Sports

Midfielder Steve Sidwell has signed a two-year deal with Premier League club Stoke after being released by Fulham.

The first kick at the World Cup opening ceremony on 12th June will be made by a paraplegic wearing an Iron Man-like robotic bodysuit controlled by signals from the brain.

Barcelona have signed Argentina midfielder Mascherano to a contract extension that will keep the player at the club through 2018.

Defender Echiejile will miss the World Cup because of an injury suffered in a warm-up match last week, Nigerian officials said on Sunday.

"I do have confidence that we're going to do a great job in the coming World Cup," said Correa in an interview with local media on Friday.

Defending champions Spain are still No.1 followed by Germany in the second place. Portugal are fourth and Uruguay are fifth.

Germany's World Cup injury problems are receding ahead of Friday's friendly against Armenia, the team's last game before departing for Brazil.

Gerard Pique has been caught on camera apparently telling Spain coach Vicente del Bosque that Barcelona team mate Cesc Fabregas is poised to leave the La Liga side.

Rooney is set to be shunted to the left wing as coach Roy Hodgson experiments ahead of the World Cup in the team's penultimate warm-up game.

Brazil's government earlier this year announced plans to spend 800 million dollars on the largest ever security operation for the football World Cup 2014.

Yobo said he was retiring after Nigeria won the African Cup last year, but was back in favor and made the final list released by the national federation.

Spain will play their Group B opener against the Netherlands on June 13 in Salvador before moving on to face Chile and Australia.

England manager Roy Hodgson expected strikers Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge to have little problem clicking despite a lack of playing time together.

Giroud scored twice and winger Mathieu Valbuena set up three goals as France began their World Cup preparation with a 4-0 exhibition win over Norway.

The Croatian national team suffered another blow as experienced 29-year-old midfielder Niko Kranjcar was ruled out of the World Cup due to injury.

With kickoff less than 20 days away, the governing body is having one last look at the cities' often troubled preparations across Brazil.