FIFA have released the latest FIFA rankings with Belgium still holding strong at the summit ahead of World Cup Winners France. The rankings see little changes in the top three spots as Brazil still retains the third spot. One major change is with World Cup semi-finalists England moving a spot into fourth ahead of losing World Cup finalists Croatia.
A feasibility study is usually done by FIFA when it considers the bids that different countries place for hosting the World Cup. In this study for Qatar, the hosting nation for World Cup 2022, it was found that, of the five countries that surround Qatar, three of them would not play co-hosts. These are Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. These countries need to be ruled out as co-hosts. This leaves only Kuwait and Oman with whom Qatar can share the matches. However, these countries might not want to participate in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are antagonized by their actions. After all, they are bigger brothers to these nations and they are all part of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
It is no news to every one of us that FIFA president Gianni Infantino is a big fan of the idea of a 48-team World Cup tournament.
It has been noted that there is a widespread support for the increasing amount of teams in the World cup 2022. The numbers will b increased to 48 as said by the president Gianni Infantino. This World Cup will be held in Qatar. Yet the final decision is not given. It is expected to be decided till March after they complete a survey was said by Gianni Infantino. He has also said that they’re open to the World Cup being conducted for 48 teams across the world. The tournament will have to be extended but the decision will have a great impact and they will face issues related to logistics and politics.
After participating in what is called a crucial global meeting in Moscow on Afghanistan, which aims at launching the peace talks post decades of war, the Taliban has expressed positive remarks that the negotiations in Russia is positive result oriented. In the meeting total 12 countries participated and the members of the Afghan High Council, the fellow delegation of the Taliban political office in Qatar also participated and after the meeting they all agreed to be better equipped the country to host the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
In the World Cup win that Serbia had over Costa Rica, Branislav Ivanovic became one of the most capped players. He is also known to be one of the greatest defenders of Chelsea. Branislav currently plays for Zenit in St Petersburg and his recent 104th appearance has been greatly applauded. This appearance for the national side, however, has eclipsed player, Dejan Stankovic.
Atlético Madrid has given the shirt No.9 to the fresh arrival of the team Nikola Kalinic. The Croatian takes over the squad number that Fernando Torres left after his move to Sagan Tosu of Japan in the last month.
German football players have turned on Arsenal playmaker MesutOzilin the post-game analysis following the 1-0 loss to Mexico, as per reports. There were many repercussions for the defending champions as they crashed against their Mexicans. German newspapers lambasted the players for the poor performance and the players had to convene for a crisis talk.
Following the superb campaign of Germany in the 2014 World Cup, some players have been suffering from physical problems and injuries which is the case of Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger as the midfielder has not been able to perform for his club in this season and has not played for Germany in any of their Euro 2016 qualifying matches. Schweinsteiger is not expected to play neither for his club or his country in this year due to the injury.
Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil is another key figure who has sustained an injury and is expected to be out of action for around 3 months.
Injuries is a factor that has started to affect the German more and more as key figures are sustaining physical problems and according to the head coach of the German national football team, Joachim Low believes that his squad are playing too much club football and this is affecting the performances of his players when performing at the international scene.
“The load on players is too high. The high demands on teams in national leagues and of course the Champions League and it’s too much. If you look at the players, they need more of a break. Some players only get as little as three weeks after a major tournament and its straight back to the grind. Many of the players who are with us now, if you analyze their situation they have too short a break before they are reintegrated into their clubs in pre-season. It’s simply not enough. Maybe it doesn’t make a difference over one particular season but it certainly does over several.’’ Germany’s Joachim Low said as he was trying to explain one of the reasons on why his squad has been performing so underwhelming recently.
Per Mertesacker and Miroslav Klose are some of the other German players that have recently been affected with injuries.
The Colombian former manager of Honduras Luis Suarez decided to resign from his position of coaching the Honduran national football team after his team was knocked out of the FIFA 2014 World Cup in the group stages where they failed on securing a single point. Cameroon, Australia and Honduras were the 3 teams that had to exit the tournament without picking up a victory or a draw.
Honduras was pitted with France, Ecuador and lastly Switzerland with all of those matches ending in a defeat and in an eventual elimination from the World Cup.
The head coach of Honduras during that tournament was Luis Suarez after their disappointing campaign; he decided to step down and resign from his position with Hernan Medford being appointed as the next manager.
Hernan Medford signed a 1 year contract with the Honduran Football Federation which will see him being in charge of the national team during the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
However, before the start of the CONCACAF Gold Cup there is another challenge that awaits Hernan Medford which will be the Central American Cup which is going to be held in the United States and this competition serves as a Gold Cup qualifier which means that Medford has to pick up positive results in order for his team to be able to even qualify and get into the CONCACAF Gold Cup which is the one of the biggest championship’s in that region.
“I have to meet with my technical staff to determine where we are going to work with 22 or 23 players who will be called up and which ones we will be on the final list for the Central American Cup,” said Medford.