By David Owen
June 18 – The confederation covering North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) has surprisingly taken the laurels for the best results achieved by its teams after completion of the first round of World Cup matches in Brazil.
By David Owen
June 18 – Adidas has taken a narrow early lead in the battle of the brands at Brazil 2014. After one round of matches, teams representing the brand of the three stripes, including Mexico, Germany and Argentina, had snared 51.85% of the points available to them.
June 18 – The Birmingham Crown Court match fixing trial has convicted one player from England’s Conference South and two Singaporeans of involvement in a conspiracy targeting lower league clubs. A further player was cleared while verdict is still awaited on another.
June 18: With the first round of group games complete, round two brings a series of make or break games. Croatia need to pull their socks up (and put their clothes on), Spain can expect a spicy contest with Chile, and the Aussies will need to show a lot more than their much trumpeted fighting spirit against high flying Dutch.
June 18 – As The World Cup 2014 progresses, so does One World Futbol’s mission to “bring the healing power of play to youth worldwide by making, selling and distributing nearly indestructible balls that survive the harshest environments” continues on.
Listen to executives and politicians and they will hammer home the L-word, legacy, as what hosting a major sports event is all about. The P-word too. People.
“It’s for them.”
But a major sports event is remembered around the globe for something more simple that that. The action. The goals. The magical moments on the field of play. And that’s the reason Brazil 2014 is likely to be remembered as a glorious month,
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 17 – World Cup organisers have promised to tweak the use of goalline technology after the confusion that marred France’s 3-0 win over Honduras. Sunday’s Group E game in Porto Alegre made history after the first ever World Cup goal was awarded as a result of the introduction of technology.
June 17 – Food fiasco as reporters faced to splash the cash; Germans swap their towels for sofas and settle in for World Cup duration; Ronnie’s World Cup gets Messi
By Mark Baber
June 17 – Portugal Telecom (PT) chose the day of the Portugal’s World Cup opener against Germany to announce it has renewed, for four more years, the sponsorship of the national football teams, maintaining until 2018 support for the A, B, Olympic, under-21 and under-16 teams.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 17 – Rapid Vienna has unveiled the design of its new stadium. The cost of development is estimated to be about €53 million, and will see the club change the stadium name from the Gerhard Hannapi to the Allianz stadium.
By Paul Nicholson
June 17 – In a region split by political division and posturing, the Qatar 2022 World Cup has forged a significant alliance, at least of outlook, within the country’s closest neighbours.
By Paul Nicholson
June 17 – International police organisation Interpol has issued a statement in response to what it says is a “false report” published in a leading British Sunday newspaper last weekend.
June 18 – The CIES Football Observatory has published an analysis of club and national contributions to 2014 World Cup players’ development. The ranking system illuminates which clubs have done the most in creating the talent on show in Brazil.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 17 – On paper, they look like world beaters, a veritable galaxy of international superstars – a good number of whom play their club football in the English Premier League.
June 17 – Group H takes over with the last of the first round group matches. A much fancied Belgium face North African powerhouse Algeria, while global super powers Russia and South Korea face off. Round 1 winners Brazil and Mexico re-enter the fray.