FIFA has extended the suspension of Marc Overmars from holding any position in Dutch football to a global ban.

The Instituut Sportrechtspraak (ISR) — the Netherlands’ disciplinary committee for sports federations — ruled in November that Overmars be banned from holding any position within a Dutch Football Association-affiliated organisation for a mandated period of two years, one of which is suspended.

Overmars, who had been director of football at Ajax, departed the Eredivisie club in February 2022 over a “series of inappropriate messages sent to several female colleagues”.

The 50-year-old is currently the technical director at Belgian side Royal Antwerp.

A spokesperson from world governing body FIFA confirmed to The Athletic that Overmars’ suspension had been extended globally. 

A statement read: “FIFA can confirm that following a request by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB), the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend the sanction imposed by KNVB on Mr Marc Overmars to have worldwide effect.”

Overmars, who had stints with Ajax, Arsenal, Barcelona and the Netherlands, previously issued an apology and expressed shame for his “”unacceptable” behaviour.

Ajax had noted that the messages occurred over an extended period.

During his…

The United States and Mexico have confirmed their joint-bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have also submitted a joint European bid to world football’s governing body FIFA, while Brazil lodged their offer a day before the December 8 deadline.

South Africa had been in the initial running, only to withdraw their interest last month to instead focus on the 2031 tournament.

The U.S hosted the tournament in 1999 and 2003, while Germany were the host nation in 2011.

The 2023 World Cup — hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and won by Spain — was the first women’s tournament to be held across two countries, but a competition across Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany would be the first hosted in three countries.

Brazil would make history if they were selected, with the Women’s World Cup having never previously been hosted in South America.

What happens next?

After officially confirming the bidders, FIFA will next organise on-site inspection visits to bidding countries in February.

The hosts are then expected to be appointed when the FIFA Congress meets on May 17, 2024.

The bids

U.S./Mexico

The United States and Mexico announced their bid on April 19 just before the kickoff of an international friendly between the U.S. men’s national team…

Marc Overmars has been suspended from football activities in the Netherlands for one year after sending inappropriate messages to female colleagues.

Overmars, who had been director of football at Ajax, departed the Dutch club in February last year over a “series of inappropriate messages sent to several female colleagues”.

The 50-year-old, who played for Ajax, Arsenal, Barcelona and the Netherlands during his playing career, apologised and said at the time that he was “ashamed” of his “unacceptable” behaviour.

Ajax had said the messages took place “over an extended period of time”.

The Instituut Sportrechtspraak (ISR) — the Dutch disciplinary committee for sports federations — confirmed to The Athletic it had ruled that Overmars be banned from holding any position within a Dutch Football Association-affiliated organisation for a mandated period of two years, one of which is suspended.

Overmars was later appointed sporting director of Antwerp in March 2022. The Athletic has contacted the Belgian club for comment.

At present, the ban does not affect his job in Belgium but the ISR said that the suspension could be submitted to world football governing body FIFA for review.

The Athletic has approached FIFA for comment.

In his playing career, Overmars enjoyed a…

Molly Bartrip has not spoken to a psychologist or counsellor in three months. It is the first time in 10 years she has gone that long without it.

The Tottenham Hotspur Women defender (and captain while Beth England recovers from a hip operation) was diagnosed with anorexia at 14, the same age at which she had first been called up by England to join their under-15s squad.

It was only when she was hospitalised, her liver function failing and facing the prospect of being tube-fed, that she realised the need to start fighting.

By her late teens, she had recovered but, when she was 21, her mental health started to dip again. She was a professional footballer by now, playing for Reading, but struggling to get out of bed. She felt drained. Sad.

Why? She didn’t know.

Later diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, Bartrip spiralled. She was self-harming. She could not see the point of living. At one point, she decided to end it all by driving into the central reservation of the M25. Something stopped her. A voice in her head was telling her not to do it. To just get home.

“It took a long time to get back to accepting that I actually wanted to be alive,” Bartrip says. “It was about my self-worth. My mentality at the time was, ‘Would I affect anybody (if I wasn’t here)?’….

Netherlands forward Lineth Beerensteyn has taken aim at the eliminated USWNT, saying the two-times reigning champions had a “really big mouth” ahead of the Women’s World Cup.

The Dutch drew 1-1 with the U.S. to finish ahead ahead of them in Group E during the first stage of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

The Americans were then eliminated by Sweden in the last 16 after a dramatic penalty shootout — the first time in history they had gone out before the tournament semi-finals.

Beerensteyn, who scored in a last-16 win over South Africa that booked a quarter-final date with Spain, said: “The first moment when I heard that they were out, I was just thinking, ‘Yes,’ because from the start of this tournament they have already a really big mouth, they were talking already about the final and stuff.

“I was just thinking, you first have to show it on the pitch before you’re talking. And I’m not being rude in that way. I have still a lot of respect for them. But now they are out of the tournament.”

Beerensteyn was part of the Netherlands side beaten by the U.S. 2-0 in the final four years ago.

“For me, yeah, it’s a relief and for them, it’s a thing that they have to take with them in the future,” the Juventus striker added. “Don’t start to…

The Women’s World Cup quarter-finals on Friday and Saturday feature four genuinely exciting fixtures between sides who seem very well matched. The four games all have a very different tactical feel, too. Here’s a guide to the main questions for each side.

