International Football
NINE DAYS TO FINAL DRAW: TIMELESS CLASHES OF THE WORLD CUP
It is nine days to the Final Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The highlight of draw ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup is the matching of teams against the others.
In the first instance the 32 teams are broken into quartets of eight groups that will engage in a 48-match group stage before another 16-match knock-out stage.
In all, there will be 64 matches. But Sports Village Square can inform that some fixtures are often recurring. Till date, there have been 836 matches played since the World Cup kicked off on July 13, 1930 with a France versus Mexico encounter.
Of the matches played so far, there have been a number of recurring matches and often featuring the same teams’ pairings.
Sports Village Square recalls that top of such is the Brazil versus Sweden. This fixture had featured seven times in the past to rank as the most recurring fixture in the World Cup.
The last time the two clashed was however 23 years ago at the semi finals of USA ’94.
But this match up will not hold at Brazil 2014 since Sweden failed at the qualifying series. Two of the seven clashes of Sweden and Brazil involved legendary Brazilian players.
The 1958 clash featured Pele who was then 17 and later became a major factor in the first of Brazil’s five titles to date.
Another recurring fixture involved Germany and the former Yugoslavia. None of the match-ups took place beyond the group stage.
The next recurring matches are Brazil versus Spain, Brazil – Czechoslovakia, Argentina versus Germany and Brazil versus Italy. The latter will not occur at Russia 2018 as Italy failed to qualify.
There have been five instances of those matches as well as Argentina versus England, France versus Italy, Germany versus Italy and Argentina facing Italy.
The pairings of Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Germany have produced six final matches and three semi finals. Brazil played Italy twice in the final while Argentina and Germany have also competed against each other twice in a final match.
Italy have played against past winners such as Brazil, Germany and France. Brazil and Germany have been to the World Cup finals more than any other country. Yet, the head to head clash of the two was a rarity until they met at the 2002 final match. The only other time they met was at Brazil 2014 when Germany humiliated their hosts, 7-1 in the semi finals.
With that, all the seven past winners of the world Cup have met. As for Nigeria, the commonest foe has been Argentina which the Super Eagles have faced on four of previous World Cup appearances. They met in 1994, 2002, 2010 and 2014.
Next among the teams Nigeria met more than one occasion are Bulgaria and Greece. Nigeria met both twice. The Super Eagles beat Bulgaria 3-0 in 1994 and 1-0 in 1998.
Greece lost 2-0 to the Super Eagles in 1994 and had a sweet revenge of a 2-1 win in 2010. That was the first time Greece ever won a match in the World Cup. The second time was the defeat of Cote d’Ivoire at Brazil 2014.
Most Recurring World Cup Matches
- Sweden versus Brazil – 7 times
- Germany versus former Yugoslavia – 6 times
- Brazil versus Spain – five times
- Brazil versus former Czechoslovakia – five times
- Brazil versus Italy – five times
- France versus Italy – five times
- Germany versus Italy – five times
- Argentina versus Italy – five times
- Argentina versus Germany – five times
- Argentina versus England – five times
- Argentina versus Nigeria – four times
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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