By Mark Baber
July 4 – The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari, and other board members were arrested by the Department of State Security Service at Nanmdi Azikiwe International Airport as they returned from the World Cup on Friday, July 4, 2014, according to reports from the NFF secretariat in Abuja.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – The man leading FIFA’s fight to cut out discrimination has said that insufficient effort has been made by the authorities at the World Cup and that there has been a “disconnect” between the stated aim and what has actually occurred.
July 4 – In an operation dubbed Jules Rimet, police in Brazil have arrested 11 people and broken up an international gang that was apparently involved in the illegal sale of World Cup tickets.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 4 – In the first serious infrastructure tragedy during the World Cup, at least two people have been killed and several more injured after part of an unfinished overpass collapsed on to vehicles in the host city of Belo Horizonte.
July 4 – The Football Union of Russia (FUR) is to increase the tax on clubs that employ foreign coaches. The FUR already levies a tax on foreign coaches but a commission of coaching excellence that met yesterday is examining how much should actually be paid.
By Ben Nicholson
July 4 – Whilst head coach Jurgen Klinsmann wrote the USA a ‘sick-note’ urging employers to allow fans to watch their world cup game, Colombian government workers have been afforded the luxury minus the paperwork by their own President.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
July 4 – The Serbian Football Association (FSS) is looking to boost its Jelen SuperLiga and increase the marketing opportunities for the Serbian championship, according to Zoran Lakovic, the secretary general of the FSS. New measures include a restructured top tier and a relaxation of foreign player rules.
Considering they have a common 450km-long border and have together been the beating heart of the European project for nearly 60 years, France and Germany are remarkably dissimilar.
Not so their football teams, which clash in Rio on Friday in what promises to be a fascinating World Cup quarter-final.
Take the goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris and Manuel Neuer don’t exactly look alike; but they are very proactive exponents of their craft, among the quickest to sprint off their lines to snuff out trouble.
July 3 – Quarter-finals kick off Frday with two match-ups that feature the battle of the giants from South America and Europe. Hosts Brazil face increasingly favourited Colombia, while France and Germany square off in what could be an old-school Euro classic.
July 3 – This week’s 20th anniversary of the death of former Colombian defender Andres Escobar continues to capture the imagination.
By Mark Baber
July 3 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by Virach Chanpanich against the decision taken on 17 October 2013 by the Football Association of Thailand to elect the controversial Worawi Makudi as its President.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – One of Africa’s best-known footballing figures has defended the reputation of the Continent’s players at the World Cup, insisting they were not simply motivated by greed.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – Following the unprecedented impact of substitutes at the World Cup, football’s lawmakers will be asked to consider a proposal that teams be allowed to use a fourth sub during extra time.
By David Owen
July 3 – FIFA has set up a three-man electoral committee to supervise the process of what may yet be a bitter and divisive presidential election.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 3 – FIFA has asked the German news magazine Der Spiegel to come up with the evidence of its conversation with convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal amid the ongoing confusion over whether Cameroon’s players deliberately rigged their games at the World Cup.