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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
June 20 – He flew in on an Aeroflot flight, checked into a top-class downtown hotel, gave a brief television interview and that was it. Sepp Blatter was back at the World Cup today attending the showpiece event of the organisation he headed for 17 years.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 19 – After all the talk and concerns about Russia’s record on racism being at the centre of attention at the World Cup, it is a visiting team’s fans who have tarnished the early stages of the tournament.
June 19 – He always said he would come and now Sepp Blatter is sticking to his word – right under the nose of his successor.
By David Owen
June 19 – After his breathtaking virtuoso performance against Spain in Sochi, Cristiano Ronaldo may well be pondering the possibility of a second consecutive World Cup hat-trick when Portugal take on Morocco on Wednesday at the Luzhniki.