By David Owen
June 27 – Adidas teams enjoyed a storming final round of group-stage matches at the World Cup in Brazil, as those supplied by rival Puma wilted. With 75% of Brazil 2014 games now completed (even if the most important are still to come), the company, which expects to sell more than 8 million World Cup team replica shirts and 14 million ‘Brazuca’ footballs, has taken a grip on the World Cup Battle of the Brands.
June 27 – The Wall Street Journal has published its own findings on divers and writhers at the world cup. In an article that laments the nuisance of ‘injuries’, they have tallied up all the incidents in which a team’s player has seemingly feigned hurt, accumulating the total time spent portraying the absent agony, which they have dubbed ‘writhing time’.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brazil
June 26 – Luis Suarez was plunged into international disgrace today when the Liverpool and Uruguay striker was banned by FIFA from all football-related activity for four months for his already infamous bite on Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw in Brazil
June 26 – Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng, two of Ghana’s best-known and most experienced players, were expelled from their World Cup squad for alleged indiscipline prior to the nation’s final group game which they lost to Portugal 2-1 last night.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 26 – FIFA medical experts have admitted they are powerless to intervene in cases of concussion if national team doctors decide players are fit enough to continue after taking knocks to the head. The controversial issue has re-emerged at the World Cup after Uruguay’s Alvaro Pereira (pictured) was allowed to continue playing against England after being briefly knocked unconscious in the game between the two sides last week.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 26 – Uruguay’s entire coaching staff have leaped to the defence of Luis Suarez as FIFA decides what sanctions to take over his already infamous biting episode. FIFA’s disciplinary panel was due to make a ruling either Thursday or Friday ahead of the country’s last-16 fixture against Colombia on Saturday.
June 25 – Media tracker Moreover Technologies has come up with a number of data sets around how the media worldwide is covering the World Cup and what is trending in terms of stories. While doubtless Luis Suarez’s bite night last night will be the current most covered story globally (stats still to be released), the data throws up interesting information on what is capturing the world’s imagination.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 25 – FIFA has acknowledged that its television production team should have thought twice before broadcasting a graphic suggesting Brazil forward Fred was offside when scoring in the 4-1 win over Cameroon.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 25 – Prince Harry wasn’t the only VIP attending England’s final game of the World Cup in Brazil’s third largest city. Just when England fans thought it could not get any worse, the match took place in the very city where England’s much-lauded team were humiliated by a bunch of amateurs from the United States all of 64 years ago.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 25 – Uruguay’s Luis Suarez faces the possibility of a lengthy FIFA ban after bringing infamy to the World Cup with yet another biting storm that has once again cast a dark shadow over the brilliant but highly temperamental striker.
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 24 – FIFA medical executives have hit back over Costa Rica’s protests about dope tests on its players as the row continued to simmer on the eve of the tournament’s surprise package playing its final Group D tie against England here tomorrow.
By David Owen
June 24 – The exploits of Costa Rica and Belgium have helped smaller combatants in Brazil 2014’s Battle of the Brands to steal a march on their Big Three rivals. The perfect records compiled by the Red Devils and their Central American counterparts after two rounds of matches have provided four of the five wins recorded by teams not sporting Adidas, Nike or Puma shirts.
By David Owen
June 23 – South American teams have excelled in the second round of World Cup group matches, taking over from CONCACAF as the competition’s most successful region. While this could be interpreted as an example of making home advantage count, host-nation Brazil, held to a goalless draw by Mexico, were ironically the only South American side not to win their second match at the tournament.
June 23 – Cost control of World Cup stadium build and accusations of corruption is not an issue confined to Brazil. Russia’s state Audit Chamber has found that the design work for its 2018 stadia has been over-priced by as much as 3 billion rubles ($88 million).
By Andrew Warshaw in Belo Horizonte
June 22 – Costa Rica’s football federation has sent a letter to FIFA demanding an explanation for why so many of its players were required to take dope tests following their stunning victory over Italy that qualified them for the last 16 of the World Cup for only the second time in their history.