When the team-sheets were delivered, England will have quickly scanned them for the inevitable confirmation: of course Luis Suarez was playing.

A New Zealand high school teacher is set to take to the world sporting stage tomorrow as a referee at the Fifa World Cup.

There is nothing like the sight of a man, mere seconds ago a formidable athlete, now rolling around on the ground in agony because someone touched his shirt to tell you that the football/soccer World Cup is upon us.

The excitement around this year's World Cup in Brazil has been ratcheted up a notch now that we're in the second round of group matches.

Steven Holloway looks at what we have learned after week one of the tournament, from which player is the best to watch to who should win it all.

A Luis Suarez double has put England on the verge of an early World Cup exit, following a 2-1 defeat to Uruguay in Sao Paulo this morning.

Defending champions Spain have been knocked out of the World Cup in the group stages following a shocking 2-0 defeat to Chile in Rio de Janeiro this morning.

Australia's World Cup hopes are all but over after going down to the Netherlands 3-2 in Porto Alegre in what will be remembered as one of their gutsiest ever performances.

The secret is out. Just like the Emperor's new clothes, the Brazil team of 2014 are not what we have been led to believe.

It's the highlight of any footballer's career - performing for their country in front of a global television audience of billions at the World Cup finals.

Born to run, Raheem Sterling also spent some of his formative years cycling around the old car park at Wembley as England's home was being reconstructed.

1. There are more teams with World Cup experience

An Auckland woman - who's not a football fan - is one of six Kiwis still in the running for a $5m prize offered by the TAB this World Cup.

It took Lionel Messi just over an hour in Argentina's World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina to show why so many fans consider him the best in the world.

The last time the World Cup came to Brazil in 1950, some 200,000 people are estimated to have piled in to the Estadio Maracana, to see the hosts shocked by rivals Uruguay.

Michael Burgess on the five things we learned following the latest action from the World Cup in Brazil.

Fifa can appear to be on the wrong track as we know from the Qatar World Cup hosting controversy, but long may it reign over football if that is what is necessary to produce the amazing contests we are seeing from Brazil.

The Netherlands' 5-1 win against Spain was held in many quarters as a return to classic Dutch values, after the organised thuggery of the 2010 World Cup final.

Italy fans stopped traffic as they celebrated their win over England this morning.