By David Owen
April 29 – FIFA will run up $250,000 in extra costs as a result of having to send samples from this summer’s World Cup across the Atlantic for analysis, the chairman of the body’s Medical Committee has acknowledged, as he set out plans for the most extensive anti-doping controls ever at international football’s flagship tournament.
April 25 – Sepp Blatter is downplaying security concerns at the World Cup despite more street protests in Rio de Janeiro and, earlier this month, a surge in violent crime in Salvador.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 23 – On his latest four-day inspection visit to Brazil’s World Cup host cities, an anxious FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has made it abundantly clear yet again that time is running out to complete the necessary construction work – not least at the Sao Paolo venue where the tournament begins.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 22 – Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organisers are reported to have agreed to radically scale back the number of stadiums being built for the tournament, possibly by up to one third.
April 20 – With the clock ticking towards kickoff, FIFA secretary-general Jérôme Valcke returns to Brazil next week to visit four World Cup host cities – São Paulo, Curitiba, Cuiabá and Fortaleza.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 16- Whatever problems organisers might be encountering getting Brazil ready for the World Cup ticket sales continue to soar.
April 16- Officials responsible for the stadium hosting the opening game of the World Cup concede there is still considerable work to do before the arena is ready.
April 14 – Sepp Blatter has apparently told Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff that the World Cup will be the most successful ever – even though three stadiums are still not ready.
April 10 – Stenden University Qatar (SUQ) is teaming up with Edinburgh Napier University for a two-year project titled ‘Leveraging the 2022 Qatar World Football Cup for the promotion of green and active living: A multiple stakeholder evaluation of strategic options’.
April 9 – Germany’s new Development Minister is the latest politician to call on FIFA to strip Qatar of hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, the first member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet to do so.
By Tom Parsons
April 8 – According to a new study from GlobalWebIndex, 90% of UK Twitter users will tune in to watch the World Cup in Brazil this summer.
By David Owen
April 8 – The Brazilian government has fired a numerical salvo in the direction of critics who continue to argue that hosting sporting mega-events such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup is not in the country’s best interests.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 4 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has stepped into the Uruguayan crisis by declaring the country will not be kicked out of the World Cup – even though the federation has now been suspended by Conmebol, the confederation that runs South American football.
By Mark Baber
April 3 – Official World Cup sponsor Coca-Cola has launched its 2014 World Cup marketing programme, titled ‘The World’s Cup’, which celebrates football as a force for good in the world.
April 3 – Referees at this summer’s World Cup look like getting tough on dangerous tackles more than other contentious issues like diving.