Worldcrunch
Updated July 9, 2024 at 12:00 p.m. Italy defeated France in the final of the FIFA World Cup on this day in 2006. The World Cup final took place at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany, and was marred by French icon Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt and ensuing red card. What was the score of the Italy […]
Updated June 29, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. Brazil won their first World Cup on this day in 1958 which was hosted by Sweden with the final match held at the Rasunda Stadium in Solna. Who did Brazil beat in the final to win their first World Cup? In the final match, Brazil defeated Sweden by […]
As the Olympic flame of Athens prepares to illuminate the world of sports, Africa remains in the shadows. Yet the world’s youngest continent has an unparalleled potential to become a major hub for sports on a global scale.
Coverage of the Women’s World Cup has been more about the athletes’ personal lives than sport. Once again, sexism in sport is on fully display.
It’s been hailed as one of the most riveting finals in World Cup history ever. After 120 minutes of improbable reversal of fortunes, Argentina beat France on penalties. Argentine striker Lionel Messi scored twice (plus a penalty in the decisive showdown), securing his status of one of the sport’s all-time greats. This is how newspapers […]
The World Cup in Qatar has been political on many fronts. Right now, with the event in an Arab country for the first time and Morocco as the first Arab team to make the quarterfinals, the Palestinian question is now very much on the agenda.
Soccer is a useful political tool for dictatorships. But Qatar is able to milk the World Cup as much as possible because the sport is infected by unbridled capitalistic greed.
The Qatar World Cup has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. However, the newly constructed city of Lusail in the country makes one thing clear: the West is not the target audience for this World Cup. Qatar has different, even bigger ambitions.
Ask anybody with a minimum of knowledge about either the sport or the country, and they’ll tell you that soccer in Brazil is like a religion. This truism becomes all the more true every four years, at the FIFA World Cup. But some of us also know that Brazil is a very religious country as […]
The global soccer competition features teams from a fascinating mix of developed and developing nations. Not represented are the world’s two leading economies: the U.S. and China.
SPOTLIGHT: BRITISH BREAKUPS AFTER BREXIT Whatever the result, last Thursday’s referendum was always going to leave Britain deeply divided. It was also bound to divide the UK’s major political parties, whose leaders now face the daunting task of both negotiating the best possible exit deal and bringing the country together, avoiding, if possible, a breakup […]
While You Slept IRAN VOTES Polls have opened throughout Iran as the country votes for two assemblies in the most important election since the 2013 presidential campaign that ushered in the reformist Hassan Rouhani. Voters will cast ballots for the unicameral “Islamic” parliament (Majles) and the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e khobregan), a body of clerics […]
FRENCH FAR RIGHT SWEEP REGIONAL VOTE France’s National Front became the country’s “first party” Sunday, winning nearly 30% of the vote in the first round of regional elections held just three weeks after the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks. The nationalist party finished first in six of France’s 13 regions, with party leader Marine Le Pen […]
CALIFORNIA SHOOTING: 14 DEAD, COUPLE SUSPECTED Photo: David Bauman/Press-Enterprise/ZUMA Police have identified a couple in their late 20s as the two shooters in the latest mass killing in the United States that left at least 14 people dead and 17 injured Wednesday in the southern Californian city of San Bernardino. UK BEGINS SYRIA STRIKES Britain’s […]
Combining kung fu with soccer? This was a fantasy depicted in Stephen Chow’s 2001 martial arts comedy film Shaolin Soccer. But now, in Henan province, home of the Shaolin Temple famous for its superhuman martial-arts monks, we are set to see a real-life attempt to kick some life into Chinese soccer by applying the methods […]
Two years after hosting a costly FIFA World Cup, Brazil will once again be on the world sporting stage next summer at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. But now, with the Brazilian economy facing a deepening crisis, the government has an idea for some help from a pillar of the “sharing economy”: […]
U.S. PLANS MORE SOUTH CHINA SEA PATROLS The U.S. will continue conducting patrols near artificial Chinese islands in the disputed South China Sea, Reuters quoted a U.S. defense official as saying yesterday. The official said patrols would happen about twice a quarter, describing that as “the right amount to make it regular but not a […]
Suspended for three months by FIFA’s Ethics Committee for a 2 million Swiss franc payment from Sepp Blatter, the former French soccer star denies any wrongdoing, and still says he’s the right man to be the next president of the global soccer org
Photo: Alberto Lingria/Zuma FOUR MILLION SYRIAN REFUGEES More than four million Syrians — a sixth of the population — have fled the country since the war broke out more than four years ago, and more than seven million who have remained have been forced out of their homes, according to the United Nations and international […]
The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) recently organized its first-ever European soccer championship. Could it be a credible alternative to the scandal-plagued FIFA?
