By David Owen
June 23 – South American teams have excelled in the second round of World Cup group matches, taking over from CONCACAF as the competition’s most successful region. While this could be interpreted as an example of making home advantage count, host-nation Brazil, held to a goalless draw by Mexico, were ironically the only South American side not to win their second match at the tournament.
June 23 – Cost control of World Cup stadium build and accusations of corruption is not an issue confined to Brazil. Russia’s state Audit Chamber has found that the design work for its 2018 stadia has been over-priced by as much as 3 billion rubles ($88 million).
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 22 – Costa Rica’s football federation has sent a letter to FIFA demanding an explanation for why so many of its players were required to take dope tests following their stunning victory over Italy that qualified them for the last 16 of the World Cup for only the second time in their history.
By David Owen
June 21 – FIFA has set out detailed arrangements for payment of the $750,000 bonus promised earlier this month by its President Joseph Blatter to all 209 member associations.
June 22 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers have unveiled the name and design for another of its proposed World Cup stadia – a 60,000-capacity venue in Al Khor which is scheduled to stage a semi-final and is due to be completed in 2018.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 21 – FIFA’s monitoring of World Cup warm-up matches revealed no apparent instances of match-fixing according to head of security Ralf Mutschke (pictured). Several friendlies before the 2010 World Cup were later found to have been rigged leading FIFA to take a close look at dozens of similar games in the build-up to Brazil.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 21 – The Lodz Municipal authorities have awarded the contract to build a new stadium for Widzew Lodz to Polish construction company PRM Mosty Lodz. The project is worth PLN 120 million (€29 million) and is scheduled to be completed within 28 months.
By Mark Baber
June 20- Media stories about employees taking time off work because of the World Cup, which began with stories in the Chinese media of fake sick notes being sold to Chinese fans, were eagerly picked up by Western media for their interest value have now returned home with evidence the UK economy will be taking a hit from yesterday’s England-Uruguay game.
By Mark Baber
June 20- Despite there being no immediate claim of responsibility, Boko Haram militants are almost certainly behind Wednesday’s bombing in northern Nigeria which targeted football fans watching Brazil playing Mexico, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens including men, women and children.
By Mark Baber
June 20- Swansea City has agreed a two-year extension with Hong Kong-based Goldenway Global Group as the club’s main sponsor. The deal means Goldenway’s GWFX brand logo will remain on player shirts, following the success of the initial one year partnership.
June 20 – Castrol Activ has avoided the scramble for TV audiences and switched from a traditional TV-based marketing campaign to focus their world cup promotion on ‘second screen’ technology. The World Cup sponsor is running a digital and social media campaign in collaboration with digital marketing agency FoxyMoron called ‘Castrol Activ Cling On To Football’.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 20 – FIFA and World Cup organisers have promised there will be no repeat of the security breach that saw dozens of ticketless Chilean fans detained after smashing their way into the Maracana stadium media centre ahead of their team’s 2-0 win over Spain that knocked out the defending champions.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 20 – Two ticket touts have been arrested after infiltrating one of the official FIFA hotels in Rio de Janeiro, FIFA marketing director Thierry Weil revealed at a news briefing today. FIFA called police to the Sofitel hotel near the famous Copacabana beach and “the reaction was immediate,” Weil said.
By David Owen
June 19 – Anyone with an eye for such things might have noticed, as much-fancied Belgium laboured to get the better of Algeria in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, that the kit worn by world football’s other Red Devils bore an unfamiliar logo.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – After promising that the World Cup would be the most culturally inclusive to date and send a positive message around the world, FIFA have been hit with a number of racism reports involving fans from up to four of the finalists.