In case you haven’t noticed, Apple quietly introduced a new “Soccer Fever” section on the App Store ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a month-long international soccer tournament that kicks off on June 12th. The section consists of four app categories: Soccer Apps, Soccer Games, Share the Fever and Discover Brazil. We’ve handpicked some of the best World Cup apps for iPhone and iPad from the list ahead… 

Soccer Apps

FIFA Official App is the most essential app you need for following the World Cup, allowing you to keep up to date with match alerts from your favorite teams and follow all of the games live in the Global Stadium. Free for iPhone.

Yahoo Sports is another good app that will be providing comprehensive coverage of the World Cup, especially because it was recently updated with coverage enhancements for the month-long tournament. Free for iPhone and iPad.

WatchESPN lets you watch live sports and shows from ESPN, with full access to live streaming feeds from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes. Enjoy the World Cup as it happens. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Deportes Telemundo delivers the latest news, live scores, stats, commentary, videos and galleries of your favorite countries participating in the World Cup. Video is only available in the United States and select countries. Free for iPhone.

ESPN FC Soccer & World Cup is your one-stop destination for following all of the action and drama of soccer, with comprehensive 2014 FIFA World Cup coverage alongside traditional league news and scores. Free for iPhone.

Univision Deportes provides live streaming and 24/7 coverage of soccer worldwide. The coverage might be in Spanish, but the real-time results, stats and comprehensive videos it provides is exceptional. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Soccer Games

FIFA 14 by EA SPORTS is the most authentic soccer game and your go-to title for the World Cup, featuring 33 leagues, over 600 licensed teams and more than 16,000 players. Take part in match day madness with intuitive controls and more. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Real Soccer 2013 is a popular simulated soccer game by Gameloft that immerses you in a realistic experience with over 3,000 top players and over 700 motion-capture animations. Develop your team and lead your club to the top. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Dream League Soccer provides you with the opportunity to build the best soccer team on the planet, recruiting new players and upgrading your stadium as you take on the world in online multiplayer. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Soccer Rally 2: World Championship isn’t just your typical soccer game. The app combines the sport with racing, tasking you with driving to glory through 28 challenging tournaments. Multiplayer mode available. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Cristiano Ronaldo Footy is the official football — yes, or soccer — game from team Ronaldo. It features 3D action with new leagues to climb, powerful special moves, customizable teams and much more. Free for iPhone and iPad.

Pele: King of Football is a soccer game with streamlined gesture controls, featuring the legendary player Pele himself. Follow in his footsteps through career mode, working your way from the backstreets of Brazil to the World Stage. Free for iPhone and iPad.

What is your favorite World Cup app?

After 820 preliminary matches played by 203 national teams, the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament is down to the final 32 teams.  The group stage will be played June 12-26. There are 8 groups of 4 teams, who will play each other to determine who advances to the round of 16.




Groups
Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon
Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia
Group C: Colombia, Greece, Côte d’Ivoire, Japan
Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy
Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras
Group F: Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria
Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA
Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea Republic

[See game schedule]

In our continuous efforts to “connect the fun to the fun people”, below is our list of recommended World Cup viewing locations in NYC.
See also:

MurphGuide Directory of Soccer Bars in NYC

MurphGuide Directory of Sports Bars in NYC

English: Joseph Blatter, FIFA's presidend (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sao Paulo (AFP) - FIFA chief Sepp Blatter opened the global football body's congress Tuesday under fresh pressure to stand down and with upheaval and corruption claims clouding this week's World Cup opening.

Two days before the grand kick-off in Sao Paulo, Blatter steered clear of controversy as he addressed representatives of all 209 member associations gathered at a large exhibition centre.

"Tonight we are in a festive mood because let's say the discussions and all of what's linked with FIFA and is so important nowadays, we will discuss it tomorrow," he said.

"And if there are any problems perhaps we can sort them. But now we will just be here in Sao Paulo for the opening ceremony of our congress."

The 78-year-old Swiss, who looks set to renege on promises not to seek a fourth term when his current stint expires next year, earlier faced strong dissent from some European delegates.

FIFA has been in the firing line after Britain's Sunday Times reported allegations that millions of dollars in bribes were paid to help Qatar secure the 2022 World Cup.

