Fans spent $1.5B during the World Cup, Russian bank Sberbank estimated, led by U.S. and Chinese fans whose teams did not "even feature." Fast-food outlets and restaurants generated 6.2B rubles ($97.7M), according to Sberbank (FINANCIAL TIMES, 7/19).
FIFA confirmed the World Cup's FIFA Fan Fest welcomed 7.7 million visitors. The festival drew 5.2 million fans during the 2014 World Cup. The highest attendance occurred on June 25, when Uruguay played Russia and 499,000 fans attended 11 venues. Moscow achieved the best total attendance, with 1,887,200 visitors (FIFA).
The Scottish FA will have to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to pursue a case against Scottish Premiership side Rangers "for an alleged breach of rules" over a UEFA license. The club's legal team "successfully argued" that the issues surrounding the license for the '11-12 season "would need to be dealt with by the Swiss-based court under the terms of the five-way agreement," which allowed Rangers to continue playing in '12 (SCOTSMAN, 7/19).
Rangers contacted Police Scotland after footage emerged of a fan "seeming to racially abuse a child" before the club's Europa League tie in Macedonia. The footage, which has been "condemned by the club's fans on social media," ends with the man saying "white power" to a group of Macedonian children (BBC, 7/19).
After the introduction of VAR was postponed by the Premier League, English Football League CEO Shaun Harvey said that video technology is a "fair way away" from being used at EFL matches. The video technology deployed during the World Cup will not be used by the Premier League next season in favor of "another 12 months of extended trials," including in "competitions run by the EFL" (London GUARDIAN, 7/18).
French Professional Football League (LFP) President Nathalie Boy de la Tour called on La Liga President Javier Tebas to "rescind inaccurate statements regarding Paris Saint-Germain's violation of Financial Fair Play," insisting that the governing body will "pursue the necessary steps to put an end to such falsehoods should they continue." She also criticized Tebas for "using the media to influence UEFA's decision-making process" and added that PSG's financial situation is a "concern for UEFA and French football" (MARCA, 7/19).
