By Brian Sears 17 June 2010 England are the only country ranked inside the top eight nations in the world who perform worse at football than national income levels suggest they should, according to sportingintelligence analysis. Last week, we considered how countries fared in footballing terms in relation to the population resources at their disposal. […]

** By Andy Cole 17 June 2010 Every team has now played at least one match at the World Cup and only one nation has really impressed me: Germany. It’s not just the goals they scored against Australia – and we’re all drawn to goals – but the way they went about their business in […]

By Brian Sears 11 June 2010 Football is a global game, arguably the only one, but of course there are some areas of the world that love it and embrace it more than others. If that weren’t the case, and nations loved the beautiful game in equal measure and played it in equal measure, then […]

By Nick Harris 10 June 2010 Australia have withdrawn from the race to stage the 2018 World Cup to focus their attentions of the 2022 event. Fifa and Australia’s football federation (FFA) have released a joint statement to that effect after it became obvious that the 2018 race is going to be a Europe-only affair. […]

By Nick Harris 10 June 2010 The World Cup final on 11 July will vie with the 2002 World Cup final for the record of being the second most-watched live televised event in human history – behind the 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony – according to Kevin Alavy, a leading authority on global TV viewing […]

By Keira Daley 9 June 2010 Arsenal’s Russian playmaker, Andrei Arshavin, currently in South Africa on lobbying business for the Russian bid to stage the 2018 World Cup, has given a Q&A interview on his personal website in which he talks about his admiration for Liverpool, his confusion at a supporter carving his name on […]

By Nick Harris 8 June 2010 England will reach the World Cup final and beat Spain to lift the trophy, according to predictions based on the ages of the 32 squads and five other key “indicators” identified as being influential at previous events. The predictions have been made by the Professional Football Players’ Observatory (PFPO) […]

By Keira Daley 2 June 2010 The Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt has today accepted an invitation from the US Soccer Federation to join the board of directors for the USA’s bid to stage the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. The full story is online at the USSS website and the move is sure to […]

By Nick Harris 2 June 2010 The USA’s World Cup squad will share a bonus pot of more than $20m (£13.8m) if they defy the odds to win the tournament in South Africa this summer. The potential payout is the most lucrative confirmed bonus scheme in the history of the tournament and could net the […]

*** By Gary Hopkins 2 June 2010 . The occasion was the ‘Boston Soccer Party’ of 1993, otherwise known as the second fixture in the US Cup, a four-nation international tournament hosted by the US Soccer Federation and featuring the USA, Brazil, England and Germany. This particular match featured the USA against England on 9 […]