World Cup Fever

A few months ago, a number of head executives of FIFA were hit with bans due to scandals involving bids in relation to previous World Cups as well as upcoming ones.

Following this incident, Russia’s bid to host the approaching 2018 World Cup was a questionable one and this bid was re-evaluated.

After all the investigations uncovered a series of scandals and things of this nature, one of the executives of FIFA that decided to resign was Sepp Blatter and was replaced by Gianni Infantino.

The United States football team might miss the 2018 World Cup if they fail to beat Guatemala. The United States has not missed a World Cup since 1990 and would want to give everything on the field to qualify.

They are currently third in their qualifying group with 4 points from 3 games. Trinidad and Tobago lead the group with 7 points and Guatemala is second with 6 points. The other team in the group is St.Vincent.
The United States, who has been previously unbeaten during 21 games against Guatemala, lost their first match on Friday 2-0. Their last defeat against Guatemala was way back in 1988. A repeat of this performance will be disastrous for the States, and they will have to watch the next World Cup on television. Even a draw may not be enough since they will then have to hope that Trinidad and Tobago win their fixture against Guatemala in September.

Bolivia goalkeeper Romel Quinonez remains confident of qualifying for the World Cup 2018 despite making a poor start to the campaign.

Regarded as one of the minnows in South American football, Bolivia have never been favourites to qualify for a major tournament like the World Cup. However, there has been a seismic shift in the football landscape in this region since 2015.Baldivieso took charge of the national team during this period and he has placed his faith on the youngsters in this region. So far, the national team has managed only one win in the qualification campaign.

United States faced off with the Canadian national football team a few weeks ago on February 6 in a friendly match which finished with a final scoreboard of 1-0 in favor of the American team. The only goal of the entire match was scored by Jozy Altidore at the 89th minute as he connected with a cross from Ethan Finlay and found the back of the net in the last few minutes of the encounter.

The World Cup tournaments have a tradition of witnessing some of the best players in the world giving their one last go.

A number of legendary names like Zinedine Zidane have announced their retirement just after the World Cup. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is set to join in this list after announcing his decision to hang up his gloves after the tournament comes to a close in Russia. There were several doubts about Russia being able to host this tournament, but it now looks set to go ahead despite issues of racism, war, and deflation.

There has been a lot of criticism surrounding the Qatar World Cup 2022. Many countries have objected to the World Cup being awarded to the Middle East nation due to fears of corruption.

Since the award process has gone beyond a certain stage, it is now almost certain that Qatar will host a World Cup for the first time in the nation’s history. Keen to showcase their power to the rest of the world, the Middle East oil rich nation has been spending huge sums of money on the construction of new stadiums. In order to combat the intense heat, most stadiums are expected to be fully air-conditioned.

Wayne Rooney added yet another Manchester derby to his collection after featuring in the weekend’s 0-0 draw against Manchester City at Old Trafford.

The striker recently turned 30 and speculation has mounted that he will be appearing in his last few Manchester derbies. Manager Louis van Gaal, though, claimed that the Rooney has the quality and intelligence to continue playing in at least 10 more such derbies. At 30 years of age, the striker is fast entering into the time when a forward is questioned the most. This is due to a combination of declining strength and speed, but Van Gaal says that Rooney is much more than physical attributes.

It is safe to assume that the 2018 World Cup in Russia will feature some of the grandest names in world football, and some of the most prolific.

Given that the finals are a little over two-and-a-half years away, and taking into account their respective ages, goals really shouldn’t be in short supply when the next global gathering of the sport’s elite takes place.

Lionel Messi, Barcelona and Argentina’s talisman, will be looking to cement his legacy by securing the one major honour still to be ticked off on his enviable roll of honour, while eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo will want to carry domestic heroics at Real Madrid onto the international stage with Portugal.

The likes of Neymar (Brazil), Luis Suarez (Uruguay), Karim Benzema (France), Robert Lewandowski (Poland), Wayne Rooney (England) and Sergio Aguero (Argentina) are also likely to be in attendance, and will have their sights set on topping Golden Boot markets within international football betting.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that the World Cup 2018 will go down as one of the best events in world football.

Russia will be hosting the next edition of the World Cup with a lot of controversies surrounding the event, host, and the organisers. Fifa has been caught up in a corruption scandal with allegations that many of the voting members receive kickbacks for making Russia as the host of the 2018 World Cup. The tournament will be held from June 14 and will run for almost a month before concluding on July 15.

Greg Dyke is the chairman of the Football Association (FA) and he believes that the organizers who were involved in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup will not be sleeping well as the FBI has already arrested a number of FIFA executives and this pressure which started to emerge has even forced Sepp Blatter on stepping down as the president.

Sepp Blatter is another one who is being investigated and might even be arrested as well depending if whether or not enough corruption and bribery evidence is found.