FIFA looks set to revise plans to introduce three-team groups for the 2026 World Cup, world football chief Gianni Infantino said on Friday.

Argentina fans staged a second day of demonstrations Friday outside a Doha hotel demanding that their country’s national federation help them to get tickets for the World Cup final.

Several France players have caught colds, the French Football Federation said, as they prepare for the World Cup final against Argentina, with Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konate the latest to fall ill on Friday.

As if he had not made enough fairy-tales, Argentina’s little genius Lionel Messi has saved the potentially most magical script for his last World Cup - with one line left to write.

Following morale-shattering defeats in their semifinals of the World Cup, Croatia and Morocco have the unenviable job of picking themselves up and getting prepared for the third-place decider on Saturday.

As Lionel Messi dreams of getting his hands on a maiden World Cup trophy in Qatar, his fans struggle to get theirs on jerseys of the Argentina team as sportswear giant Adidas grapples with a global shortage of stock due to the extraordinary demand.

In Rosario, the Argentine city where Lionel Messi grew up, hope and excitement are rising that their hometown star can guide the country to a first soccer World Cup since 1986, repeating a trick by one Diego Maradona 36 years ago.

Former Argentina international Gabriel Batistuta said he was happy to see Lionel Messi overtake him as the country's top scorer at the World Cup in Qatar, where the South Americans are preparing to fight for the title against France on Sunday.

I must say that I did never much hold to the World Cup’s third-place decider.

Lionel Messi's former club-mate Ousmane Dembele has warned that there would be no emotional mercy shown to the Argentina legend when Les Bleus take on Albiceleste in the World Cup final on Sunday.

No coach has ever won the World Cup twice in the post-World War II era and France’s Didier Deschamps is one victory away from entering the record books when they take on Argentina in the final on Sunday in Qatar.

The following is a look at Argentina captain Lionel Messi's career by the numbers:

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, on Friday, hailed the Qatar World Cup as the best one ever.

The stage is set. The greatest show on earth is nearing its end and the protagonists are all but ready for the climax as Lionel Messi prepares for his last chance at footballing immortality with Argentina against a formidable France,

FIFA looks set to revise plans to introduce three-team groups for the 2026 World Cup, world football chief Gianni Infantino said on Friday.

Morocco may have seen their dreams of a maiden World Cup final crushed at the hands of defending champions France, but coach Walid Regragui is happy to have guided his side to the stage, which was beyond the wildest imagination of the most fervent supporters before the tournament.

France’s Antoine Griezmann proved once again that he is the ultimate team player with another virtuoso performance to help guide his team to a second consecutive World Cup final on Wednesday with their 2-0 win over Morocco.

The world has long run out of superlatives to describe Lionel Messi in a new light. “Don’t describe him, just watch him,” one of Messi’s mentors Pep Guardiola had said.

Morocco’s exciting run to a first-ever World Cup semi-final will inject a new energy in African football and hold out hope for the continent’s teams when they return in larger numbers in four years’ time.

When Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi broke the 100m dollar mark in annual earnings for the first time, both of them were in their 30s. In comparison, Kylian Mbappe broke that threshold at 23 and is about to be anointed as the richest-earning footballer of all time, according to Forbes.