By Paul Nicholson
June 25 – Saudi Arabia has responded, somewhat derisorily, to the dispute over the piracy of Russia 2018 World Cup matches, saying it has seized 12,000 beoutQ satellite decoders in the country which have been transmitting stolen sports content.
By David Owen
June 25 – Puma have taken over at the top of the table, but the story of the second round of group matches in Insideworldfootball’s World Cup Battle of Brands was a strong fightback by Nike teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – FIFA has begun disciplinary proceedings against two Swiss players over their highly sensitive goalscoring celebrations that infuriated Serbia during last week’s clash between the sides.
June 25 – Chinese fans snapped up over more than 40,000 tickets for the World Cup in Russia via FIFA’s ticketing platform, but not all has been neighbourly love in Russia as a number have fallen victims Chinese of a counterfeit black-market ticket scam.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – Sepp Blatter’s brief World Cup sojourn may be over but that didn’t stop the former FIFA president leaving his mark on the tournament in a series of interviews that showed that he has lost none of his appetite for arguing his case and defending his legacy.
June 25 – Serbia have launched an official complaint about alleged bias by German referee Felix Brych in last Friday’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Switzerland which seriously damaged their hopes of advancing.
June 25 – FIFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against two German team officials for gloating towards the Swedish bench after the defending world champions’ last-gasp Group F victory on Saturday.
By Paul Nicholson
June 22 – UEFA has added its voice to the fast-growing lobby of broadcasters and sports rights owners lining up against pirate Saudi Arabian sports channel beoutQ that has so far stolen feeds for every game of the Russia 2018 World Cup and rebroadcast to a middle east and north African footprint via the Arabsat satellite.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 22 – Gianni Infantino may have emerged unscathed from the corruption scandal that brought FIFA to its knees before he took over as president, but that has not prevented continuing scrutiny of the way he is running the organisation.
June 22 – FIFA have categorically denied claims that American referee Mark Geiger asked for Cristiano Ronaldo’s shirt during Wednesday’s match between Portugal and Morocco.
June 22 – Germany’s Bundesliga has again reported attendance figures that make it the most highly attended league in world football. The numbers for the 2017/18 season are the second highest in the league’s history.
June 22 – A meeting between FIFA and Ghanaian officials, scheduled for today and aimed at restructuring the national FA after it was dissolved in the wake of the Kwesi Nyantakyi scandal, has been postponed indefinitely.
June 21 – FIFA have been taken to task by the international players’ union FIFPro for allowing Morocco to field Nordin Amrabat against Portugal on Wednesday too soon after the player suffered concussion.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 21 – As Morocco continues to digest being crushed in its bid to stage the 2026 World Cup (as well being the unluckiest team at the World Cup), Gianni Infantino has given the biggest hint yet that he supported the winning north American bid.
June 21 -As debate continues to rage over the inconsistent use of VAR at the World Cup, Brazil have confirmed that FIFA have rejected its complaints about key decisions (or rather non-decisions) made during the 1-1 draw with Switzerland last Sunday,