By Paul Nicholson
June 16 – Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer, a world cup legend having won the trophy as a player, a manager and then, as bid leader, winning the hosting rights for his country for the 2006 tournament, has said that he will now answer the questions of FIFA investigators.
By Alexander Krassimirov
June 16 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia players have refused to train in the past three days in protest against broken promises by the club’s owners that April’s wages would be settled.
June 16 – Reports are starting to emerge that David Beckham may ditch his plans for a Miami expansion, instead opting to join a consortium led by, as of yet unnamed, Asian investors who are interested in bidding for Chivas USA.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 16 – The clamour for goalline technology to be introduced at the World Cup left FIFA with little option and has been widely supported. Yet the first time it was used, it caused huge controversy during France’s 3-0 win over 10-man Honduras.
June 16 – Ghana beat the US in 2006 and 2010; Iran have won just one World Cup game out of nine World Cup games – against the US in 1998 (should Mr Garcia be investigating this clear threat to national interest?); this is Germany’s 100th World Cup game (still checking but pretty sure they have never been beaten by the US in a World Cup).
By Andrew Warshaw in Brazil
June 15 – Having seemingly finally run of patience over media allegations of corruption surrounding their World Cup bid, Qatar’s 2022 organisers have delivered their most forceful defense to date, directly linking the allegations to the timing of the ongoing investigation being conducted by FIFA’s ethics committee prosecutor Michael Garcia into the entire 2018 and 2022 process.
Now you may not readily think that democracy can be a hindrance to reform. To suggest that seems absurd. Yet in the case of FIFA that is indeed the stumbling block. Democracy is undoubtedly the best way to run things but the one person, one vote idea can have pitfalls as the working of FIFA demonstrates so vividly.
I say this because hard as it is to believe FIFA, in comparison with many other organisations including the United Nations,
By David Owen
June 15 – The Maracanã, along with Wembley probably the most famous stadium in world football, on Sunday hosts its first World Cup finals match for 64 years, when Lionel Messi’s Argentina take on tournament debutants Bosnia & Herzegovina.
June 15 – Messi vs Dzeko, Msssi has scored once in 571 mnutes of World Cup football, Dzeko scoed 10 in qualifying. France have never played Honduras beore, the Swiss have never played Ecuador.
June 14 – Group D debuts. Rooney hasn’t scored for 594 minutes in World Cup football, Diego Forlan scored 3 of Uruguay’s last 5, Itay have scored in last 14 of their World Cup games, Costa Rica have lost their last 4 games at the World Cup.
June 14 – Group C’s vital stats. Colombia’s keeper is the oldest player in Brazil, Greece kept eight clean sheets in qualifying, Japan have qualified for the last five World Cups and Ivory Coast the last three.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brazil
June 14 – While world champions Spain suffered one of their worst ever humiliations on the pitch in recent memory after being thrashed 5-1 by Holland today, off the pitch embarrassment of a different kind was heaped on Franz Beckenbauer, the best-known figure in the history of German football, when he was banned for 90 days for breaking FIFA’s Code of Ethics.
June 13 – Here are the key stats you need to know before embarrassing yourself infront of your colleagues, opponents or the opposition game day FA president. The first round of Group A closes, Group B opens. Brazil won last night, according to the conventional script, but what do the refs have in store for us today.
By Mark Baber
June 13 – California-based Google is taking the World Cup very seriously, with a world cup theme for the opening day, football-specific content and a trends page which helps understand what fans are searching for on the web and even, the company claims, the mood of each nation.
By Paul Nicholson
June 13 – The CONCACAF congress last week included on its agenda the first report of its newly created Sports Integrity Department, delivered by Dr Laila Mintas. Her report included results on investigated cases and the announcement of a whistleblower hotline for fans, players, coaches and executives.