Inside World Football - Page 1509 of 2018 - For the Business of Football

David Owen: The French and German football teams have got more similar. Will the nations follow?

Considering they have a common 450km-long border and have together been the beating heart of the European project for nearly 60 years, France and Germany are remarkably dissimilar.

Not so their football teams, which clash in Rio on Friday in what promises to be a fascinating World Cup quarter-final.

Take the goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris and Manuel Neuer don’t exactly look alike; but they are very proactive exponents of their craft, among the quickest to sprint off their lines to snuff out trouble.

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Day 21: Match preview stats. BRA v COL, FRA v GER

July 3 – Quarter-finals kick off Frday with two match-ups that feature the battle of the giants from South America and Europe. Hosts Brazil face increasingly favourited Colombia, while France and Germany square off in what could be an old-school Euro classic.

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Escobar campaign builds as streetworldfootball adds its own tribute

Andres Escobar campaign

July 3 – This week’s 20th anniversary of the death of former Colombian defender Andres Escobar continues to capture the imagination.

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CAS dismisses Thai appeal against Makudi re-election

Worawi Makudi4

By Mark Baber
July 3 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by Virach Chanpanich against the decision taken on 17 October 2013 by the Football Association of Thailand to elect the controversial Worawi Makudi as its President.

Africa

Nigeria’s Oliseh defends African players who have bigger commitments to fulfil

Sunday Oliseh

By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – One of Africa’s best-known footballing figures has defended the reputation of the Continent’s players at the World Cup, insisting they were not simply motivated by greed.

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Fourth change proposal as ‘impact’ subs become the main men in Brazil

Subs

By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – Following the unprecedented impact of substitutes at the World Cup, football’s lawmakers will be asked to consider a proposal that teams be allowed to use a fourth sub during extra time.

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Scala, Sulser and Mussenden to sit on FIFA presidential election committee

FIFA signage

By David Owen
July 3 – FIFA has set up a three-man electoral committee to supervise the process of what may yet be a bitter and divisive presidential election.

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FIFA steps into Cameroon match-fixing row and asks to see Perumal claims

Wilson Raj Perumal

By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – FIFA has asked the German news magazine Der Spiegel to come up with the evidence of its conversation with convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal amid the ongoing confusion over whether Cameroon’s players deliberately rigged their games at the World Cup.

Mihir Bose

Mihir Bose: What does this South American World Cup teach us?

The Uruguayan polemicist and football fanatic Eduardo Galeano once wrote: “Tell me how you play, and I will tell you who you are.”

So now as the World Cup, in the country made for football and made by football, draws to a close it is worth asking what this World Cup has told us about football and about us. That such a question can be raised about what is essentially 22 men in shorts kicking a ball around shows us how football is seen in Latin America.

Lee Wellings

Lee Wellings: Africa’s wait continues

At this rate will an African nation win the World Cup by the end of THIS century?

Pele regularly demonstrates why he was an infinitely better footballer than pundit, but his famous line that an African team would triumph by the year 2000 is quoted more than any of his other theories.

Watching the exciting Cameroon and Nigeria in the 1990s raised hopes that defensive frailties may one day be improved upon,

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Exclusive: The Costa Rican World Cup windfall that stretches from Norway to Ohio

world cup players

By David Owen
July 2 – Clubs as diverse as Aalesunds FK, Columbus Crew and Deportivo Saprissa are set to receive bigger-than-expected World Cup windfalls, as a consequence of Costa Rica’s improbable run to the quarter-finals of Brazil 2014.

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Nike and Adidas face off as 2014 Battle of the Brands reaches the quarters

sumos

By David Owen
July 2 – It’s neck and neck in the Battle of the Brands as the World Cup takes a pause before moving on to the quarter-final matches. Sportswear heavyweights Nike and Adidas each supplies the kit for three of the eight Brazil 2014 survivors. Puma, however, has faded from the picture, after none of its eight teams progressed beyond the Last 16 stage.

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Escobar celebrated as Colombia prepare for Brazil showdown

Escobar mural

By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – Twenty years after the darkest episode in their country’s footballing history, a Twitter campaign has been launched to mark today’s anniversary of the death of Andres Escobar, the Colombian defender tragically gunned down for scoring an own goal in a World Cup group match against the United States.

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Blatter calls for GLT for all major competitions as UEFA rethinks position

GLT

July 2 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter says UEFA will be tempted to perform a u-turn and introduce goal-line technology for the 2016 European Championship finals even though UEFA boss Michel Platini has long stated his objection to the innovation and prefers his system of two additional referee’s assistants.

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Barca publicly pave the way for Suarez to exit Liverpool for Spain

Andoni Zubizarreta

By Andrew Warshaw
July 2 – Barcelona have seemingly upped the stakes in their bid to sign shamed Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez with Barca’s sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta (pictuded) praising Suarez for his public apology for his bite on Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup,