By David Owen
June 29 – Exactly half – 368 – of the players who started Russia 2018 have now had their World Cup dreams shattered. But where do these dearly departed play their club football? Who employs the most squad members eliminated from the competition in the group stages?
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Fair play, what fair play? If ever FIFA needed to have a hard look at the rules in terms of the criteria used for teams advancing to the knockout stage, Japan’s shameful tactics against Poland on Thursday – shades of Germany versus Austria way back in 1982 – provided ample evidence.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 29 – Over a generation has gone by since Pele famously predicted than an African team would win the World Cup by the year 2000. But if anything African football, which has long been clamouring for more World Cup slots, has gone backwards.
By Andrew Warshaw
June 28 – The recriminations are in full flow and the inquisition has already begun. But Germany’s fall from grace is not without precedent judging from recent World Cup history.
By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
June 28 – Brazil progressed to the knockout phase of the World Cup following a routine 2-0 win against Serbia on Wednesday, but the Brazilian Football Confederation, the CBF, remains an isolated body.
June 28 – Tunisia have been forced to start their final World Cup game with third-choice goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi, with a striker as backup, after FIFA rejected their request to add a replacement keeper to the squad.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.