World Cup 2006 - Germany

As a South African and a fan of football I was overjoyed when FIFA awarded my home country the rights to host the 2010 World Cup. As a football journalist with a thorough knowledge of the inner workings of FIFA and a curmudgeonly old pessimist to boot, I knew one thing for certain the moment [...]

While the briefly hyped idea of bringing back the British Home Championships seems to have died a death, the idea of England playing Scotland is apparently alive and (almost) kicking. English and Scottish FA chief execs Brian Barwick and Gordon Smith have had a series and pow-pows and announced the news today. “We’ve had discussions about resurrecting [...]

There’s an almighty battle brewing that could well determine the future of European football, and it involves two of the world’s biggest bureaucracies. FIFA and the European Union. FIFA head honcho Sepp Blatter (pictured, possibly practicing a left handed jab) is keen to push forward with his six plus five idea, which would limit European clubs [...]

In a move that’s sooooo 2006, FIFA has come out of its cave to threaten the villagers who contribute to it being the well-fed monster that it is. Two years ago almost to the day, World Cup Blog received a cease & desist notice regarding its use in its site logo of the part of [...]

Interesting idea from Adidas… their new commercial will be sending big names to small places. For example, the likes of David Beckham and Steven Gerrard will visit the Isles of Scilly, home to the world’s smallest football league with just two teams. The two England players will do a bit of coaching and, since it [...]

It was the worst kept secret in football over the weekend, but Carlos Alberto Parreira officially quit as South Africa coach today. The official reason is that Parreira wants to spend more time with his wife, who’s seriously ill. There’s speculation that there’s more to it, and that tension between CAP and the South Africa [...]

Here’s what the Olympics group stage will look like: Sixteen teams divided into four groups for the men, with top two from each moving on. Twelve teams divided into three groups for the women. Top two from each group move on, and also the two top-finishing third place teams. This list came to [...]

Are you going to be enjoying the Olympics this summer? You’ll be doing it without France National Team coach Raymond Domenech, who won’t be watching any of the action. “I say to people: ‘If you are against the Games in China, then don’t watch them and switch off your television’,” said Domenech. “It’s a courageous act. [...]

We may have mentioned this before, but Euro 2008 is coming. We’re going to have the whole thing covered on our Euro 2008 page, with team blogs, liveblogs and all the usual World Cup Blog shenanigans. We’ve also got a free Euro 2008 Wall Chart for you. Just click on the image above to get the [...]

While I was searching out info for this post, I stumbled on a 56-page document with all of the FIFA regulations for Olympic soccer. Because I know you were dying to know that: “Each association taking part in the final competition(s) shall ensure, as a condition of its participation, that every player, offi cial or [...]