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,
June 8 – With the World Cup on the doorstep, Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the eleven host cities to take advantage on the tournament and deliver a strong footballing legacy after the finals.
June 8 – Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), speaking at the opening of a conference on safeguarding sport from corruption in Vienna emphasised that investing in fighting corruption in sport was an investment in our economic and social future.
June 8 – On the day the Premier League announced a ground-breaking deal to hand one of its remaining TV rights packages to online streaming service Amazon, breaking Sky and BT’s grip on the broadcasting of live games, the man behind the league’s growth into the world’s richest domestic competition announced he is stepping down.
June 7 – World Cup hosts invariably go into World Cups with at least a modicum of optimism but Russia is going to need all the help it can get to progress from the group stage and prevent the tournament taking a massive early hit.
With his announcement to resign, Richard Scudamore has demonstrated once again a certain class and intelligence: he leaves at a time when the Premier League is in the best of health, successful and solid to the core.
By Paul Nicholson
June 7 – The final Premier League TV rights packages for the UK have been awarded with Amazon swooping in with a groundbreaking deal that breaks Sky and BT’s grip on the broadcast of live games in the UK.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The questions came thick and fast. How do you justify an apparent discrepancy in your projected figures? To what extent will Donald Trump’s global unpopularity work against you? Is your bid simply about budgets rather than passion and pedigree?
By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – The tit-for-tat row over the cancellation of Argentina’s friendly with Israel this coming Saturday has intensified with the Israelis demanding FIFA investigate what it said were threats against Argentina players and laying the blame squarely at the feet of the Palestinian authorities.
June 7 – A Croatian court has sentenced the former boss of Dinamo Zagreb, Zdravko Mamic (pictured right with brother Zoran), to six-and-a-half years in prison for tax evasion and siphoning off profits from player transfers, allegedly including that of Luka Modric to Tottenham Hotspur and Mateo Kovacic to Inter.
June 7 – England manager Gareth Southgate (pictured) says his squad have a plan to deal with any outbreaks of discrimination at the World Cup after fullback Danny Rose said he had told his family not to come to Russia for fear of racism.
June 7 – Dinamo St Petersburg will move to the Fisht Stadium in Sochi next season as the World Cup venue seeks to shed its tag of white elephant.
June 7 – The European football market in 2016/17 was worth a record €25.5 billion with the Big 5 leagues accounting for €14.7 billion.
June 7 – Neymar may hold the record as the most expensive transfer in football history, but he isn’t the most valuable player in the world. Tottenham’s Harry Kane holds that position, valued €3.7 million higher than the Brazilian money machine, according to a new ranking of the Top 100 players in Europe’s Big 5 leagues.
June 7 – Manchester City, one of the first English Premier League clubs to embrace esports with the signing of professional gamers to play under the club banner in tournaments, have taken a step deeper into the competitive video gaming sector with the set up of an EA Sports FIFA Online team in Beijing, China.
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.