European football is closed for winter. The stadiums are empty and the training pitches are dusted with snow. But in northern France, with a tactics board over his shoulder and red and blue counters plotting his next move, Lille head coach Paulo Fonseca is ready for the game to return.

And why not? Fonseca, 50, is in his second season at Lille (LOSC) and his side are playing some of the most watchable attacking football in Ligue 1. LOSC were fifth at the turn of the year, spent almost three months unbeaten, and have qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League. They have defeated Monaco. They held Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain.

This is the fourth country in which Fonseca has coached. After leaving Portugal in 2016, he restored Shakhtar Donetsk to the top of Ukrainian football, building a team admired across Europe, before then experiencing the crosswinds of life at Roma. One good season, one less so. After leaving Italy, he was ensnared by Tottenham’s chaotic coaching search during the summer of 2021. The following year, Fonseca, his wife, Katerina, and their young child fled Kyiv in the early hours of a February morning, escaping the Ukrainian capital as Russian bombing devastated the city.

Then in 2022, he arrived in Lille. They had won the Ligue 1…

UEFA has moved next year’s annual congress from Madrid to Paris in the ongoing the fallout of a scandal involving former Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales, who was also a vice president of UEFA.

At a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Cyprus on Tuesday the organisation confirmed the event schedule for February 8, 2024 would be moved from the Spanish capital to the French capital.

Rubiales resigned from his role as RFEF (Spanish FA) president earlier this month and had previously been suspended by FIFA. He has been replaced as a UEFA vice president by Armand Duka of Albania, an executive committee member.

The congress is moving away from Spain because the Spanish FA has no president and an interim general secretary.

Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips after Spain’s Women’s World Cup final win on August 20. Hermoso said the kiss was not consensual but Rubiales insists it was.

After three weeks of criticism and calls for his resignation, Rubiales confirmed that he would no longer continue in his position earlier this month.

Rubiales and the RFEF has come under fierce criticism around the world for their handling of the issue.

The 2024/25 UEFA Nations League group stage draw is also being moved from Madrid to Paris on the same day.

Last month, UEFA president…

The 2023 Champions League final will have the same team of on-field officials as the 2022 World Cup final after the UEFA Referees Committee announced their appointments for the fixture.

Szymon Marciniak, who received widespread praise for his officiating performance during December’s World Cup final between Argentina and France, has been named as the referee for June’s showpiece event between Manchester City and Inter Milan.

Just as he was in Qatar’s Lusail Stadium, the 42-year-old will again be assisted by Polish compatriots Pawel Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz.

Marciniak will be refereeing his first Champions League final, having served as fourth official during the 2018 final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

He also refereed the second leg of Manchester City’s semi-final victory over Real Madrid in this season’s competition.

Istvan Kovacs has been named as fourth official while Tomasz Kwiatowski will be on VAR duty.

The Europa League final between Roma and Sevilla will be overseen by an English officiating team. Anthony Taylor has been appointed as referee and he will be assisted by Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn. Michael Oliver will be fourth official while Stuart Attwell is on VAR.

Welsh referee Cheryl Foster will oversee the Women’s Champions League final between…

UEFA has no plans to enforce kit changes in Thursday’s Europa League games involving Arsenal and Manchester United, despite fresh calls from campaigners for governing bodies to do more to help people with colour blindness.

Arsenal’s red kit clashed with Sporting CP’s green attire during last week’s 2-2 draw, and the same colours proved problematic for some viewers in Manchester United’s 4-1 first-leg win over Real Betis.

The issue comes after some fans complained that Brentford’s 3-2 win over Fulham in the Premier League last week was almost “unwatchable” due to insufficient contrast between the home side’s red strip and Fulham’s mint green outfit. Aston Villa player Remi Allen described a recent kit clash during a Women’s Super League game with West Ham as “ridiculous”.

Green on red in the Sporting CP vs Arsenal Europa League game tonight is awful for colour blind viewers. That’s the most common form.

Spoke to @colourblindorg & @KieranMaguire about the impact, their experiences & what is & can be done to help. #UELhttps://t.co/WxFaHELfUj

— Matt Woosnam (@MattWoosie) March 9, 2023

UEFA regulations state that there must be “clear contrast between each team’s first-choice and second-choice outfield player attires, to the extent that they could be…

So now for the real test.

Jakub Jankto has done the brave bit, the part that no doubt seemed impossibly hard at times in his career.

He has told the world he is gay and not just any old world — the football one. You know, that progressive, open-minded sport that brought you a men’s World Cup in Qatar, a Saudi Arabian sponsor of the women’s World Cup, a ban on Germany turning the Allianz Arena rainbow and petty threats when a bunch of well-meaning but weak international teams tried to make history’s lamest political stand by wearing an armband that stood for nothing.

To come out amid that backdrop must have taken either real guts, an absolute need to do it for his own happiness or, probably, both.

Because despite the uplifting stories of Australian Josh Cavallo, Blackpool’s Jake Daniels and the many high-profile female players who are LGBTQ+, Jankto is a bigger test for a game that so often recently has you wondering if it is making progress or not when it comes to supporting minority groups.

pic.twitter.com/PZNSAteOch

— Jakub Jankto (@jakubjanktojr) February 13, 2023

Jankto, aged 27, plays for Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic, on loan from Getafe in Spain’s top division, meaning there will be thousands watching him each week. And that is suddenly a much bigger…