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The Netherlands v Spain

Andries Jonker has broadly used the same system throughout this tournament, always with three defenders and attack-minded wing-backs. The precise shape has changed, though — sometimes Lieke Martens has played between the lines to form a box midfield, and on other occasions she’s seemed like a second striker. There is an intelligence and an understated flexibility about this Dutch approach.

GO DEEPER

Lieke Martens: My game in my words

Their big problem is the absence of Danielle van de Donk through suspension. Her fellow Lyon midfielder Damaris Egurrola, a more defensive option, will probably come into the side and change the shape, sitting deep alongside Jackie Groenen as the Netherlands spend longer without the ball than they’ve been accustomed to in this tournament. The speed of Martens and, in particular, Lineth Beerensteyn, will provide their main threat.

Jorge Vilda, meanwhile, sprang several surprises for Spain’s 5-1 win over Switzerland, including changing his goalkeeper and leaving out…

Four years ago, the United States and Thailand were the very last teams to begin their Women’s World Cup campaigns. As defending champions, the USWNT were eager to lay down a marker, a warning sign to their competitors that they didn’t intend to relinquish their crown without a fight.

And, with a historic 13-0 drubbing of their opponents, that’s exactly what they accomplished.

In eight editions of the Women’s World Cup from 1991 to 2019, we have seen some very lopsided results. As the tournament field has expanded, debutant countries have had to endure some growing pains before finding their footing. 

The highest margin of victory in the 2011 World Cup was only four goals. The reason for such close competition may be that the 2011 tournament was the fourth straight edition with a field of 16 teams. As the 2023 World Cup expands the field from 24 to 32 teams, we may yet see a few more historic results, such as the Netherlands beating Vietnam 7-0 to beat the USWNT to the top of Group E.

Here are the 10 biggest margins of victory ever seen at the Women’s World Cup, with all but two of these results taking place during the group stage…

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Netherlands 7-0 Vietnam on August 1, 2023

Rising star Esmee Brugts scored two sublime long-range strikes as the Netherlands rediscovered…

Wednesday’s contest between the United States women’s national team and the Netherlands set a record as the most-watched Women’s World Cup group-stage match in U.S. history, Fox Sports announced Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:

• The game drew 6.43 million viewers on Fox, surpassing the previous record (USWNT versus Chile in 2019) by over a million viewers.
• The matchup also brought in 1.165 million viewers on Telemundo, per media reporter Douglas Pucci.
• The two sides played to a 1-1 draw in the Group E clash — a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final — after a second-half equalizer by U.S. captain Lindsey Horan.

#USWNT draws BIG TIME numbers on FOX@FOXSports‘ broadcast of @USWNT‘s 2nd @FIFAWWC Group Stage match delivered 6.43 million viewers – making it the most-watched #FIFAWWC Group Stage match in U.S. English language TV history pic.twitter.com/UjnQLEqqhZ

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) July 27, 2023

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Why did this game set a viewership record?

Everything pointed to a great viewership number last night. The game aired in prime time (9 p.m. ET kickoff); the competition was limited (it’s a slow time of year in sports); there is significant interest in this team historically; and the match itself had…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup gets under way in Australia and New Zealand on July 20, with the U.S. hoping to navigate an expanded 32-team tournament to become the first country to win football’s biggest prize three times in a row.

They are the favourites, but will the four-time winners actually pull off the ‘three-peat’? What of England, European champions but decimated by injuries to key players as they attempt to win the tournament for the first time? Will Germany bounce back from losing the final of the Euros to lift the game’s biggest prize?

How will the likes of France, Spain and Canada perform after their preparations have been disrupted by disputes with their federations over the past few months?

And can we expect any surprises from any of the eight countries — Haiti, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia — making their World Cup debuts?

Our expert writers give their verdicts on what they think will happen over the next five weeks.

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Flo Lloyd-Hughes, women’s football reporter

Winner: Germany. This is a very open tournament and there are four or five teams that have a good chance of winning the title. Germany are often the masters of their own downfall, but given their disappointment at the Euros last summer and their…

Let’s start with a few fun facts. 

Asisat Oshoala has been African women’s footballer of the year five times. She has won the Africa Cup of Nations three times. She has two Golden Boots and two Golden Balls at international tournaments: two each at AFCON and the Under-20 World Cup. 

She was the top scorer in Spain in 2021-22 and last season, notched a personal-best 21 goals for Barcelona — accompanied by three assists, which was comfortably more than her team-mates.

In 2019, she became the first African woman to score in a Champions League final. Two years later she became the first African woman to win a Champions League title. A year after that, she became the first African woman to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or. 

We could go on. There will certainly be better players at this World Cup, but there won’t be many as exciting to watch, or indeed many with a more interesting career story, than Oshoala. 

Born in Ikorodu, a coastal city about an hour’s drive from the Nigerian capital Lagos, Oshoala wasn’t exactly encouraged to pursue her sporting dreams as a child. Her parents would frequently not give her any food if she disobeyed them and went to play football, considering it a waste of time. They wanted her to become a lawyer instead. 

But when she was…