"'Mr Blatter, this is nothing personal but if you look at FIFA's reputation over the last seven or eight years, it is being linked to all kinds of corruption and all kinds of old boys' networks things'," Dutch football boss Michael van Praag said he told Blatter at closed-doors talks in Sao Paulo.

"FIFA has an executive president and you are not making things easy for yourself and I do not think you are the man for the job any longer."

England's David Gill also called it "disappointing" that Blatter appeared set to stand again. "I think we need a full, frank and open debate about what FIFA needs going forward," he told reporters.

Meanwhile the World Cup build-up has been hit by a subway strike in Sao Paulo and protests over the tournament's multi-billion dollar price tag, while basic public services are lacking.

And concerns remain over Sao Paulo's new Corinthians Arena, which will host Brazil v Croatia in the tournament's opener on Thursday but has not been tested at full capacity.

But Blatter has been defiant, saying criticism of Qatar's World Cup hosting was motivated by racism and taking aim at FIFA's "destroyers".

Blatter is expected to formally announce his candidacy during the congress, which gets down to business on Wednesday.

HARARE - Without a doubt, football administration in Zimbabwe has had its fair share of problems – and some of them self-inflicted and highly unnecessary.

From the times of Nelson Chirwa, Trevor Carelse-Juul, Leo Mugabe, Wellington Nyatanga to the current executive led by Cuthbert Dube, the country has been rocked by a number of administrative blunders, which have stalled football development locally.

And these have not been limited to the lack of qualification to major tournaments by our soccer teams that the call for Sports minister Andrew Langa to disband the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) board – and, therefore, attract a Fifa ban – is not only ill-advised, but misplaced and retrogressive.

While the chorus has been fronted by former Dynamos secretary-general Leslie Gwindi and others, l believe these self-serving shrill calls have also exposed a serious, if not contrived, lack of understanding of the national association’s mandate and what a global ban would do to Zimbabwe.

From my understanding, Zifa’s mandate in running the local game goes beyond the senior men’s team or so-called Warriors, but actually anchored on four key pillars, including administration, coaching, football medicine and refereeing.

Admittedly, it is every Zimbabwean football fan’s desire and aspiration for our teams to progress, but quite another for Gwindi and company to call for the country’s expulsion from Fifa simply because they want to get rid of Dube.

For a body that has largely been surviving on the Zifa president and Zurich-based organisation’s benevolence, and goodwill, do people not know how detrimental these actions would be on the broader national game?

In the midst of tight budgets at government level and ever-increasing penury at 53 Livingstone Avenue, Sepp Blatter has bailed us on many key projects, including the foreseen new headquarters, beyond the annual $250 000 grant.

Therefore, is it in our national interest to be losing the little that is coming through – from our all-weather friends – on account of a generation of failed players and some petty personal wars driven more by selfish interests than football.

To expose the folly of this plan, are the proponents of this move in charge or control of whatever punishment Fifa would have brought on us and this includes the waiting period for our re-admission.

It does not take rocket science to know that once Zimbabwe has been sanctioned, it cannot come back into the fold of international football on its terms and, while we are ostracized, all facets of football would be suffering. These include the goal project and associated projects such as Zifa Village.

Yes, it’s hard to accept that among the squad that failed to beat Tanzania ang got eliminated from the Nations Cup qualifiers so early were some players we thought were a God-send generation. Perhaps we overrated them, and it’s as much as it hurts, it’s time to move on next generation of Warriors.

This is where Fifa comes in handy. Inviting a ban on ourselves from Fifa is not a much thought-after idea from those clamouring for it; we need to play as much football as we can in this rebuilding period.

A Fifa ban means we cease to become part of the Fifa family, and with it all the benefits that comes with being one. So how are we going to groom the next generation of Warriors if the players are not playing international football?

We need to forget about the players that have failed us, hard to take as it is to accept that this lot that promised so much has failed us.

Let’s assemble a development squad of Under-17 and Under-20 players. Get the same group to play as much football is it can, starting from this year’s Cosafa Cup in Botswana, leading up to the Chan tournament in 2016.

