FIFA will release all operational funding due to member associations for the years 2019 and 2020 in the coming days as the first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure will mean that a total of around USD 150 million will be distributed among the […]
The FIFA-Confederations working group which was recently established by the Bureau of the FIFA Council to address the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, and which includes the FIFA administration and secretary generals and top executives from all confederations, has unanimously approved a series of recommendations following its first meeting, which was organised via conference call […]
The next three weeks promises to be fun whether you are a spectator in the stadiums or cheering your teams from your living rooms.
By Vincent Ekeh June 16, 2019 The FIFA women world cup is underway. The next three weeks we will see the remaining of the original 24 nation teams battle in France to become the champions of women’s soccer. Four million dollars and four years of being champions awaits the victors. The games will be played […]
All hail “The Beautiful Game” – on display for the next month in France!
As the Women’s World Cup is about to commence, ABC’s Wide World of Sports aptly characterized the spectacle of sport as “the human drama of athletic competition”; but nowadays it is the unfortunate politicization of sport that should command our attention. Winning at international sport has always bolstered national pride. But some nations have misappropriated […]
The World Cup does not exist in a vacuum and it is but a piece on Putin’s board.
Putin plays chess. His years in the KGB taught him patience and planning. He plays the long game, he positions his pieces and waits for the perfect moment to strike. The World Cup has proven to be an outstanding publicity coup for Putin. It was foreshadowed with fear for attendee’s safety. British media and UK officials […]
Who is playing who?
It’s been a busy news week for Britain, and the week has only just begun! The good news of course is that England has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. The sad news is that an English woman, Dawn Sturgess, died from the chemical nerve agent Novichok that was also used earlier this year […]
Media pundits and geopolitical scholars have compared Putin’s World Cup to Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics, asserting that the global spectacle of the World Cup is primarily a propaganda effort by Putin’s Russia. Indeed, the Sochi Olympic Games were just held in 2014, and Putin sought to grandstand his nation through a deceitful athlete doping and […]
It is quite possible that soccer will eventually make it to the U.S. mainstream.
Soccer has an estimated 4 billion fans around the world, while American football doesn’t even crack the top 10 most popular sports worldwide. There are 234 international soccer teams (207 are recognized by FIFA), while there are only approximately 60 professional teams worldwide that play American football. The numbers are clear: soccer is the most […]
History was made in football when underdogs Croatia beat a comparatively more favoured and better ranked England side in the undergoing FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia. After Uruguay in 1950, Croatia has become the smallest country to enter a World Cup final with a population of roughly 4.1 million. Being the only team in […]
The Hosts Without a Team Russia has had a smooth sailing so far in the World-Cup 2018 with wins over Saudi Arabia (5-0) and Egypt (3-1). However, going forward it will be extremely hard for Russia to progress any further in the World Cup, and, if they are lucky, go past the second round. To […]