Inside World Football - Page 1725 of 2227 - For the Business of Football

Andrew Warshaw: Spain’s reign over but what of succession?

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 –

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Spanish taxman drops charges against Messi in image rights case

Lionel Messi 2

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.

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Spy plane over French training invades Deschamps’ tactical space

Deschamps at rench training

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.

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Chilean fans breach Maracana security in bid to enter game

chilean fans break in

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.

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Missing staff force Brazil authorities to lay on extra security

Brazil stadium security

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.

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WADA welcomes FIFA anti-doping initiative as a model for other sports

doping control

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.

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Marin keeps quiet on Teixeira, Regeness says now FIFA has governance in place

Jose Maria Marin

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.

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Post-Soviet Super League proposal looks dead in the water, despite what they say

Valery Gazzaev

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.

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Premier League clubs sign up to health sponsorship plan

PruHealth Vitality

June 18 – Three leading Premier League clubs have signed new season sponsorship deals with leading health insurance provider PruHealth and PruProtect to promote their healthy lifestyle insurance and rewards product Vitality.

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China’s beers target young market with online delivery and World Cup promos

Harbin World Cup promo

By Mark Baber
June 18 – Chinese beer industry, and particularly Tsingtao Brewery and Anheuser-Busch InBev owned Harbin Beer are using World Cup to boost market share, especially amongst the younger demographic.

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CONCACAF teams do best in World Cup’s early stages

World Cup wallchart of nations

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.

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Battle of the brands sees Adidas take early World Cup lead

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.

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Court convicts three in English lower league match-fixing trial

money and football

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.

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Day 7 round 2 previews: Cro vs Cam, Esp vs Chile, Ned vs Aus

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.

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Indestructible ball from One World Futbol just keeps on rolling

picture by Rodrigo Edipo, love.futbol

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.