They will get hammered. Maybe not as much. But results are not what we are looking for in this rebuilding phase. But the time we start qualification campaigns for the 2017 Afcon and 2018 World Cup, we would have nurtured a team sufficiently equipped to take on the continent.

Besides the international games, also get the group to meet and train regularly at a high performance centre, at Zifa Village or the Innovative Centre, under the stewardship of expert elite coaches. Get Fifa to fund the coaching, they will listen to such proposals in Zurich.

This is what progressive football people should be putting on the table. Not inviting a destructive Fifa ban.

And it gets so worrying that the anti-Dube crusade includes misinformation campaigns that the Under-17 and 20 teams have been banned from international competition, yet the Confederation of African Football has never made such pronouncements.

That aside, has anything spectacular come out of our shores in terms of on-field achievement when the record shows that Zimbabwe has only qualified twice for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Save for the Sunday Chidzambwa and Charles Mhlauri eras in 2004, and 2006, has the bunch of senior national team players and coaches shown us anything out of the ordinary to warrant this wild, hysterical and misguided claim that we are among the best.

While continental giants like Cameroon and Nigeria – regular qualifiers for major events like Olympics, and the World Cup – have had frequent bonus clashes, is it really catastrophic for debt-ridden Zifa to be quarrelling with its players?

In another view, is the call for Zimbabwe’s expulsion from Fifa structures and assistance not akin to inviting “sanctions” on Zimbabwe, and at a time when the country desperately needs friends?

While many a people have decried the effects of a travel and asset embargo on President Robert Mugabe, and the economy, it is a shocking development to hear people calling for action against the country when they should be helping to fight these western embargoes.

And in lieu of the foregoing, it is my humble opinion that calls for Dube, and his executive to go – on account that they have failed – could be presumptuous and nonsensical for we have experienced “relative stability, and respect” from people like Blatter.

Unlike any of his predecessors, the man has ploughed significant personal resources into the game, while the nation had been accustomed to crises such as Asiagate under Nyatanga and the perennial near-misses of others.

Despite the vilification he is facing now, the Zifa boss forked out $20 000-plus and guaranteed Tanzania’s stay at Pandhari around that ill-fated weekend.

And when one looks at it objectively, what would have been more treasonous than the match-fixing scams?

In the meantime, we could concentrate on building strong teams around genuinely young players to take part in developmental tourneys such as Cosafa and ensure that Zimbabwe competes favourably in the future.

On the other hand, Dube’s arm-chair critics and detractors could also chip in financially, and otherwise to help develop, promote and control the national game!

And frankly, football is not Warriors and the Warriors are not football.

Report by Odisha Diary bureau, Puri: Odisha-based Internationally aclaimed sand artist Manas Kumar Sahoo has created a sand sculpture at the golden sea-beach (near Light House), Puri, situated at a distance of 65 km, from Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, to celebrate the opening of 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930. The current champions are Spain, who won the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978. It is scheduled to take place from 12 June to 13 July 2014 and 32 countries are participating in this competition. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition. In view of the worldwide celebration Mr. Sahoo prepared a beautiful sand sculpture that indicates unity, harmony and brotherhood of all the countries. In this sculpture he shows a foot ball, mascot and the FIFA world cup.

The sand sculpture is of the height of 7ft by using 10 tons of sand at a labour cost of 8 hours.  The nice idea of this preparation is appreciated by lover of art and culture, all visitors & tourist & people of locality. By preparing this sculpture the artist also wants to give the message” All in One Rhythm”.

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"Brazil is a large source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor."

Anyone else excited for 2014 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup in Brazil? Not necessarily a big American soccer (European football) fan, I enjoyed playing it as a child and love watching the games with friends. In the coming weeks, many will watch the international world cup, FIFA. In 2007, Brazil won the bid to host the 2014 world cup and the last year (2013 summer) was filled with national protests against the expensive event.


The reason for the protests include the under-investment in public services and the over-expenditure into the world cup.  Brazil built grand stadiums and the infrastructure necessary for the event, while skimping on social services and increasing prices and other issues like corruption, few hospitals, depreciated transportation system, and mismanagement of the construction for FIFA.

