By Paul Nicholson
June 15 – It would not be a major football tournament these days if it wasn’t being stolen for television by a Saudi-based broadcaster. The country that doesn’t allow women in its stadiums is nevertheless taking the women’s World Cup so seriously that it is allowing the piracy of every game from France 2019 on the beoutQ channels.
By Samindra Kunti in Rio de Janeiro
June 17 – Brazil kicked off the Copa America with a subdued 3-0 win against Bolivia. High tickets prices led to many empty seats during the opening weekend which saw Argentina’s misery continue with a 2-0 defeat by Colombia and Asian champions Qatar battle back to draw 2-2 with Paraguay.
June 16 – Mexican fans started the party at Gold Cup. A crowd of 65,536 poured itself out of the Futbol Fiesta in the grounds surrounding the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to watch a 7-goal fiesta in the stadium as an impressive Mexican dismantled Cuba.
Mexico 7 Cuba 0
By Paul Nicholson at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena
June 15 – Mexico opened their 2019 Gold Cup campaign with a bang, scoring after just two minutes against Cuba before going on to thump in six more goals to demonstrate why they are tournament favourites. They will have much harder games than this but even so it was a message emphatically delivered.
Canada 4 Martinique 0
By Paul Nicholson at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena
June 15 – Four goals from a rampant Canada opened the 2019 Gold Cup in style at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The Canadians issued an early warning that talk of them being contenders for the title is not misplaced. Group and tournament favourites Mexico will have taken note.
June 15 – The waiting is over. For the first time in 14 appearances in the Gold Cup, Costa Rica play a match on home soil when they meet Nicaragua at Estadio Nacional in both teams’ Group B opener Sunday.
June 14 – It may, to Costa Rican fans, be just a taster for the eagerly awaited second part of a double header featuring the joint hosts but to Haiti and Bermuda, Sunday’s opening Gold Cup fixture in San Jose will means absolutely everything when the pair open Group B and go head to head for the first time since 1992.
June 14 – Mexico vs Cuba on paper looks like it should be only going one way. After all, Cuba can’t even get all their players into the US – Yordan Santa Cruz is still waiting for a visa that is unlikely to arrive in time – and their tournament kit hadn’t arrived either prior to their press conference Friday evening.
June 14 – The opening game of the Gold Cup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena will see one giant land mass in North America confront a tiny island in the Caribbean. But it is unlikely to be a David vs Goliath encounter.
June 14 – Zvonimir Boban, Gianni Infantino’s personal adviser and a member of the FIFA president’s closely guarded inner circle, has quit after just two years to return to AC Milan as the club’s chief football officer.
By Paul Nicholson at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena
June 14 – The expanded 16-team Gold Cup kicks off Saturday at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, the start of a 31 match, 17 venue voyage around the US – with stop offs in Costa Rica and Jamaica – for Concacaf’s best national teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 14 – Amaju Pinnick, the most senior official in African football behind under-fire supremo Ahmad Ahmad, has blasted Nigerian authorities for attempting to push him out of office, insisting he will stand his ground and not give in to “sociopaths”.
June 14 – The CEO of Italy’s Serie A has issued a powerful endorsement of beIN Sports in its battle against the copyright theft of Saudi Arabian-based BeoutQ that has been stealing the Qatari broadcasters’ live broadcasts and retransmitting on its own networks.
By Samindra Kunti in Rio de Janeiro
June 14 – Brazil and Bolivia will kick off the Copa America tonight in a tournament that anyone could win but which has failed to generate much interest in the host nation so far.
June 14 – UEFA has officially unveiled its new Over The Top (OTT) streaming platform – UEFA.tv – a bespoke platform built for the governing body that will be a mix of archive content and current UEFA competitions.