As Gregg Berhalter reached the airport on Wednesday, a day after a 10-hour interview in an undisclosed location with U.S. Soccer leadership, he got a call from sporting director Matt Crocker.

“You’re the guy,” Crocker told him.

The decision sealed a months-long process and worldwide search in which Crocker evaluated more than 10 candidates for the U.S. men’s national team coaching job and eventually narrowed the process down to a few finalists. Ultimately he landed on Berhalter, who had led the U.S. through its previous World Cup cycle, but had also navigated off-field issues since the team returned from Qatar, most notably an independent investigation into a physical abuse incident 30 years prior involving he and his now-wife, Rosalind Berhalter, when the two were freshmen at the University of North Carolina. 

In March, the independent investigation cleared Berhalter to work for the federation again, but there was no guarantee he would get that opportunity. After the long interview on Tuesday and a follow-up with Crocker and Cindy Parlow Cone on Wednesday morning, Berhalter headed to the airport to go home. 

Then Crocker called.

“It was a great feeling,” Berhalter said Friday in the press conference announcing his return as manager. “You can imagine what the last…

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…

The France Football Federation (FFF) have confirmed the appointment of Herve Renard as the new head coach of the women’s national team until August 2024. 

The Athletic reported last week that Renard, who has left his role as manager of the Saudi Arabia men’s team, was set to take over from Corinne Diacre, who was sacked as head coach earlier this month after a significant divide between herself and the France players became evident.

In a statement, the FFF said: “Following the extraordinary Executive Committee meeting this Thursday afternoon, the French Football Federation is pleased to announce the appointment of Herve Renard as coach of the French Women’s Team until August 2024.

“The new coach will lead Les Bleues for the 2023 FIFA World Cup which will take place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20 and for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games from July 25 to August 10.”

Renard will be presented at a press conference this Friday where he will reveal his first squad for France’s upcoming fixtures against Columbia and Canada next month. 

The Saudi Arabian FA (SAFF) confirmed on Wednesday that Renard had left his role with the Gulf state to take up the vacancy with France Women’s national team. 

The 54-year-old has never managed a women’s side,…

The 2026 World Cup will include 48 teams, split into 12 groups of four nations. Gianni Infantino has been re-elected unopposed as president of FIFA, world football’s governing body. Visit Saudi’s sponsorship of this summer’s women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has quietly been dropped.

There’s a lot of change in football at the moment, and this week on The Athletic Football Podcast, Mark Chapman hosts a special doubleheader looking at the future of the game.

In Part One, Matt Slater, Laura Williamson and Adam Crafton assess the state of international football. Might a 48-team men’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico actually make sense?

To listen to the full podcast, search for The Athletic Football Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen.

Part Two is out on Wednesday and will look at the battle for superiority at the top of club football.

Mark Chapman: You know the famous saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? It’s not necessarily a philosophy that FIFA buys into. The World Cup is changing beyond all recognition, just months after we had “the best World Cup ever”. Why?

Adam Crafton: I went to Suriname before the World Cup, and Suriname are a very, very small football nation. They’ve never been to a World…

Christian Pulisic has described the controversy between Gregg Berhalter and the Reyna family as “childish” and believes the former USMNT coach is “extremely unfortunate” to not still be in charge.

Berhalter is still in contention to continue in the role following the conclusion of an independent investigation commissioned by U.S. Soccer into a domestic violence incident between him and his now wife in 1992.

The investigation also revealed that former captain Claudio Reyna had a “pattern or periodic outreach” to officials in regards to “U.S. Soccer’s treatment of his children, including primarily his son, USMNT player Gio Reyna.”

That outreach included complaints about refereeing in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, travel accommodations and Reyna’s role at the World Cup.

Pulisic, who was key player as the US reached the last 16 in Qatar, believes Berhalter is unlucky not to still be in post.

“I’m not here to appoint the next manager — it’s not my job — and whoever it is I’m going to play and give it 100 per cent,” Pulisic told ESPN.

“Everything that happened with Gregg, first of all, has been handled in an extremely childish manner. I think we’ve seen what’s been going on. I think it’s childish, it’s youth soccer, people complaining…

Several trade unions operating in Qatar have highlighted worsening conditions for migrant workers after the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup.

That tournament, which took place between November and December last year, was already controversial for its treatment of migrant workers, as well as the criminalisation of homosexuality and the restriction of women’s rights.

Their call for attention comes on the eve of the FIFA Congress in Rwanda. FIFA has already agreed to discuss World Cup human rights abuses and migrant worker deaths during the congress, at the request of the Norwegian Football Federation.

During the World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced plans for a permanent International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Qatar’s capital, Doha, but said western calls for a compensation fund for the families of workers who had died were unnecessary.

Led by the Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), alongside seven other unions, the Global Union Federations have now expressed “serious concerts over the sustainability” of these labour reforms.

They claim that “reports reveal continuous breaches of the new labour legislation by rogue employers,” while also adding there has been “a sudden halt of meaningful cooperation” with the unions.

There is also…

The independent investigation into former U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter was released Monday and confirmed details of an incident in 1992 in which Berhalter pushed down and kicked his then-girlfriend, now-wife Rosalind Berhalter in the legs when the two were freshmen at the University of North Carolina.

According to the investigation, the details of the incident track with what Gregg and Rosalind Berhalter said both in a public statement and in interviews with investigators, and were confirmed by witnesses who were informed about the incident in the days after that fight occurred 31 years ago.

The law firm that conducted the investigation, Alston & Bird, concluded that its analysis “leads us to conclude that the fact of the 1992 Incident does not prevent an employer from employing Mr. Berhalter.” According to the investigation, given that it occurred 31 years ago and no evidence contradicting witness accounts or suggesting similar conduct since, “there is no basis to conclude that employing Mr. Berhalter would create legal risks for an organization.”

The investigation, which can be read in full here, also showed that former U.S. World Cup captain Claudio Reyna had a “pattern of periodic outreach” to U.S. Soccer officials over a six-year period from…

FIFA and the Football Association have been in talks to avoid a fallout over the ‘One Love’ captains armband and say that a solution will be found before the Women’s World Cup this summer.

During the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, Harry Kane and the captains of nine other countries initially agreed to wear the rainbow-coloured armband, which was designed to promote diversity and inclusion.

But FIFA eventually banned nations from wearing them at the showpiece tournament and warned countries they could face sanctions that, according to the governing body’s rulebook, included automatic yellow cards.

FIFA launched their own armband initiative instead, asking captains to wear a different armband on each match day, promoting various social messages.

Gianni Infantino, speaking at the AGM of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on Saturday, said FIFA had learned lessons and confirmed a “solution” would be in place ahead of the Women’s World Cup.

He said of the armbands: “We have the laws of the game and competition regulations that have been approved in the past. We all went through a learning process.

“What we will try to do better this time is to search for a dialogue with everyone involved, the captains, the federations, the players, FIFA from…