With this unrest framing the festivities of FIFA, prostitution and child sex trafficking is on the rise.
"The most significant human rights abuses included poor and at times life-threatening conditions in some prisons, sex trafficking of children and adolescents, forced labor, and exploitative working conditions."


End Child Prostitution in Brazil
As a sex tourism destination, the nation combats with sex trafficking and tourism and child exploitation. In Brazil, the age of consent is 14, with statutory rape penalized with sentences ranging from eight to fifteen years. Major coastal cities serve as tourist destinations for the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents without laws specifically addressing child sex tourism. Thousands of Brazilian highways have been identified by the police as hotspots for commercial sexual exploitation of children.

"More than 100,000 children were victims of sexual exploitation each year."

Many women and children are forced into prostitution abroad, with destinations including  neighboring countries such as Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela, and Paraguay, and even further to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States. With FIFA and a massive influx of tourists and fans arriving to Brazil for the games, the rampant child sex tourism issue remains unresolved and lacking global intervention and advocacy.

"Child sex tourists typically arrive from Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States."
With sixteen anti-trafficking offices, the government has implemented a national anti-trafficking plan and committed to approximately $2.9 million on it by 2014 this year. However, this plan faces defeat by Brazil's fickle trafficking definition that limits it to a movement-based crime. Increased efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and sentence trafficking offenders, including those involved in internal sex trafficking can make a huge difference in the lives of women and children. With FIFA and the not-so-distant Rio 2016 Olympic Games draining the government of funds, dedication to increased funding for specialized assistance, shelters, and protection for victims of sex trafficking and forced labor appear to be a far-off dream.

The government took public measures to reduce demand for commercial sexual exploitation of children by continuing to raise awareness during the Carnival season, but how will this pan out during FIFA?

RIO DE JANERIO: Various Muslim football players will also be seen in an action with other non-muslims players during the FIFA World Cup, 2014 in Brazil.

According to reports that the Muslims football players are already added in the Iran, Algeria, Bosnia Herzegovina and Cameron teams for World Cup 2014 but various Muslims players are going to participate in the non-muslims football teams.

France experience midfielder player Bilal Yousuf, who is the famous as Frank Ribery’s name, has been pulled out due to his back injury in the mega event.

The World best midfielder Mesut Ozil plays from the Germany side. He is a Turkish-born Muslim.

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Curitiba , Brazil:  Spain arrived in Brazil on Sunday as it prepares to defend its World Cup trophy.

Wet weather welcomed the world champion's to the southeastern city of Curitiba, where Spain will be based throughout the tournament.

Spain open their title defense against the Netherlands on Friday in Salvador, with Chile and Australia also opponents in Group B.

Players and staff were whisked straight from the plane into an awaiting bus, which then took the team to its hotel and training facility at local club Atletico Paranaense, on the outskirts of the city.

Unlike in South Africa four years ago when banners and flags welcomed their arrival, there were no indications that the World Cup champion was in Curitiba apart from signs at the training facility.

Jennifer Lopez at ISC Miami. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jennifer Lopez won't perform the World Cup's official song alongside fellow artists Pitbull and Claudia Leitte during the tournament's opening ceremony in Brazil, FIFA officials said Sunday.

Soccer's governing body said Lopez cannot perform at Thursday's event as earlier planned because of unspecified "production issues."

The singer's representatives didn't explain the reason why Lopez wouldn't be joining the act. They only confirmed the announcement in an emailed response, saying "regretfully Jennifer Lopez will not be attending this year's World Cup opening ceremonies."

FIFA said in a news release that Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte will sing the official tune "We Are One" before Brazil takes on Croatia at Thursday's opening game in Sao Paulo.

The song has let down many Brazilians who complain that it sounds too generic for the nation's Bossa Nova-crazed audiences and that it features foreign musicians singing mostly in English and Spanish. Leitte sings only a few seconds at the end of the song in her native Portuguese.

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Qatar will not be able to mount a legal challenge to Fifa if football’s governing body strips it of the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. As controversy continues to rage over allegations of corruption surrounding the bid process, it has emerged that Qatar agreed to sign away its right to take any form of legal action against Fifa when it made its original tender for the tournament in 2010.

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that a mechanism is available to football’s governing body to order a new vote whereby infringements of its code of ethics are cited.

