USA 2 Costa Rica 2 (USA win 4-3 on pens)
June 29 – You’d hate to use the word ‘sterile’ to describe a Concacaf Gold Cup quarter-final, but following the drama and passion of Guatemala versus Canada, it all felt a little flat as the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) and Costa Rica kicked off for the right to face Guatemala in St. Louis. After 90 minutes and the drama of penalty kicks,
By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
June 13 – On the eve of the World Cup, tickets remain for 19 of the 48 group matches, including England’s opening match against Tunisia. Last week FIFA announced 2.4 million tickets had been sold for the tournament.
June 13 – The trend for federations, leagues and clubs to sign regional sponsorships is extending to major events with FIFA announcing, two days before the kick-off of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow its first regional sponsorship for Africa.
June 13 – LaLiga champions Barcelona have ended a 16-year merchandising rights deal with Nike to form a new company which will manage the club’s retail, licensing and merchandising activity.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 12 – Whether it should be this way is a matter of debate. But in the modern world, commercial clout and the promise of safe, sophistated infrastructure invariably carry more weight than passion and legacy – as Morocco seem likely to find to their cost when the race to stage the 2026 World Cup reaches its denouement tomorrow.
By Paul Nicholson
June 12 – The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) has confirmed Barbados FA president Randy Harris as its new leader to finish off the two years remaining on the presidential term after former president Gordon Derrick was banned from football by FIFA at the end of last year.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 12 – The vote for the 2026 World Cup may take centre stage at Wednesday’s FIFA Congress in Moscow but not for the first time the crisis in Middle East football is giving the FIFA hierarchy one gigantic head-ache.
By Mark Baber
June 12 – The victory of Ukraine’s Karpatalya over Northern Cyprus in the 2018 Paddy Power World Football Cup in London on Saturday was a far from a cause for celebration for Ukrainian Sports Minister Igor Zhdanov who called for the players to be interrogated by security services for “sporting separatism” and ties to separatist and terrorist groups.
June 12 – Tottenham Hotspur have signed a new long-term agreement with hotels booking website Hotels.com that will include preferential discounts for Spurs signed up to the website’s loyalty programme.
June 12 – Portuguese technology company Primetag has launched a social media ranking tool ahead of the Russia 2018 World Cup that provides up-to-the-minute aggregated data from the Instagram accounts of players, coaches and teams with the purpose of measuring influence.
June 12 – Manchester United are turning pre-season team-building into a money making art form, confirming they will play Bayern Munich as the sixth and final match of the team’s pre-season preparations for the 2018-19 campaign. Man Utd will also face AC Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid in the US in July.
June 12 – On-line trading broker AvaTrade has expanded its regional sponsorship partnership with Manchester City into a global partnership in a new multi-year deal.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 11 – The two sides in the bid to stage the 2026 World Cup upped the ante today as they made final presentations to all but one of FIFA’s six individual regional groupings – and not without considerable controversy.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 11 – The chances of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being expanded to 48 teams appear to have faded as quickly as they arose.
Plans for a feasibility study have been put on hold and the idea pulled from Wednesday’s FIFA Congress after FIFA President Gianni Infantino said agreement from the Gulf nation is a “precondition.”
June 11 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked teams participating in the Russia 2018 World Cup by their transfer values. Top of the table are France with a total squad value of €1.41 billion.
By Paul Nicholson
June 11 – UEFA and FIFA’s failure to get any kind of control or governance over Greek football is reaching unprecedented levels even by their own woeful standards. The integrity of the game in Greece was hammered again with news that champion club AEK’s owner Dimitris Melissanidis is under investigation for accounting fraud.