FIFA has told fans buying World Cup tickets from unauthorized sellers that they could be barred from stadiums. Three weeks from the opening match, FIFA said yesterday that it “cancels tickets discovered as illegally sold or re-sold with the bearers risking not being permitted entry.” FIFA marketing director Thierry Weil said some fans have already been affected.
If the recent protests and demonstrations across Brazil prior to the World Cup are any indication of the domestic and public violence that is expected to happen, fans, of all nationalities must be cautious, as the Brazilian military police has warned.
Brazil faced new protests and strikes Friday as bus drivers continued their walkout in Sao Paulo's suburbs and Rio de Janeiro braced for demonstrations 20 days from the World Cup.
Uruguay and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez is resting at home following a Thursday early morning arthroscopy, and should be back with recuperation exercises as early as next week, according to the latest sanitary report from the Uruguayan Football Association medical team.
Uruguay’s striker Luis Suarez will undergo surgery on Thursday in a knee according to relatives and close friends of the best player of the English Premier league with the Liverpool colors.
FIFA has demanded Brazil’s World Cup organizers stage one final test event at the Sao Paulo stadium staging the June 12 opener. The Brazilian league schedule has been re-jigged to accommodate Corinthians match against Brazilian champions Cruzeiro at the 68,000-seat Itaquerao, which is still unfinished, on June first.
Protests in Brazil and delays in building stadiums are putting the World Cup next month at risk and prompting tourists to stay away, soccer great Pele said on Monday. Brazil's tournament organizers have faced headwinds since the country was tapped to host the World Cup in 2007.
If attacked in Brazil: Don't fight, scream or argue. That's the advice being offered to tourists by São Paulo Civil Police ahead of this year's World Cup games which authorities have revealed will be enforced by armored, “RoboCop”-styled riot police.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff confessed on Thursday evening during dinner with journalists that she is fed up with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter and said the last chapter of protests in the Brazilian cities that will host the World Cup next month were a failure.
Awarding the 2022 soccer World Cup to Qatar was a 'mistake' and the tournament will probably have to be held in the winter because of the heat, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said.Of course, it was a mistake. You know, one comes across a lot of mistakes in life, he told Swiss television station RTS in an interview.