Qatar, which denies all corruption allegations, is now facing a major fight to hang on to the World Cup, and the subject is certain to feature strongly when Fifa holds its congress in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, one day before the 2014 World Cup opens.

It had been assumed that one reason Fifa might fail to order a revote for 2012 was fear of legal action by Qatar. But the legal officer of one of the bidding nations told The IoS: “All the bidding countries had to sign a registration document in which they agreed to be bound by Fifa’s code of ethics. In a normal contract with an organisation based in Zurich, you would expect the agreement to be subject to Swiss law.

‘ Qatar’s proposed stadiumQatar’s proposed stadium

‘But Fifa’s code makes it clear that all disputes are decided by the appeals committee of Fifa’s ethics committee. The appeals committee can be taken to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration in Sport. But this is a special arbitration body for sport, not a court of law.

”So should Fifa decide to have a revote, Qatar cannot take Fifa to a Swiss court. All bidding countries knew they were giving up their legal rights when bidding for the World Cup. But so keen are countries to get the World Cup, they happily agreed to do so.”

This did not seem to matter at the time of the bidding as nobody expected to Qatar to win. Since then, the decision has proved so controversial that Fifa hired former US attorney Michael Garcia to investigate both the 2022 vote and the 2018 vote in which Russia beat England. Mr Garcia will complete his report tomorrow, although it will not be submitted to Fifa until next month.

However, this carefully planned Fifa timetable has been jeopardised following extensive revelations that Mohamed Bin Hammam, a Qatari who was then a Fifa vice-president, had allegedly paid bribes totalling £3m to football administrators round the world to influence the vote.

Fair play: Mohamed Bin HammamFair play: Mohamed Bin Hammam

Mr Hammam was also a member of the Fifa executive that decided on Qatar in preference to the US, Japan and Australia. He has since been banned for life from Fifa for offences not connected with the bid. Qatar World Cup organisers insist that Mr Hammam had nothing to do with their bid and that they scrupulously followed Fifa’s code of ethics.

However, according to well-informed sources, Fifa could now use this very code of ethics to deny Qatar the prize. Crucial to such a decision would be clause two of the code. This says: “Officials shall show an ethical attitude when performing their duties. They shall pledge to behave in a dignified manner. They shall behave and act with complete credibility and integrity.”

One official from another bidding country, who has given evidence to Mr Garcia, told The IoS: “This is Fifa’s version of the FA’s catch-all clause of ‘bringing the game into disrepute’, which has often helped the FA bring charges when there was no specific evidence.

“Fifa could order a revote saying that, while there may be no direct link between Hammam and Qatar, the whole process lacked integrity. And to justify this, Fifa could also use the fact that its own evaluation report said a World Cup in Qatar in the summer when temperatures can rise to 50C was high risk, the only bidding country to be so classified.”

Some inkling of Fifa’s thinking may emerge on Wednesday when the organisation holds its congress in Sao Paulo. Before the latest revelations, this was expected to be another celebration for Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, with the 78-year-old announcing that he would serve a fifth term when elections are held next year. However, now there is strong pressure for Uefa to find a candidate who offers a credible alternative to the Swiss

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SAO PAULO (AP) — FIFA President Sepp Blatter has hit out at critics who he says want "to destroy FIFA."

Blatter told Asian football leaders on Monday "I don't know what the reasoning is" behind The Sunday Times' allegations of corrupt payments by Mohamed bin Hammam.

The newspaper has reported Bin Hammam paid millions of dollars to Asian and African officials buying influence for Qatar's 2022 World Cup campaign and his own FIFA presidential challenge in 2011.

The FIFA chief, who is widely expected to stand for re-election, says "we are in the situation where we need leadership. I still have fire inside me."

Asian Football Confederation members stood to acclaim Blatter's request for support.

Minutes earlier, he promised FIFA member countries bonus payments from 2014 World Cup profits.

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The French men’s squad for the FIFA World Cup is struggling with injuries, but the women’s team has continued moving up, earning a top five spot in the FIFA Rankings by winning the Cyprus Cup in March. France currently sits on top of group seven in European qualifying for next summer’s women’s cup.

