By Samindra Kunti in St Petersburg
June 17 – Iranian women, who have been banned from attending football in the Islamic state since 1980, have protested at Iran’s World Cup opening game against Morocco, seizing the exposure the world’s biggest sporting event, the World Cup, offers.
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 Paul Nicholson
June 18 – The controversial on-off sale of Italy’s Serie A TV rights have taken a new technology turn with Perform’s streaming service DAZN picking up a package of 114 matches a season in a three-year deal.
By David Owen
June 16 – Iran ended eight years of Asian hurt at the World Cup finals in St Petersburg on Friday, cashing in on Aziz Bouhaddouz’s stoppage time own goal to record a hard-fought 1-0 win over Morocco.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 15 – They’re back. And before they’ve even kicked a ball, everyone has fallen in love with them – again. Two years after making the quarterfinal at Euro 2016, guess what were Icelandic head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson’s first words at his media conference on the eve of the country’s World Cup debut against mighty Argentina.
June 15 – On the day Portugal opened their World Cup campaign in Russia against Spain, their superstar player Cristiano Ronaldo has accepted a suspended prison sentence to settle his tax fraud case, and agreed to pay £16.4 million to the Spanish tax authorities.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 15 – Palestinian football has suffered a second off-the-field blow in a matter of days after FIFA announced it is taking disciplinary action against Jibril Rajoub (pictured), the federation’s tub-thumping leader, for threatening Lionel Messi.
By David Owen
June 15 – It was a dream start for the host nation; but Thursday’s 5-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia in the opening match of Russia 2018 was also the perfect entrance for sports equipment group Adidas at the 21st FIFA World Cup.
By Paul Nicholson
June 15 – Albanian club KS Skenderbeu has failed in its bid at CAS to have its ban from European competition stayed. The club is appealing a 10-year European ban and €1 million fine imposed by UEFA for matchfixing.
June 15 – With the US having opened up the market for legal sports betting nationwide, it now looks set to embrace another of Europe’s football phenomena, the growth of the football betting sponsorship dollar.
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 15 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur will play their first home game of the 2018/19 season at Wembley before moving to their rebuilt stadium for its first Premier League fixture against Liverpool on the weekend of September 15-16.
June 15 – LaLiga has Chinese automobile brand Dongfeng Fengguang as the Official China Regional Automobile Sponsor of LaLiga for the 2018-19 season.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 14 – Walking round the streets of Moscow in the days leading up to tonight’s World Cup opener, you wouldn’t necessarily have known the Russian capital was about to herald the start of a competition that has taken eight years to organise and was so vital in terms of image and public relations.
By Paul Nicholson
June 14 – Egyptian and Saudi Arabian fans will be able to watch their teams play at the World Cup after a last minute announcement by broadcast rightsholder beIN Sport that 22 matches will be broadcast on their free-to-air channels. The dispute over beIN’s distribution in both countries has been bitter with the Qataris having distribution issues and the Saudis even pirating rights on newly launched broadcast-spoiler station BeoutQ.