GIANNI INFANTINO

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton says Formula One is “duty bound” to raise awareness of human rights issues as the series closes its season in the Middle East.

The U.S. Soccer Federation says it has offered identical contract proposals to the players’ associations for the men’s and women’s national teams, and the governing body said it would refuse to agree to a deal in which World Cup prize money is not equalized.

FIFA detailed its plan for reshaping international soccer around playing the men’s World Cup every two years despite European opposition that could lead to a boycott. Joined by retired greats, FIFA unveiled the proposal Thursday but the pushback from Europe was immediate as UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin confirmed it could launch a boycott by its teams which have dominated soccer’s marquee event since Brazil won in 2002. About 80 former internationals including World Cup winners went to Qatar for two days of FIFA-hosted talks and emerged with consensus for playing the tournament twice as often.

The pitch intruders claimed to have very good reason to be confronting players only seven minutes into Brazil’s World Cup qualifier against Argentina.

Players on the U.S. women’s national soccer team urged a federal appeals court to reinstate their equal pay lawsuit, saying their greater success than the American men was not taken into account by a trial court judge who dismissed their case.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says the shock of Slovenia's 10-day war 30 years ago prepared him for the battle that nearly split European soccer last week.

Athletes who make political or social justice protests at the Tokyo Olympics have been promised legal support by a global union and an activist group in Germany.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has directly appealed to the owners of English clubs in the Super League project to change their minds out of respect for soccer fans.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says players at the 12 clubs setting up their own Super League could be banned from the European Championship and next year’s World Cup.

Human rights activists are denouncing FIFA President Gianni Infantino's starring turn in a promotional video for the Saudi Arabian government in which he claims the kingdom has made important changes. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)FIFA is unveiling a program to educate its member associations worldwide about how to properly handle player harassment and abuse. This is the objective of the FIFA Guardians Programme," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement. The FIFA program also addresses physical abuse and other forms of harassment. Cook said the FIFA Forward program obligates member federations to participate, although the organization may introduce more strident mandates.

Infantino overlooked FIFA's own significant issues with Saudi Arabia in the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That has not happened with beIN, which owns the rights to World Cup matches across the Middle East, outlawed in Saudi Arabia. FIFA did not say if Infantino challenged Prince Mohammed on human rights issues in Saudi, given the governing body's own code. Scrutiny over Infantino's links to Saudi Arabia in 2018 led to FIFA offering assurances that no nation would be allowed to fund its plans for new competitions. The takeover collapsed amid concerns about piracy and human rights complaints.

(Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool via AP)U.S. women's national team players and the U.S. Soccer Federation settled their long-running lawsuit over inequitable working conditions compared with the men's team while leaving their dispute over unequal pay for additional litigation. “We want the women’s team as well as their lawyers to see that we want to move in a different direction,” Parlow Cone said. "We remain as committed as ever to our work to achieve the equal pay that we legally deserve. Or else when I’m president, you can go elsewhere for World Cup funding,” referring to the 2026 men’s World Cup, set to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. FIFA scheduled the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada on artificial turf but the men's World Cup has been played exclusively on grass.

ZURICH – FIFA president Gianni Infantino has tested positive for COVID-19. Infantino has traveled little during the coronavirus pandemic, but he attended a signing ceremony at the White House last month to mark normalized relations for Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Infantino’s infection comes as Switzerland reports a spike in COVID-19 cases. Switzerland has reported 127,000 cases this year, with more than 23,000 since last Friday. ___More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

WASHINGTON The U.S. Justice Department has entered into a sports dispute involving the company of a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, warning FIFA that a prohibition against staging league matches internationally could violate American antitrust laws. The letter from the Justice Department was included in a filing by Relevent on Tuesday seeking permission to amend its complaint by adding FIFA, soccer's governing body, as a defendant. Relevent alleges the stakeholders committee on Feb. 27 recommended the policy against international league matches be added to FIFA's statutes. Relevent withdrew its state court suit and filed this latest action in federal court, citing antitrust law. Delrahim wrote the department is raising the concerns to protect competition for the benefit of American consumers and soccer players."

(CNN) - Iran's World Cup qualifier against Cambodia on Thursday will be a landmark moment for the country, as women will be able to officially enter a football stadium for the first time in decades. "This is a hugely historic moment for Iranian football, but also for the Iranian women who have protested in the face of [the risk of] being caught and almost certainly sent to Evin Prison, the famous prison for political prisoners in Tehran," football author and writer James Montague told CNN. While Thursday's game marks a step forward for Iranian women watching football matches, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the cap of 4,600 female fans "discriminatory, deceptive, and dangerous." "In line with our stance, we are working to ensure the safe access of women to tomorrow's FIFA World Cup qualifier between Iran and Cambodia. The Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) was not immediately available for comment.

Activists have fought for the rights of women to be able to enter soccer stadiums in Iran. ZRICH - The ban on women attending soccer matches in Iran is "unacceptable" and must be lifted, says FIFA president Gianni Infantino. CNN has reached out to the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) and Iranian government for comment. FIFA responded, saying it "refutes any suggestion it has been inactive in the fight for these women's rights in Iran. We are working with the Iranian Football Association in the hope and expectation that women will be in attendance at future games beginning with the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in October."

However, it also confirmed that amount will rise to $440 million for the next men's World Cup, in Qatar in 2022. Ahead of the Women's World Cup final in July, Infantino proposed doubling the total prize money to $60 million in 2023. It means that dozens more member associations can organize their women's soccer programs and funding, knowing they have a realistic chance of qualifying. The United States National Soccer Team Players Association, the labor organization for members of the men's national team, showed its dissatisfaction with the details of Cordeiro's letter. The pay dispute erupted in March, four months before the team went on to retain the FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

Immediately after the U.S. Women's National Team won the 2019 World Cup on Sunday, fans started calling for another victory: Giving the women equal pay. Equal pay!" As of Sunday, the U.S. women's team has won four World Cups more than any women's soccer team in the world. The prize pot for the women's team this year was $30 million compared to $400 million for last year's Men's World Cup. The women's team and U.S. Soccer tentatively agreed in June to mediate the lawsuit once the World Cup was over.