In one sense Brazil’s mega-event diplomacy has already worked, for it has brought the country an unprecedented degree of global scrutiny. But it has not been delivering quite the message intended.

Vietnamese and Philippine naval forces planned to play football, volleyball and tug-of-war Sunday in the first such display of camaraderie in the Spratly Islands in the South China sea where territorial rifts with China have flared.

Some of the world’s best soccer players are gathered in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which begins next week. But during the rest of the year, the 736 players who are members of national teams play on club teams around the world in 53 different countries. Pew Research analyzed the final rosters for each of the 32 qualifying nations posted to FIFA’s official website and found a total of 476 players (65%) who currently play for clubs in countries outside of their World Cup nation. 

A disclosure by British weekly The Sunday Times of millions of documents allegedly revealing massive Qatari vote buying in the Gulf state's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup could rejigger the Gulf's fragile balance of power, reverse hopes that Qatar would initiate significant social change in the region, and return the worst corruption crisis in global soccer governance to the top of the agenda.

Diplomats accredited to Bucharest have taken diplomacy to the field, competing in football, basketball and tennis games organized as part of the largest diplomatic competition in the country last week-end.The cycling tour organized by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the most successful, reports local Digi24. Almost 100 Romanian and foreign diplomats took part in the competition, including Russia’s Vice Commissioner Alexey Zamilatskiy, and the Romanian minister Titus Corlatean.

From 23 to 25 May 2014 a Workshop for the training of the International Arbiters was organized in Moscow, Russia, by the Russi