France is undefeated so far in qualifying for the 2015 cup, which will take place in Canada. They have seven wins over seven games with 21 points, and are two games ahead of the second place contender in the group, Finland. France has yet to play Finland in official qualifying, though, and the Finns are undefeated as well with five wins in five games.

Les Bleues earned their most recent three points with a 4-0 victory over Hungary early in May. Prior to that, France routed Austria with two 3-1 victories and shut out Kazakhstan in April and last September with seven and four goals, respectively. The French women decimated Bulgaria in both of their match-ups last November, shutting them out as well to the tune of 14 and 10 goals. France’s goal differential for qualifying is 43.

FIFA has France ranked fourth overall for women’s international soccer, behind only the United States, Germany, and Japan. If the French team qualifies for 2015, which seems likely at this point, it will be their third appearance on the world stage. The French women took fourth place in the 2011 World Cup after winning the number two spot in group play behind Germany, eventually losing to the United States in the semifinals and then to Sweden in the match for third place.

France played its first ever international game in 1920 against English side Dick, Kerr’s ladies, losing 2-0 in front of a crowd of around 20,000 spectators. The next year, women’s football was banned from FA and FIFA sanctioned events and pitches in France, England, and Germany for more than 50 years. Since FIFA reinstated women’s football, France has been on the move toward winning first place and lifting the World Cup trophy.


The French team is a combination of solid experience and youthful ingenuity, with veteran starters like Laura Georges and Camille Abily and fresh newcomers such as 21-year-old Amel Majri. Majri, who plays club for Lyon, has already netted one goal in a single appearance for the national team. Strikers Gaëtane Thiney and Marie-Laure Delie have over 100 combined goals in 180 appearances.

Qualifying will continue for France on August 20 with a second match against Hungary, a team that has never beaten France in international play. The French side will meet Finland on September 13 to decide the top spot in group seven. France is 7-1-2 all-time against the Finns, with a 14-point goal differential in favor of Les Bleues.

France will get an opportunity to warm up prior to these qualifying matches with friendlies against number-six ranked Brazil and number-one ranked United States. The team will play Brazil on June 11 before tackling a double-header against the U.S. on June 14 and June 19. France has beaten the U.S. twice in 16 meetings.

A win against Hungary or Finland could secure a spot in the 2015 Women’s World Cup for France, who have been steadily moving up through the rankings and are close to automatic qualification. France’s balanced lineup and superior goal-scoring ability provide a strong formula for dominating in qualifying and potentially in the World Cup Finals.

Commentary by Christina Jones


Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/fifa-womens-world-cup-france-on-the-move/#vgyGPl4dJzW6DfLZ.99

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AO PAULO (AP) — FIFA says about 1,400 people will have to change their tickets less than a week before the World Cup begins because they were handed out before work at the stadiums was completed.

FIFA said Saturday it notified 1,376 people whose tickets will have to be swapped because they do not correspond to valid seats.

Football's governing body said seating configurations changed after technical teams established exactly where the media tribunes and broadcast equipment had to be placed in each of the 12 venues.

FIFA said the changes were not caused by the delays in finishing Brazilian stadiums, and that such adjustments also happened in previous World Cups. It said the swaps account for "just a few cases comparing with the 2.2 million tickets sold to the general public."

Unquestionably, theScore is one of the best sports applications someone can download. From the constant flow of score and news updates to the very smooth design, theScore knows how to make people happy. So for the upcoming World Cup, theScore is being updated to bring people as close to Brazil as they can.

First and foremost, theScore is going to make sure you can follow your favorite team participating in the month-long tournament. This means you are going to get news and statistics updated in real-time; therefore, you are not going to miss a single moment even when you are not watching on television. And in case you are worried about missing a game, theScore will let you add the team’s schedule right to your calendar. Everything related to your favorite team can be found in one feed that is personalized just for you.

Here is what that personalized feed will look like:

So maybe you are busy and cannot watch on television. This is what theScore is known for: real-time updates pushed right to your mobile device. Aside from receiving notifications, you can setup right inside theScore and track what is going on down in Brazil. theScore is going to make sure your mobile experience is just what you want.

Matchups, lineups, stats, and a recap for games that have past, all in one place:

Play Store Download Link