June 20 – From foaming at the mouth to foam on your boots, Brazil 2014 is providing the lot. INSIDEworldfootball chief correspondent Andrew Warshaw is in Belo Horizonte awaiting the arrival of Lionel Messi and his mates. Here are some of the other things that are occupying his agenda
By David Owen
June 19 – Anyone with an eye for such things might have noticed, as much-fancied Belgium laboured to get the better of Algeria in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday, that the kit worn by world football’s other Red Devils bore an unfamiliar logo.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – After promising that the World Cup would be the most culturally inclusive to date and send a positive message around the world, FIFA have been hit with a number of racism reports involving fans from up to four of the finalists.
By Mark Baber
June 19 – The long-running dispute over Botswana President Ian Khama’s (pictured) constituency football tournaments has reached a new level of seriousness as FIFA insist the issue of bringing the tournaments under the authority of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) must be resolved by September 22 or the BFA faces possible suspension from FIFA.
“How does it feel to have a trillion dollars burning a hole in your pocket?” Andrew Blackman, the Wall Street Journal
Not since the conquistadors discovered Potosí, Bolivia’s famed silver-ore mountain and “Cerro Rico”, has anyone known the answer to the question Blackman rhetorically posed this week. But with the data-cruncher Prequin estimating that private-equity firms now hold $1.141 trillion in investible funds, the managed-investment arm of the financial-services industry seems to have a fair idea.
June 19 – Didier Droga has already proved he should never be written off as Ivory Coast carry a continent’s hopes. Uruguay and England, Japan and Greece are must-win face-offs.
June 19 – World Cup TV viewing data in the African continent is showing pan-regional interest in the World Cup and in African teams in particular. GeoPoll has released data on viewing figures in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda showing large proportions of national populations are tuning in, skewed strongly towards young adult males.
Let’s be realistic. Not many of us expected for one moment that one of the greatest dynasties to grace the game would actually be able to clinch an unprecedented fourth straight major crown.
After all, no European country has ever won the World Cup on South American soil. And not since 1962 had the reigning world champions retained the title.
But by the same token, few believed that the reign of Spain would come to such a shuddering halt before the end of the first week –
By Andrew Warshaw
June 19 – Lionel Messi’s excellent start to the World Cup has been given a further boost off the field with reports that charges of tax evasion against the Argentine skipper are being dropped.
June 19 – FIFA are reportedly looking into allegations of a drone spying on the French national team’s training session in Brazil. Manager Didier Deschamps expressed concerns about privacy after his training session was interrupted by a hovering Phantom II autonomous micro-drone with a video camera.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – In the worst security breach so far at the World Cup, dozens of ticketless Chilean fans burst through a checkpoint at the iconic Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro today and surged through the media centre trying to find a way into the sold-out tie against Spain.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 19 – Lack of sufficient stewarding and security staff in certain World Cup cities is causing a problem for local organisers and FIFA alike. Brazil’s justice ministry says it added extra personnel at the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza on Tuesday because there were not enough private guards to go round.
By David Owen
June 19 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has urged other sports bodies to take a leaf out of FIFA’s book, after world football’s governing body completed the first phase of a groundbreaking World Cup drug testing programme with no positive cases reported.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 19 – The head of Brazilian football has refused to criticise his disgraced predecessor whose tarnished reputation was once again highlighted at a media briefing today. Jose Maria Marin (pictured) told reporters he could not answer for the conduct of the man he replaced, Ricardo Teixeira.
By Mark Baber
June 18 – Recent western media reports suggesting that Russia is “not giving up on a Football Super League” in the post-Soviet space turns out to be somewhat spurious with the current state of relations between Moscow and Kiev making it even less likely than was previously the case.