July 9 – He was only a stand-in but he has already stepped down. Fernando Hierro, forced at the 11th hour into leading Spain at the World Cup, has given up the post and will not return to his former role as sporting director.
July 9 – He may be 40 and have retired from international football but Gianluigi Buffon is about to enter a new phase of his stellar career.
July 6 – Clubs who reach the knockout stages of the Champions League and Europa League and other elite competitions will be allowed to make a fourth substitution if the match goes into extra time from next season.
July 4 – Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande, on a training visit to Europe, have joined Austria’s FK Austria Wien who are currently in pre-season preparations at their new Generali Arena.
June 28 – Premier League Liverpool have added a new international academy initiative in Asia via a partnership with PNH Soccer Academy in Hong Kong.
June 27 – Internazionale have launched their first Inter Academy project in Australia in Brisbane in partnership with Fullshare Holdings and Sparrow Early Learning, as the Club’s Official Education Partner.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 26 – You win some, you lose some and it’s all about interpretation. That seems to be the upshot so far of VAR’s introduction at the World Cup that reached new levels of confusion on Monday evening and continues to throw up more questions than answers.
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 David Owen
June 19 – After his breathtaking virtuoso performance against Spain in Sochi, Cristiano Ronaldo may well be pondering the possibility of a second consecutive World Cup hat-trick when Portugal take on Morocco on Wednesday at the Luzhniki.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 18 – Somehow Germany always manage to get the job done. Not this time. In the biggest shock so far at the World Cup, the defending champions lost their opening game for only the second time in their history after Mexico pulled off an historic 1-0 win in Moscow – their first ever win over the Germans.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 17 – A freekick that will be talked about for years to come followed, 24 hours later, by a penalty miss that was equally, in its own way, memorable if only for the context involved.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 15 – FIFA’s top refereeing watchdogs are urging the public not to expect miracles from the Video Assistant Referees (VAR) system that is making its World Cup debut in Russia. But director of refereeing Massimo Busacca nevertheless insists the system will be a help rather than a hindrance despite lingering doubts about whether VAR has been implemented too quickly in FIFA’s flagship event because of confusing rulings and long delays.
June 6 – Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos, whose arm wrestle on Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah put the Egyptian striker out of the Champions League final, has hit back at widespread criticism of his action and says Salah could have played on instead of leaving the field in tears.
June 6 – When European clubs complain about their highly paid players being stretched to the limit by too much international competition, they often receive scant sympathy.
June 6 – Italian giant Internazionale have opened three new academies, one in Slovakia and two more in China taking the number of Inter Academies in the world’s largest country to six.