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…
The National Stadium in Brasilia is 1,172m above sea level; the highest altitude stadium in the World Cup.
EPA/Robert Ghement
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…
Hiptastic celebrations from the Colombian team.
Robert Ghement/EPA
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…
Refereeing could do with the benefit of technology, as long as it doesn’t lose the human element.
Nic Bothma/EPA
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…
What does Spain striker Diego Costa’s back story tell us about footballers and identity in the modern world?
EPA/Antonio Lacerda
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…
Paulo Ito’s recent image joins a long line of socially-conscious street art in Brazil.
Paulo Ito
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…
The heat is on. And referees can get it wrong.
Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
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…
Level playing field? Raheem Sterling attacks.
Rhona Wise/EPA
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…
Croatia players argue with referee Yuichi Nishimura of Japan after the match between Brazil and Croatia.
EPA/Diego Azubel
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…
It’s game on for tiki-taka and Spain.
Guilaume Horcajuelo/EPA/
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…
If you would like to see a large number of desperately poor people enjoy the joy of a World Cup victory, you should cheer for Nigeria.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Let’s be realistic. Australia is the lowest ranked of the 32 teams in the World Cup, and despite a very creditable performance in its first match against Chile, its chances of making it out of the group…
FIFA’s chief medical officer is adamant there’s no doping in football … but experience says otherwise.
Gabriel Corbacho Bermejo/Flickr
It is often said that football is the beautiful game, resistant to the kinds of doping seen in cycling, baseball or less beautiful games of the same name. Much like Australia’s confidence before its “blackest…
I’ve tried to ignore the patronising viral “Rules for Women during the World Cup” tweets, I am ignoring Facebook offers to go to a spa for “girly bubbles” to escape the football. But the idea of actually…
The section of the crowd behind the goal was awash with red and white when Switzerland took on Ecuador in their opening World Cup match. Faces were painted; many had white crosses painted onto red cheeks…
Chile’s Alexis Sanchez fell victim to a goal disallowed by an offside call in the 2010 World Cup. So what are the nuts and bolts of the rule?
EPA/Sergey Dolzhenko
The offside rule is perhaps one of the most controversial rules ever applied to football. We only need to look to Mexico vs Cameroon on day two of the 2014 World Cup. Thank god for the 61st minute goal…