Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Japan and Qatar's participation in the Copa America may have raised eyebrows in some quarters but the two Asian nations have already proved they didn't turn up in Brazil just to make up the numbers. Qatar began their Group B campaign by fighting back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 […]

Salvador (Brazil) (AFP) – Alexis Sanchez put a miserable club season with Manchester United behind him as he sent Chile into the Copa America quarter-finals with the winning goal in Friday's 2-1 win over Ecuador. Jose Fuenzalida gave Chile an eighth-minute lead but Enner Valencia equalized for Ecuador from the spot. Sanchez bagged the winner […]

Cairo (AFP) – Powerful Senegal will launch their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations campaign against Tanzania in Cairo Sunday without Liverpool star Sadio Mane, but coach Aliou Cisse is unconcerned. The 27-year-old forward is serving a one-match ban after being yellow-carded twice during qualifying for the biennial showcase of African football. "His absence should not […]

Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (AFP) – Venezuela's players are hoping to give their long-suffering countrymen a rare taste of "joy" when they play Bolivia knowing that victory would qualify them for the Copa America quarter-finals. Venezuela made history in this competition following Tuesday's 2-2 draw with Brazil by becoming the first team ever to start the […]

Cairo (AFP) – Mohamed Salah's Egypt started their bid for a record-extending eighth Africa Cup of Nations trophy on Friday with a 1-0 win over Zimbabwe in Cairo in the opening game of a tournament expanded to 24 teams and played in June and July for the first time. Liverpool star Salah, on a redemption […]

Sao Paulo (AFP) – Qatar's 2022 World Cup organizing committee chief Hassan Al Thawadi insisted on Friday that the Gulf nation has nothing to worry about in relation to a French corruption investigation. Former European football president Michel Platini was questioned by French anti-corruption investigators for several hours on Wednesday in relation to the 2010 […]

Los Angeles (AFP) – The United States Soccer Federation and the country's women's national team are set to enter mediation after the World Cup to settle a discrimination lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Citing people familiar with the negotations, the Journal reported that both sides had reached tentative agreement for mediation aimed […]

Cairo (AFP) – A vast security operation greeted tens of thousands of largely red-clad supporters in Cairo ahead of Friday's opening match in the Africa Cup of Nations, with the tournament kicking off against a backdrop of terror attacks and only days after the death of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. According to local media, […]

Berlin (AFP) – As FIFA on Friday toned down their controversial new rule over retaken penalties at the women's World Cup, Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg weighed in saying that the rule was "stupid". Football's international law-making body IFAB introduced the new rule ahead of the World Cup, stating that goalkeepers had to have one foot […]

London (AFP) – With the women's World Cup entering the knockout rounds, football's international authorities have decided not to apply a new rule that could have led to a succession of red cards for goalkeepers in penalty shootouts. Three times in France, goalkeepers have been shown yellow cards for coming off their lines under a […]

Paris (AFP) – The real competition is only just beginning as the women's World Cup heads into the knockout phase with hosts France and holders the United States — the two favourites — on a collision course to meet in the quarter-finals. Progress through the group phase has been largely serene for both sides, although […]

Berlin (AFP) – Just half a year after she was appointed, new Germany coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is aiming to do what she never managed to do as a player and win the Women's World Cup. The 51-year-old made 125 appearances for her country in her playing career, retiring in 2000 before Germany's World Cup wins […]

Paris (AFP) – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has put pressure on Iran in an attempt to ensure that the country will allow female football fans to attend matches in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, according to a letter sent to the Iranian Football Federation and seen by AFP. In the letter dated June […]

Le Havre (France) (AFP) – Carli Lloyd says that everyone is gunning for the United States after they moved into the knockout stages of the Women's World Cup as Group F winner with a 2-0 win over Sweden on Thursday. Jill Ellis's side broke a 24-year-old record for the number of goals scored in the […]

London (AFP) – Petr Cech will return to Chelsea in an advisory role after retiring from his duties as a goalkeeper last month, aged 37. Cech will perform an intermediary role between the club's new manager and director Marina Granovskaia, which had been left vacant since Michael Emenalo quit as technical director nearly two years […]