Team doctors rule as FIFA medics knockout FIFpro temporary sub idea

Alvaro Pereira concussion

By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 26 – FIFA medical experts have admitted they are powerless to intervene in cases of concussion if national team doctors decide players are fit enough to continue after taking knocks to the head. The controversial issue has re-emerged at the World Cup after Uruguay’s Alvaro Pereira (pictured) was allowed to continue playing against England after being briefly knocked unconscious in the game between the two sides last week.

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Media tracker charts skew towards English language nations

Screen Shot 2014-06-25 at 12.45.15

June 25 – Media tracker Moreover Technologies has come up with a number of data sets around how the media worldwide is covering the World Cup and what is trending in terms of stories. While doubtless Luis Suarez’s bite night last night will be the current most covered story globally (stats still to be released), the data throws up interesting information on what is capturing the world’s imagination.

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Belo blues revisited as English bow out with a whimper

US vs England 1950

By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 25 – Prince Harry wasn’t the only VIP attending England’s final game of the World Cup in Brazil’s third largest city. Just when England fans thought it could not get any worse, the match took place in the very city where England’s much-lauded team were humiliated by a bunch of amateurs from the United States all of 64 years ago.

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Minnows spring surprise in World Cup Battle of the Brands

Nike vs adidas

By David Owen
June 24 – The exploits of Costa Rica and Belgium have helped smaller combatants in Brazil 2014’s Battle of the Brands to steal a march on their Big Three rivals. The perfect records compiled by the Red Devils and their Central American counterparts after two rounds of matches have provided four of the five wins recorded by teams not sporting Adidas, Nike or Puma shirts.

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South American teams surge to the fore in Brazil

Brazil world cup

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.

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Costa Ricans protest over multiple player blood tests

Costa Rican players

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.

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FIFA stay on match-fixing alert as group games reach closing stages

Ralf Mutschke

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.

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Castol Activ gets social in India with ‘second screen’ focus

Castrol ad

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’.

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World Cup TV viewing data in Africa shows strong youth demand

Africans watch World Cup

June 19 – World Cup TV viewing data in the African continent is showing pan-regional interest in the World Cup and in African teams in particular. GeoPoll has released data on viewing figures in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda showing large proportions of national populations are tuning in, skewed strongly towards young adult males.

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