July 2 – With yet another pre-tournament favourite dumped out of a World Cup of unprecedented surprises, Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales insists he has no regrets over the decision to sack national coach Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the competition.
By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
July 2 – Football’s governing body FIFA reported that 2,178,894 fans attended the 48 matches of the World Cup group stages in Russia, averaging a stadium occupancy rate of 98%.
July 2 – Senegal’s football federation (FSF) has urged FIFA to reconsider its new fair play ruling which controversially resulted in the Africans’ World Cup exit.
July 2 – China’s Ministry of Education – which has been in charge of schools and university football development since 2014 – has updated the results of its national campus football project, revealing that there are now more than 20,200 specialist football academies across the country.
July 2 – Internazionale has unvelied Lvmama.com as the club’s Official China Travel Partner at a signing ceremony in the new Bellagio hotel in Shanghai, which was opened in June and is owned by the Suning Group which also owns the club.
July 2 – Swiss captain Stephan Lichtsteiner has opened up for the first time about being sanctioned for the controversial Albanian eagle salutes during his country’s group game against Serbia.
June 29 – After having all their various protests about the 2026 World Cup bid process rejected by FIFA, Morocco are crying foul again – this time over the way they were eliminated from the World Cup.
June 29 – Unibet has secured a SEK 1.2 billion (+ €100 million) title sponsorship of Sweden’s top two leagues that will at the start of 2020 and run for six years with the option of Unibet renewing for a further six years.
By David Owen
June 29 – Exactly half – 368 – of the players who started Russia 2018 have now had their World Cup dreams shattered. But where do these dearly departed play their club football? Who employs the most squad members eliminated from the competition in the group stages?
June 29 – FIFA’s strict rules on government interference in the affairs of its member federations has been called into question in Ghana where reports suggest only government representatives – and not footballing officials – were called to today’s meeting in Zurich to discuss the corruption crisis in the African country.
June 29 – Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) has signed a four-year partnership with streaming platform mycujoo that will see more than 1,500 matches live-streamed between 2018 to 2021.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Fair play, what fair play? If ever FIFA needed to have a hard look at the rules in terms of the criteria used for teams advancing to the knockout stage, Japan’s shameful tactics against Poland on Thursday – shades of Germany versus Austria way back in 1982 – provided ample evidence.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Over a generation has gone by since Pele famously predicted than an African team would win the World Cup by the year 2000. But if anything African football, which has long been clamouring for more World Cup slots, has gone backwards.
By David Owen
June 29 – Nike turned the tables on arch-rivals Adidas in the latest round of Insideworldfootball’s World Cup Battle of Brands; but the swoosh brand was unable to overhaul Puma at the top of the increasingly congested cumulative table.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – The recriminations are in full flow and the inquisition has already begun. But Germany’s fall from grace is not without precedent judging from recent World Cup history.