Football clubs around the world have recently been making some highly visible but immobile new signings. Over 350 statues of footballers, managers, chairmen and even fans now stand outside stadiums and…
As the World Cup reaches its climax, with Brazil, Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands to fight it out for a spot in the final, can we explain why some countries have been successful at the highest level…
Parlour game time. Who has been the best player at the 2014 World Cup finals? The usual suspects are all here: the now-stricken Neymar, the great Messi, even the non-stop German false number nine, Muller…
This year’s World Cup was supposed to be the “greenest ever”, with FIFA taking measures to account for the event’s greenhouse gas emissions, including an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide…
The 2014 World Cup has been celebrated for the number of exciting, high-scoring matches it’s given us. It started with four goals in the opening game as Brazil defeated Croatia 3-1. Then, who could forget…
Why are we so loyal to our national and club football teams? Whatever the results, we tend to support them week in week out, through thick and thin. They can cause us nothing but misery and heartache and…
Cristiano Ronaldo, Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney, Mario Balotelli, Luis Suarez, together currently valued in the transfer market at nearly US$500 million, are playing no further part in the 2014 FIFA World Cup…
England’s worst ever performance at a World Cup inevitably provokes a critical post mortem of what went wrong and how to ensure the team’s future success. As well as the performances of the current crop…
The dreaded, game-deciding penalty shootouts have begun. After 120 minutes of physically and emotionally draining play, players must line up and one by one take the goalie on from the spot. Heroes and…
Five African teams started out at the tournament and now none remain. But, as was the case in previous World Cups, Africans across the continent united behind a range of national teams from Cote d'Ivoire…
We all know that professional football players feign injury. Is it getting worse? Probably. Do we know why? Not really, but history suggests some plausible answers. The first thing to say is that feigning…
Two staple narratives of World Cups past and present have been crammed into just one week: the enduringly dire state of the England national football team, and a convenient (for FIFA) morality tale about…
It’s World Cup crunch time. The group stages are over and it will be knockout games to the final from here on in. From the performances we’ve seen so far, there are numerous contenders for the title. Brazil…
FIFA’s decision to hand Luis Suarez a four month ban for biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini has sealed Suarez’s place as the villain of World Cup 2014. The incident has provoked outrage across the…
As the group stage of the World Cup draws to a close, while it’s the joy of qualification for some, it’s the crushing disappointment of an early exit for others. And, in the post-mortem which inevitably…
Tracking technology using video or GPS chips have transformed the ability of coaches in elite team sports to monitor the physical contributions of players in games. This type of data is usually highly…
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…