It started with a bang, but it ended with a whisper, a scandal, two immediate resignations (the manager and the head of the football federation), and a bite that shook the world. Italy’s 2014 World Cup…
Everyone’s heard it, but nobody knows how true it is. The old adage that the Scots support anyone the English are playing during football internationals crops up every World Cup. This year, with the independence…
Another game, another bite. That’s the allegation against Uruguayan Luis Suárez, anyway, who has been accused of sinking his teeth into an opposition player. For the third time. But a mid-game nibble on…
Luis Suárez has struck again. For the third time now, the Uruguayan striker faces charges for biting an opponent and there is no defending this kind of behaviour on a sports pitch. While no one knows for…
For those well-versed in football and Australian sport, the Australian national team’s early exit from the World Cup should come as no surprise. The three losses – to Chile, the Netherlands and Spain…
The financial struggles of a large number of African footballers earning wages at poverty levels in their home countries is an issue easily lost amid the high salaries and glamorous lifestyles of most…
There is a rich and mixed history of playing football at altitudes above sea level, but at various stages in the past 15 years the Fédération International de Football Association (FIFA) has banned international…
The 2014 World Cup has been a tournament of goals galore – and with every goal comes a celebration. We’re now used to displays of individual and team pageantry with goal celebrations and they can sometimes…
Sporting referees are worthy of our admiration. Every time they officiate they are required to make split second real-time decisions. Sometimes they get it right – and sometimes they don’t. They are what…
Football can be a violent game. While this year’s World Cup has not been marked by serious violence on the pitch, games are hard fought and there have been a handful of red cards already. Off the pitch…
Britain’s number one tennis player must have been looking forward to an opening week of Wimbledon with the pressure slightly off, but thanks to England’s World Cup failure, a nation turns its lonely eyes…
The World Cup brings together teams, players, fans and also referees from every corner of the globe. The cultural differences that exist between them can be stark, especially for referees. While players…
People watching the World Cup match between Spain and the Netherlands earlier in the tournament may have been wondering why Spanish striker Diego Costa was vociferously booed every time he touched the…
Just a week before the inaugural game of the World Cup in Brazil, a vibrant wall-painting of a boy crying hysterically as he is served up a football instead of dinner, went viral. The image, shown above…
There has been much hand-wringing over the problems that World Cup players are facing due to the environmental extremes they are exposed to in Brazil. There has been little sympathy for the men in black…
I was at the Matisse exhibition at the Tate Modern this week (Yes, I know, top show-off metrosexual). I was with my mate JJ, who had travelled in from the artistic meta-centre of Norfolk to see these pictures…
Like football, globalisation creates winners and losers. For now, the England football team is one of the back markers. By globalisation we mean free movement: it is the increase in mobility across national…
England play Uruguay tonight in a crucial match that, if lost, could leave the team with one foot already on the flight home. It’s for situations like these that Steve Peters, England’s sport psychiatrist…
From the perspective of fairness, the 2014 World Cup has been off to a remarkably bad start. The opening game included at least two highly questionable decisions by the referee. First, the very generous…
Spain is out of the World Cup. They have a final consolation game against Australia, who were on the wrong end of a thrilling 3-2 defeat to Netherlands, but the biggest upset is the exit of the cup holders…