Pop star Shakira will perform before the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13, headlining a closing ceremony that includes guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana and rapper Wyclef Jean.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Cristiano Ronaldo will avoid serving a 23-month prison sentence after agreeing a deal.
Russia midfielder Alan Dzagoev will miss out on Euro 2016 after breaking a bone in his foot playing for CSKA Moscow, the Russian Football Union (RFU) said on its website last week.
A lot has changed for France goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris and defender Bacary Sagna since they were part of the team that left the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in disgrace.
Manchester City's Premier League home match against Arsenal has been postponed because players from the London club have had contact with the owner of Greek side Olympiakos Piraeus, who has contracted the coronavirus. Meanwhile La Liga matches will be played without fans for at least the next two rounds of fixtures to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the Spanish league said.
England's 2018 World Cup bid team apologised to its Spanish and Russian counterparts on Sunday following a newspaper report quoting the Football Association chairman making bribery allegations.
Factbox on Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who beat Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 to win his 10th French Open title on Sunday.
The 28-year-old striker, who scored 30 goals in 46 appearances for Valencia last season, is part of a growing number of Spain internationals who are leaving their homeland to play in the English Premier League.
Former Indian cricket captain and co-owner of Atletico de Kolkata Sourav Ganguly on Monday said the presence of eminent foreign players in the Indian Super League (ISL) will help the Indian players raise their playing standards and improve Indian football in the years to come.
World Cup winners Germany are no mood to experiment against minnows Gibraltar in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Friday, promising a goal bonanza to make amends for recent poor results.
Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Dmitri Tarasov insists he acted alone when he wore a T-shirt praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving the player and team facing an anxious wait over possible sanctions for Tuesday's incident in Turkey.
Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson believes Pep Guardiola will need time to adapt to Premier League football when he takes charge of Manchester City in July but has tipped the Spaniard to be a success. Guardiola has won numerous trophies in Spain and Germany with Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively but Ferguson feels the English game, known for its fast-paced and physically demanding nature, will pose a completely different challenge. "Without question Pep has got a fantastic work ethic about him. He has got great coaching ability, there is no doubt about that. Man City have made a real coup in getting him," the 13-time league champion told British media.
Germany's federal cartel office on Tuesday launched an investigation into the German football association's (DFB) sale of tickets for the national team's matches at Euro 2016.
Images from Thursday's action in the Europa League Europa League - Round of 16 Second Leg - matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, the last two winners of the World Player of the Year award, have been included in a FIFA shortlist for this year's accolade. The 23-man shortlist was drawn up by FIFA's Football Committee and will be voted on by the captains and head coaches of the world's national teams with the winner to be announced on December 21.
Manchester City's Abu Dhabi-controlled owner has agreed to sell a $500 million stake to US private equity firm Silver Lake, making it the world's most valuable soccer group with a $4.8 billion price tag.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Their limp performance does not inspire confidence ahead of the visit of the all-powerful Serie A leaders and familiar foe Cristiano Ronaldo.
Paris St Germain will play Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona were pitted against an unpredictable Napoli, while Chelsea were drawn against Bayern Munich. City, who will be at home in the second leg, have yet to beat the Spanish side with two draws and two defeats in their previous four meetings.
Fernando Torres said he was excited to be back at Liverpool after his World Cup-winning summer with Spain, dismissing suggestions that he was seeking a transfer in a bid to find Champions League football.
The Euro 2020 soccer Championship, trumpeted as a continent-wide feast of football from Dublin to Baku to mark UEFA's 60th anniversary, was postponed for a year on Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic claimed its biggest sporting casualty yet. Europe's flagship tournament, staged every four years and second only to FIFA's World Cup in terms of prestige in soccer, will now be staged from June 11 to July 12, 2021.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
According to data from aMap, an overnight audience monitoring agency, in the top six metros, around 1.5 million viewers saw Sunday's match, while 1.9 million viewers had watched the final in 2006.
Luis Figo and Carlos Puyol find it inexplicable, while Raul thinks it's a testament to the quality of Spanish football but all three La Liga legends are sure that Barcelona's astonishing slump would not last too long.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi is hoping to arrange a meeting with an Afghan boy who shot to fame after pictures of him dressed in a striped plastic bag jersey went viral, Kabul's football federation said on Monday.
The trend has become so synonymous with the World Cup that an edition sans an upset result does lose some of its lustre.
Spain forward Fernando Torres has agreed to return to Atletico Madrid on loan from AC Milan until the end of the 2015-16 season.
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone said Argentina look lost and have no leadership after the 3-0 loss to Croatia which left them on the verge of a disastrous early exit from the World Cup, in an audio message leaked to Spanish and Argentine radio stations.
Portugal inexplicably lost control of the game despite managing to beat Morocco 1-0 in the World Cup Group B match on Wednesday and were lucky not to get themselves in more trouble, coach Fernando Santos said.
Jan-Fiete Arp (8th minute), Nicolas Kuehn (62nd) and Sahverdi Cetin (90+2) netted for the winners, while Ibrahima Soumah got the lone goal for Guinea in the 26th minute in the final Group C match at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium.
Barcelona star Gerard Pique and his Colombian pop star partner Shakira have found themselves at the centre of a storm.
IMAGES from football matches played across leagues in Europe on Sunday.
European countries will be able to bid to host the 2026 World Cup only if none of the eligible candidates are good enough, soccer's governing body said on Friday.
The old format was skewed in favour of the bigger clubs, who could rest players for a first leg and swallow defeat before calling on their stars to turn the tie around in the return game.
Delhi Dynamos maintained their unbeaten run at home despite playing the entire second half with 10 men, as they rallied twice to hold Atletico de Kolkata 2-2 in an enthralling Indian Super Lague football match in New Delhi on Sunday.
A summary of Friday's night's qualifying matches for Euro 2020.
When Michel Platini revamped the European Championship, turning the finals from a tough, lean 16-team tournament in 2012 into a flabby, 'roll up, anybody's welcome' 24-side affair in 2016, it was not surprising he ran into a blizzard of rebukes.
Images from football friendlies played on Wednesday.
Not many people talk badly of Pep Guardiola, a sainted figure in football, but Manchester City's manager will find two of his most vocal critics facing him down at Old Trafford on Saturday.
