The Black Ferns and the Red Roses will participate in a ground-breaking head impact study using instrumented mouthguards to inform and advance injury-prevention initiatives in women’s rugby. The world’s top two ranked teams will wear Prevent Biometrics’ market-leading instrumented mouthguards during the matches between the two teams on 31 October and 7 November and during training sessions. The devices contain an impact monitor data acquisition system that collects and transmits count, load, location, direction, linear and rotational motion every time there is a collision between players or pl ..read more

World Rugby has published the ranking permutations for the Autumn Nations Series and Rugby Europe matches this weekend. Permutation highlights: New Zealand will return to number one if they beat Wales in Cardiff, regaining the position they lost after defeat to South Africa on 2 October Wales cannot fall from ninth place if they suffer a 32nd consecutive loss to New Zealand Wales will climb two places to seventh if they end a 68-year wait for victory over New Zealand, above a victorious Scotland and Argentina A draw would be enough to lift Wales one place, two if Scotland also draw with ..read more

Hosts England to play Austria in opening match at Old Trafford on 6 July 2022, while kick-off times and venues for all 31 tournament matches have been confirmed. A star-studded draw at the Victoria Warehouse in Greater Manchester, featuring live performances by British pop-sensations Ellie Goulding and Ella Henderson and several Women’s EURO legends and current male star players drawing the teams in four groups, produced an exciting set of fixtures for UEFA Women’s EURO 2022. UEFA Women’s EURO 20222 group stage Group A: England, Austria, Norway, Northern Ireland Group B: Germany, Denmark, Spai ..read more

World Rugby has revealed that six legends of the game in Osea Kolinisau (Fiji), Humphrey Kayange (Kenya), Huriana Manuel-Carpenter (New Zealand), Cheryl McAfee (Australia), Will Carling (England) and Jim Telfer (Scotland) will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2021. The World Rugby Hall of Fame presented by Tudor recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to the game of rugby throughout their careers, demonstrating rugby’s character-building values of integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect on and off the field. The six inductees excel within two t ..read more

As football governance enters a critical phase, FIFPRO and European Leagues have announced a manifesto to embed collective governance standards and agreements throughout the professional game. Download the manifesto here: <fifpro-and-european-leagues-manifesto-on-governance-for-european-football.pdf> At the FIFPRO Policy Forum 2021 in Brussels the representatives of player unions and leagues last night (Tuesday) signed the document to open the way for fair and balanced outcomes in which all stakeholders have proportional influence in decision-making. The next few years will have a major ..read more

The CAF Disciplinary Board met to deliberate on a number of matters. Below is the summary of CAF Disciplinary Board decisions: 1. Incidents CAF CC 2020-2021 match – SALITAS FC (Burkina Faso) vs Bouenguidi Sports (Gabon): The Disciplinary Board dealt with a matter of mistaken identity on this fixture on a case of assault. After watching the video in the presence of the referees, it was clearly identified that the aggressor on second assistant referee was Vianney Roby N’na Ango and not Djoe Dayann Boussougou.   CAF Disciplinary board has decided: ·      &n ..read more

Players at all levels of rugby will be able to wear tights or leggings for matches after the World Rugby Executive Committee approved an amendment to the laws of the game with immediate effect. Currently permissible for women, Law 4 will be extended to all participants with immediate effect, enabling the wearing of tights or leggings that meet criteria outlined under the law. Read the Regulation here >> The announcement has been made on welfare and accessibility grounds and reflects the growing worldwide use of World Rugby Regulation 22 compliant artificial surfaces at both the elite and ..read more

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) (www.FIFA.com) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) are launching the Sport for Mental Health and Social Cohesion (SMHSC) programme. Through the SMHSC programme, AFD, FIFA and GIZ are joining forces to tackle the negative social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in selected countries in Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda), Asia (Indonesia, Pakistan, India), Lat ..read more

UEFA has announced that its member associations interested in hosting UEFA EURO 2028 have until March 2022 to declare their interest, with the appointment of the host(s) set to take place in September 2023 UEFA EURO 2028 is set to take place over 51 matches and feature 24 teams, as has been the case for the previous two tournaments. Joint bids are permitted, provided that the bidding countries are geographically compact. Interested parties will need to provide 10 stadiums, with the following capacities: • Minimum of 1 stadium with at least 60,000 net seating capacity • Minimum of 1 stadium, pr ..read more

The 2022 Series will include 10 men’s and seven women’s rounds over six months; series to kick-off with a pair of combined men’s and women’s events in Dubai; three new hosts as Malaga and Seville in Spain, and Toulouse in France welcome teams; unique system introduced to mitigate the risk of some teams not being able to participate in all events and to determine Series rankings and decide relegation in 2022; Rugby sevens continues to grow following highly successful Olympics in Tokyo which generated more than 22 million video views and over 100 million social media impressions; exciting year a ..read more