Sports

Unbeatable football stars, historic goals and legendary goalkeepers: The FIFA World Cup has begun in the US, Mexico and Canada, but the frantic search for tickets remains. Many fraudsters are trying to scam football fans online. In May, the US domestic intelligence service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned against scams and said it was issuing a public service announcement "to warn the public that cyber threat actors are conducting spoofing attacks against the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) website in advance of the 2026 FIFA World Cup." It went on to explain that "a spoofed website is designed to pose as a legitimate website, with branding, product listings, etc., and malicious actors use them to further illegal activity like personal informatio...

Now that the 2026 World Cup has started, the show element of this tournament is hard to escape. Big stadiums, big screens, big food — this is America and there was no doubt about it in Houston. And Germany did their part by delivering a big scoreline. The 7-1 win over Curacao was a little short of their highest World Cup win (8-0 against Saudi Arabia in 2002), but matching the famous scoreline of that famous 2014 World Cup semifinal is a boost to a side that has endured rather than enjoyed recent editions of this tournament. After weeks of talk about the health of Manuel Neuer's calf, the woes of Qatar and Russia, and Julian Nagelsmann's communication, it was finally time for football. In the cooled, closed stadium in Houston, Germany cut through the lines faster, found that extra touch...

There are few records left for Manuel Neuer to break in his career, but his surprise return to the Germany team for the 2026 World Cup has seen him reach new milestones. By playing in goal during Germany's 7-1 win over Curacao, Neuer has now played at five World Cups, equaling Lothar Matthäus' German record. His appearance also made him the oldest ever German international, aged 40 years and 79 days, breaking a record previously held by Matthäus (39 years and 91 days). The game was also his 20th World Cup appearance, drawing him level with former French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris as the goalkeeper with the most tournament appearances. "Either you love football or you don't and that's why it's really special for me to start this tournament together with the team," Neuer said afterwards. "I re...

Julian Nagelsmann enters this World Cup in a completely different environment to Germany's home Euros two years ago. The shine around the 38-year-old head coach has faded somewhat as his communication skills have been called into question. Most of the concern is focused on his dramatic recalling of retired goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to the Germany squad just weeks before the start of the tournament despite having spent a year reinforcing Oliver Baumann as the number one. In March, he also delivered very public criticism of striker Deniz Undav, saying the player had played poorly after a game in which Undav had scored the winner. He later, after revealing he had spoken to his wife on the matter, apologized for his comments, saying he had got it wrong.  For a coach whose early rise was buil...

1. Isn't football's governing body FIFA supposed to be politically neutral? In the months leading up to the 2026 World Cup, FIFA President Gianni Infantino got unusually cozy with US President Donald Trump. This included sitting on a stage wearing a red USA baseball cap during the president's Board of Peace meeting, and presenting Trump with the newly created "FIFA Peace Prize" during the World Cup draw. According to its own statutes, FIFA is supposed to be politically neutral. However, Infantino has created the impression that he is deliberately mixing international sports politics with the interests of a state. The fact that the United States is at war with Iran is a first; never before has a World Cup host nation been engaged in a military conflict with one of the participating team...

If Edin Dzeko played for a bigger footballing nation, this wouldn't be just his second appearance at the tournament. But 12 years after Bosnia-Herzegovina failed to make it out of the group stage in Brazil, the now 40-year-old striker and his country are back on the game's biggest stage. Although Bosnia-Herzegovina, which gained its independence in 1992, has only made it to the one previous World Cup and never qualified for a European Championship, Dzeko has played an incredible 148 times (scoring 73 goals) for his country. Growing up in a besieged capital That independence came at a heavy price, as it was engulfed in one of the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The capital, Sarajevo, was particularly hard hit, enduring almost four years of siege by Yugoslav Natio...

Many will have never heard the refrain "I am from Bosnia, take me to America" until the Bosnian national team upset Italy in a playoff final in March. It put the small Balkan nation through to the World Cup for just the second time since the country gained its independence in 1992. Thousands of fans at the match in Zenica belted out the song, just as they did when the national team were feted at a square in the capital, Sarajevo, a few hours later.  But had you spent time in Bosnia over the past decade and a half, chances are good that the tune will have been oddly familiar. The song, originally titled "USA," was actually released by the Bosnian band Dubioza Kollektiv some 15 years ago. And it actually had nothing whatsoever to do with football. 'Typical Balkan experience' "It's from o...