Southampton, Tonda Eckert and the Football Association
Friday

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert is expected to face an FA misconduct hearing in mid-September over his role in the club’s spying scandal. Southampton were already removed from last season’s Championship play-offs and handed a four-point deduction for 2026-27.

The FA investigation is examining who participated in the spying and who knew about it. A lengthy sanction against Eckert could force Southampton to reconsider his position despite owner Dragan Solak previously saying the 33-year-old deserves another chance.

English football, IFAB and match officials
Friday

English football will adopt a wide package of new laws for 2026-27 designed to reduce deliberate delays and increase playing time. Changes cover throw-ins, goal-kicks, substitutions, injury stoppages, goalkeeper treatment and several expanded areas of VAR intervention.

Players taking too long over restarts can lose possession, substitutes may be delayed from entering and teams can temporarily lose an outfielder when goalkeepers require treatment. VAR can also review second yellow cards that directly produce a sending-off.

New Zealand Football, Gianni Infantino and FIFA
Friday

New Zealand Football has formally withdrawn support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino and called for an independent review into the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal. The decision puts New Zealand at odds with the wider Oceania Football Confederation’s more supportive stance.

New Zealand joins several European associations opposing Infantino while OFC stopped short of withdrawing backing and praised FIFA’s development work in Oceania. The split further fragments the voting landscape ahead of FIFA’s next presidential election in March.

Zinedine Zidane, Fabien Barthez and David Bettoni
Thursday

France coach Zinedine Zidane has appointed former international team-mate Fabien Barthez as goalkeeper coach and David Bettoni as his assistant. The appointments complete key parts of Zidane’s backroom staff after he took the national-team job on a four-year contract.

Barthez won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 alongside Zidane, while Bettoni previously assisted him at Real Madrid during three consecutive Champions League triumphs. Their first Nations League fixtures come away to Turkey and Belgium in September.

England Under-20 Women, the Football Association and Lydia Bedford
Thursday

England’s Under-20 women have been told by the Football Association to continue preparing normally for September’s World Cup despite UEFA’s unresolved threat to boycott FIFA competitions. Coach Lydia Bedford says the squad remains focused on training and selection.

Six European teams are due to compete in Poland from 5 to 27 September, and none has formally withdrawn. England are proceeding as planned while football authorities continue debating whether the wider governance dispute with FIFA should affect the tournament.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Vincent Joseph
Thursday

Arsenal and Liverpool are heading to a tribunal after failing to agree compensation for 16-year-old Vincent Joseph. The teenager rejected a Liverpool scholarship and joined Arsenal despite interest from Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Liverpool and Arsenal held compensation talks after Joseph’s departure but could not reach common ground. A tribunal will now determine the development fee owed to Liverpool, escalating a youth-transfer dispute between the two Premier League rivals.

Anthony Taylor and the Turkish Football Federation
Thursday

Anthony Taylor has ended his English refereeing career after 20 years and moved into a new role as director of elite refereeing for the Turkish Football Federation. The 47-year-old cited sustained scrutiny, pressure and the accumulated physical and mental demands.

Taylor officiated 668 matches in England and 163 internationals, including every major English domestic final. He said abuse and the sacrifices made by his family contributed to his decision, alongside a desire to finish refereeing on his own terms.

Premier League clubs and shirt sponsors
Thursday

Premier League clubs are entering the new season without gambling companies on the front of shirts after voluntarily banning the category. Eight clubs needed replacement sponsors this summer, while Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Chelsea still lacked front-of-shirt deals in the report.

The ban is pushing clubs toward technology, finance, insurance, tourism and recruitment brands, although gambling companies can still appear elsewhere on apparel. The shift particularly affects clubs outside the traditional Big Six, which previously relied heavily on betting-sector sponsorship revenue.

Gianni Infantino, the FAI, IFA and six Arab football federations
Thursday

The Football Association of Ireland has formally withdrawn its support for Gianni Infantino, while Northern Ireland’s IFA backed UEFA’s stance. Separately, Qatar, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan and Mauritania issued a joint statement supporting the FIFA president.

The opposing declarations underline how Infantino’s election support is fragmenting after FIFA’s abandoned private-investment proposal. Ireland joins England and Wales in withdrawing backing, while the six Arab federations give Infantino an important bloc of support ahead of March’s election.

La Liga and Spain’s technical refereeing committee
Thursday

Spanish referees will use new measures against deliberate time-wasting, including delayed substitutions for players taking too long to leave and temporary exclusion procedures for suspected fake injuries. Goalkeeper time-wasting can also force an outfield team-mate off temporarily.

Officials can start a ten-second countdown when deliberate delaying is identified and apply the new sanctions after that point. Spain has separately rejected an optional rule that could punish players for covering their mouths while speaking to opponents.