AL-QAEDA HAS “COLLAPSED” The al-Qaeda terror group has been “cut off and ripped apart by ISIS,” two of its most important spiritual leaders told The Guardian. Abu Qatada and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi said that al-Qaeda has been drained of recruits and money because of territorial and influential losses to rival ISIS. Al-Maqdisi said its organizational […]
O “COMPLETE STRATEGY” YET FOR ISIS “We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well, about how recruitment takes place, how training takes place,” President Barack Obama told the G7 summit yesterday, speaking of U.S. efforts to combat the ISIS terror organization. His comments come […]
PARIS — Eternally nostalgic of its past grandeur, France is already dreaming about the prospect out loud: Platini! As an attacking midfielder, he led France to the 1984 European Championship and Italian squad Juventus to club dominance, before turning manager and overseeing the 1998 World Cup organization in France and eventually taking over as head […]
While attention was focused on alleged corruption at FIFA, another kind of drama was playing out between the Israeli and Palestinian soccer delegations.
SCORES DIE IN GHANA GAS STATION BLAST At least 96 people were killed in an explosion at a gas station in Ghana’s capital Accra last night, The Accra City Times reports. Local radio station JOYFM put the death toll at more than 100. Most of the victims had sought shelter at the gas station as […]
Blatter resigns: watch the world react by Worldcrunch
HUNDREDS MISSING AFTER CHINA SHIPWRECK At least 400 people were missing this morning after a Chinese ship carrying 458 passengers and crew was hit by an apparent cyclone and sank in the Yangtze River late yesterday, Chinese news agency Xinhua reports. So far, there are only 15 to 18 survivors, and just five bodies recovered, […]
After Swiss banking scandals shook global finance, arrests at the Zurich-based world soccer body shine a light on what’s wrong with business as usual in Switzerland.
Can Brazil apply the successful “Copa template” to everyday life and political leadership? Too often, the country tends to disappoint when the rest of the world isn’t watching.
BRASILIA — What will be the political and economic reverberations of Tuesday’s historic humiliation of Brazil’s soccer team? The government of President Dilma Rousseff is already on alert, fearing that the national bad mood left by the 7-1 defeat at the hands of Germany may deepen the already rather bleak Brazilian economic forecast, and have […]
SAO PAULO — Asking “How are you?” in English was the way Igor Mendes, a 26-year-old car dealer, approached Marcela Paes one night in Vila Madalena, the “in” district for Brazilians and foreigners enjoying La Copa in Sao Paulo. Unaware that Marcela is a reporter and fluent in English, he presented himself as a Scot. […]
Juliano Alves Pinto hadn’t walked since a 2006 car accident. Then, just a few days ago, the world watched as he wore a mind-controlled exoskeleton to make the opening kick of the World Cup in Brazil.
Newsmaking images that caught our eye.
BOGOTA — Blame it on Rio. Colombia officials arrested one of the country’s most sought-after leftist rebels after noticing an enormous satellite dish he had installed on his jungle hideout so he could watch the World Cup, Spanish news agency EFE and Colombian media reported. No civil war was going to deprive the 15-year veteran […]
Many outsiders regard Latin America as monolithic about soccer. But as the World Cup begins in Brazil, a closer comparison of the region’s top two teams might surprise you.
Kneeling on the sidewalk, Guilherme and his friends are busy preparing their banner ahead of a protest march against the World Cup, which starts in São Paulo on Thursday. In the nation of soccer, people have grown increasingly disenchanted and the Copa is growing more unpopular by the day. Only 48% of Brazilians support the […]
Brazil’s national sport of ‘futebol’ is the expression of all that is right in a sometimes troubled country. Plans by protestors to take out their anger on the World Cup are destined to fail.
Thursday, August 28, 2014 UKRAINE DENOUNCES “RUSSIAN TROOP DEPLOYMENT” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cancelled a trip to Turkey over what he described as “Russian troop deployments” in eastern Ukraine. His decision comes amid reports of a Russian “invasion” and the gathering of special OSCE meeting in Vienna. Writing on Twitter, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey […]
Monday, July 14, 2014 GAZA STRIKES CONTINUE AS OFFENSIVE ENTERS 7TH DAY The Israeli army continues to launch air strikes in Gaza, while more rockets are fired towards Israel, as the open conflict reaches its seventh day. At least 172 Palestinians are reported killed with more than 1,100 wounded. The United Nations said that 17,000 […]
Friday, July 4, 2014 ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE EXPECTED A truce between Israel and Hamas appeared to be on the cards this morning, after Egypt intelligence officials held negotiations with both sides, The Times of Israel reports. Despite the imminence of a possible ceasefire, more rockets were fired at Israel and IDF continued to fire artillery in […]