Steven Gerrard has challenged Harry Redknapp to "name and embarrass" the Tottenham Hotspur players who he claims did not want to represent England.

Ghana was yesterday exposed as agreeing to take part in international football matches organised by match fixers.

Brazil are on home soil, with a history of success, many talented players and two World Cup winning coaches on board. But that doesn't mean they will win the tournament.

Hundreds of English TV viewers are calling for adverts featuring England football players to be pulled after being knocked out at the group stage of the World Cup.

Didier Deschamps claims that Karim Benzema has finally discovered his "joie de vivre" with France.

Is there anything weirder than the miserable story of the English football side? Why is the mother ship so useless at the world's biggest sport?

Amid all the goals, thrills and English inquests, a wider pattern is unfolding in Brazil that might yet develop into the World Cup's most significant narrative.

Even in Brazil where football is a religion, the miraculous sight of wheelchair-bound fans leaping from their seats has prompted calls for a police investigation into claims of ticket fraud.

When England take their leave of major tournaments, the photographs are invariably of footballers on their haunches or on the turf coming to terms with their distress.

Four years since their infamous player mutiny at the last World Cup, France look poised to make a more positive impact on this tournament as they swept aside Switzerland 5-2 yesterday.

The astonishing match between Costa Rica and Italy marks the halfway point of the group stage and seems an opportune time to reflect on the FIFA World Cup.

A New Zealand high school teacher is set to take to the world sporting stage tomorrow as a referee at the Fifa World Cup.

There is nothing like the sight of a man, mere seconds ago a formidable athlete, now rolling around on the ground in agony because someone touched his shirt to tell you that the football/soccer World Cup is upon us.

The excitement around this year's World Cup in Brazil has been ratcheted up a notch now that we're in the second round of group matches.

Steven Holloway looks at what we have learned after week one of the tournament, from which player is the best to watch to who should win it all.

A Luis Suarez double has put England on the verge of an early World Cup exit, following a 2-1 defeat to Uruguay in Sao Paulo this morning.

The nation that has won five World Cups, that produced Pele, Romario and Ronaldo, is now wondering whether to play Fred or Jo in attack against Cameroon on Tuesday.

Spain, the world champions, the double European champions, the team of the decade, are out of the World Cup.