A schoolboy football player and a referee are in hot water over a testy exchange that allegedly involved spitting and forced a match to be abandoned.

NZ-based Brazil fans are thrilled their team is through to the Fifa World Cup semifinals - but their joy is tempered slightly by the loss of key player Neymar.

So it is developing into a World Cup about individuals. Lionel Messi and Neymar have put their countries a couple of games away from a final.

Interim All Whites coach Neil Emblen has been cut from New Zealand Football's shortlist of applicants for the top job.

Goodbye Qatar, hello Australia. That's my message to Fifa, which needs to swallow its pride and switch the venue for the 2022 World Cup.

Our football writers add their thoughts and predictions ahead of the World Cup quarter-finals.

Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta Argentina's dependence on Lionel Messi has been increasingly evident throughout this World Cup.

A report on the World Cup being hailed as one of the greatest ever will be compiled by Fifa's Technical Studies Group and presented to all national associations.

Steven Holloway looks at four things we have learned from the third week of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

A lucky Kiwi punter managed to make more than $50,000 from yesterday’s Football World Cup matches.

FIFA said Today it will let Cameroon football authorities lead the hunt for "seven bad apples" in the national team who have been linked to match-fixing at the World Cup.

Soundbite or not, Luis Suarez has now apologised to the "entire football family" for that bite but he's the one missing out.

We all know professional footballers feign injury. Is it getting worse? Probably.

The Fifa World Cup game between England and Italy drew the largest free-to-air television audience of the tournament so far.

World Cup sensation James Rodriguez says Colombia will feel "no pressure" against Brazil in the quarter-finals after inspiring his side to a 2-0 victory over Uruguay.

As Adidas stopped using Luis Suarez for marketing, other social media-savvy companies have seized the opportunity for free publicity.

Suspense during yesterday morning's Fifa World Cup match between Brazil and Chile proved too much for a Kiwi punter who bet $2000 in extra time on the losing side.

Colombia wiped away the stain of Luis Suarez in the best possible way, leaving this World Cup to reclaim its place as one of the great sporting tournaments of all time.

Poor, old Luis Suarez. The more you see the biting incident in this otherwise terrific World Cup, the more you fear for the guy's mental health.

Always appearing older than he is, 30-year-old Arjen Robben seems to have been around, fully formed, for years. But what we are seeing at this World Cup is a player at last coming of age.