Serbs unafraid of the hard route as Mitrovic sets his sights on Brazil
June 27 – Striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has warned Brazil that Serbia will be coming out all guns blazing in their crunch Group E World Cup clash in Moscow tonight.
World Cup
Security: Russians evacuate bars and hotels after Rostov-on-Don bomb threats
June 27 – Russian police say they have received multiple bomb threats in the World Cup host city of Rostov-on-Don, causing bars and restaurants to be evacuated across the city.
Manic Maradona’s medical scare over as he jets to Moscow saying all is fine
June 27 – Argentina legend Diego Maradona said he was “fine” after being treated by paramedics following his country’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Nigeria at the World Cup.
FIFA fine high-flying Swiss for ‘unsporting’ eagle celebration
June 26 – Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri have escaped a ban following their controversial goal celebrations in the 2-1 win over Serbia last week.
High flying Swiss set to have their wings clipped over Albanian ‘eagle’ celebration
By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – FIFA has begun disciplinary proceedings against two Swiss players over their highly sensitive goalscoring celebrations that infuriated Serbia during last week’s clash between the sides.
Chinese fans caught in fake ticket scam by bogus Russian ticket agency
June 25 – Chinese fans snapped up over more than 40,000 tickets for the World Cup in Russia via FIFA’s ticketing platform, but not all has been neighbourly love in Russia as a number have fallen victims Chinese of a counterfeit black-market ticket scam.
Blatter bullish as his Russia 2018 cameo ends
By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – Sepp Blatter’s brief World Cup sojourn may be over but that didn’t stop the former FIFA president leaving his mark on the tournament in a series of interviews that showed that he has lost none of his appetite for arguing his case and defending his legacy.
Serbs file complaint over game-changing non-use of VAR by German ref in favour of Swiss
June 25 – Serbia have launched an official complaint about alleged bias by German referee Felix Brych in last Friday’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Switzerland which seriously damaged their hopes of advancing.
Officially wrong: German joy at last gasp win triggers nasty taunting celebration
June 25 – FIFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against two German team officials for gloating towards the Swedish bench after the defending world champions’ last-gasp Group F victory on Saturday.
FIFA gets shirty over Amrabat’s claim US ref Geiger asked for Ronaldo’s jersey
June 22 – FIFA have categorically denied claims that American referee Mark Geiger asked for Cristiano Ronaldo’s shirt during Wednesday’s match between Portugal and Morocco.
Moroccan warrior Amrabat gives FIFA new headache over concussion advisory
June 21 – FIFA have been taken to task by the international players’ union FIFPro for allowing Morocco to field Nordin Amrabat against Portugal on Wednesday too soon after the player suffered concussion.
A subjective tool for refs? FIFA ignore Brazil’s VAR complaint over technology game-changer
June 21 -As debate continues to rage over the inconsistent use of VAR at the World Cup, Brazil have confirmed that FIFA have rejected its complaints about key decisions (or rather non-decisions) made during the 1-1 draw with Switzerland last Sunday,
FIFA fines Mexico for fans’ abusive ‘puto’ chant
June 21 – FIFA face renewed accusations of not doing enough to tackle discrimination after fining the Mexican Football Federation a token CHF10,000 for homophobic chanting by fans.
Brazil issue complaint as VAR inconsistencies change final results as refs fail to refer
By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – It was bound to happen. For every wrong decision that has been corrected by VAR on its World Cup debut, a string of other seemingly obvious mistakes have been allowed to stand, leading to widespread confusion among players and fans alike about the system’s effectiveness.
Russia springs a surprise at their own 2018 World Cup party
By Andrew Warshaw
June 20 – They were pretty much no-hopers as the lowest-ranked team in the FIFA world rankings, came into the tournament in desperately poor form and were expected to join South Africa as the only hosts to be eliminated at the group stage.