardian:
FIFA have made it known they plan on including more women in leadership roles and championing the women's game around the world.
This is how they are doing that:
Just asked Mahfuza Kiron who women's world champs are. 1st she said NKorea. I clarifiedworld, she said Japan then mumbled USA. 1/2
— Mani Djazmi (@BBC_Mani) May 8, 2017
Lionel Messi's four-match ban for allegedly insulting a referee has been overturned by FIFA. Messi sat out one match, a 2-0 loss to Bolivia in La Paz, before the FIFA appeals committee made its ruling.
This is good news for Argentina, for whom qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is still up in the air. La Albiceleste sitting fifth, in the play-off spot, one point behind Chile and Uruguay and two points ahead of Ecuador. They cannot afford any slip-ups, which are much more plentiful when Lionel Messi is not in the lineup.
Richard Lai, president of The Guam Football Association since 2001, pled guilty yesterday to two counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. His plea marks the first time that the U.S. investigation into FIFA corruption has indicted an official from outside the Americas. Although Guam is a U.S. Territory, the country competes with others in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Year-long speculation over whether CONCACAF’s bid for the 2026 World Cup, which will almost certainly be awarded to the region, would become a joint bid by the United States, Mexico and Canada has officially been confirmed today.
In the face of constant derision from both fans and club teams with regards to international friendlies, UEFA proposed the adaptation of a UEFA Nations League to replace friendlies. Essentially, instead of playing one-off exhibition matches, all 55 European nations would be divided into four groups, much like a club league system, using prior results to determine which nations would begin in which groups.
The Bureau of the FIFA Council unveiled their proposal for the allocation of confederation slots for the 48-team 2026 World Cup today, and the recommendation will almost certainly be ratified by the FIFA Council on May 9th in Bahrain.
Here is the slot allocation as compared to the 32-team format:
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has handed Lionel Messi a suspension of four games for his altercation with an assistant referee following Argentina’s 1-0 victory over Chile on Thursday. The ban goes into effect immediately, ruling Messi out of Argentina’s match against Bolivia in La Paz later today.