The player ranking system has continued to baffle sports pundits, despite the fact that FIFA has released a video explaining the system. On the other hand, Yahoo Sports said that the science behind the ranking system does not back the intangibles that are hard to be calculated.
According to the official website of the world soccer body, Marco Rodríguez of Mexico will be handling the match slated to be played in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday. Rodríguez, who has handled two previous tournament finals matches, officiated the June 24 match that Uruguay won over Italy in a 1-0 win and Belgium's 2-1 stunning defeat against Algeria.
Claudio Sulser, chief of FIFA's disciplinary committee, has said that the committee did not prohibited the Liverpool striker to move clubs should a transfer deal has been reached. The Guardian said that FC Barcelona is reportedly in talks with the Uruguayan's current club to sign him.
The Guardian reported that Suarez's current club, Liverpool, is close to securing a transfer deal with the iconic Spanish club FC Barcelona worth at least £70 million (about $120 million).
On Tuesday, FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke expressed his concerns in a televised interview about the level of drunkenness in Brazil following the world soccer body's special consideration to sell alcohol at World Cup venues. Valcke also pointed the link between inebriation and violence.
Substitute players have played well since the beginning of the tournament. Overall, substitutes have reportedly scored a record 29 goals in Brazil with eight more matches left to be played. The previous record was during the 2006 tournament in Germany at 23 goals, FIFA said.
Fresh from allegations about him wearing non-sponsored underwear during one of his matches, the frosted hair Brazilian is under fire for sporting Beats by Dr Dre headphones despite being told that the items were banned from the tournament, Daily Mail reported. On Wednesday, Neymar brazenly wore the headphones at a press conference ahead of his team's quarterfinal match against Colombia, which would be in two days time.
On the other hand, FIFA appeared to have not been convinced with Howard's tenacity in the game. In an interview with ESPN Radio, Howard disclosed that he has been subjected to random drug testing, again.
FIFA.com said that despite the tragedy befallen on the rising Atletico Nacional star. the Escobars had not turned their back on football. Family members had attended each of the Colombian team's matches in the World Cup and sported a "Cafeteros" kit with the number two and their surname on the back. According to them, they are simply reminding everyone what appeared to be Escobar's message in the newspaper "El Tiempo" to his home country five days after his death: "Life doesn't stop here."
FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer read out a statement by FIFA director of security Ralf Mutschke at a briefing at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which said, "The article has put the integrity of FIFA World Cup matches in question, which is a serious allegation."
The paper's Telegraph Sport had seen screengrabs of a series of conversations between Perumal and the German journalist who had written the story on Facebook and noted that the exchanges took place just after the game. Perumal has since denied that he had talked to the journalist between June 11 and 20.
On his Twitter account, Chilean striker Mauricio Pinilla ranted out how Brazil press chief Rodrigo Paiva only received such a measly punishment considering that the press chief supposedly punched him. The Cagliari Calcio player also saw disparity of FIFA's punishment on Paiva to the severe suspension received by embattled Liverpool player Luis Suarez for biting his Italian opponent.
On the even of the match, Klinsmann reportedly used his press conference to cast doubts on Algerian referee Djamel Haimoudi, who would be officiating the US-Belgium match on Tuesday.
Although statistics will not be out until the next few months, majority of the embassies, including the US, has issued a travel advisory warning their citizens to be wary on robberies on city buses, cash machines and in banks, Fox News reported.
In his tweet, Suarez expressed his regrets on what occurred during the incident. Moreover, he said his apologies to Chiellini and "the entire football family," which could mean his fans, FIFA, his sponsors and to anyone who might have been affected with his actions. Moreover, he also vowed that such incident would never happen again.
The career-threatening ban on Luis Suarez by FIFA has led to new, colorful remarks from Uruguay National Team captain Diego Lugano, who called the suspension a "human rights violation," and from Uruguay President Jose Mujica, who was caught cussing on a live TV segment after being frank about the FIFA ban.
When a press question aimed at Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari regarding his comments on the Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez's allegations, Brazilian Football Federation senior press officer Rodrigo Paiva cut through the question and urge media present to stop insulting the team's capability to win its match against Chile.
The Guardian reported that Russian national team manager Fabio Capello had blamed the green laser beam flashed from the stadium crowd on goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev as the reason for their 1-1 draw against the Algerians and their subsequent elimination from the tournament.
On Friday, FIFA has been said to have lifted the 90-day provisional ban on World Cup-winning player and coach Franz Beckenbauer, who has been imposed with such punishment for his alleged failure to cooperate with lead investigator Michael Garcia on a probe regarding the bribery allegations linked to the 2022 winning Qatar World Cup bid., Reuters reported.
ESPN said the club's view about the incident and the subsequent punishment was that it was unprecedented and have left them in a difficult position. It has been known that Liverpool is aware of Suarez's problems on the field but has relied on him last season, of which Suarez did not spoil as he went on winning the Professional Footballers' Association and Football Writers' Association player of the year awards and was the top scorer in the Premier League at 31 goals.
FIFA recently said that it will not be bringing charges against German fans who wore blackface during the World Cup match between Germany and Ghana, the Guardian said.
