Brazilian police used tear gas and made an estimated 230 arrests on Saturday evening to disperse a protest in Sao Paulo ahead of the World Cup. Among those arrested in Brazil's business hub, which will host the opening match of the World Cup on June 12, were five journalists, O Estado de Sao Paulo daily reported.
Pope Francis received Friday in a private audience Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who formally invited the Argentine pontiff to visit her country during the World Cup soccer championship, which begins June 12.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica is scheduled to attend a reception on Saturday at Argentina's tall ship Libertad, which together with several similar vessels is participating in the '2014 Latin American Sails' tour of thirteen Latin American and Caribbean ports, and on Friday arrived to Punta del Este.
Barcelona have been charged by a Spanish court with committing tax fraud in the signing of Brazil forward Neymar last year in the latest twist to a saga that has already claimed the scalp of the club president.
Coach Luis Filipe Scolari says he wants Brazil to banish the ghosts of 1950, when his country last hosted the World Cup and lost the final in a defeat against neighboring Uruguay that has haunted them ever since.
FIFA is expected to conduct surprise doping tests of all World Cup players at least once beginning in March, setting up biological passports to determine possible irregularities in blood and urine samples. FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said all teams and players should be tested unannounced between March 1 and the World Cup opener in June.
Pravda, Russia’s political newspaper associated with the Communist Party, welcomed Gibraltar into UEFA’s family in an article publish online on Thursday.
England's Football Association (FA) has confirmed it needs a new sponsor for the FA Cup after Budweiser decided not to renew its £9m-a-year deal. The current deal with the US drinks giant expires at the end of the season, and the search is on for a replacement for the 2014-15 competition.
A worker died in an accident while working outside the World Cup stadium in the Brazilian city of Manaus, local authorities and the Sports Ministry said. The Amazonia Arena, which should have been completed in December according to FIFA's original deadline, is behind schedule and workers were rushing to get the job finished.
Reports from the US gambling haven of Las Vegas suggest that boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather has placed 10 million dollars on a Denver Broncos victory in the upcoming Super-bowl.