FIFA targets gay slurs by Chile, Mexico fans in Russia

Portugal, the defending European champions, play Mexico on Sunday in their Group A opener in the eight-nation competition that serves as a warm-up for next year’s World Cup in Russian Federation.

Securing the right to host the World Cup was a personal triumph for Vladimir Putin; as if Stanislav Cherchesov’s players were not under enough pressure to perform over the next fortnight and in 2018, the Russian president turned the screw even tighter this week by insisting that he and the country expect much more from their football team.

To qualify for this year’s competition, Cameroon won the Africa Cup of Nations for the fifth time.

Volunteers help FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 participants, including organisers, contractors and other volunteers, to prepare for the tournament by issuing accreditation and uniforms.

While world champions Germany have sent a youthful squad to Russian Federation for the tournament, Portugal are bringing their first choice group of players including captain Cristiano Ronaldo. The Confederations Cup’s final is due in St. Petersburg on July 2.

Motivated Ronaldo: Few players will be as motivated to perform well in this tournament as Portugal’s veteran talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.

The process now adopted by FIFA has been used for several years by European football body UEFA.

“The match observers will monitor the behaviour of fans from both teams, as well as any spectators who are not affiliated to a particular team playing in the match”. So, the host has to win this match and grab those three points.

Two pairs of the best teams identified in the group tournaments will then play in the semi-finals.

“The team is in a good place and everyone is very positive”.

Mexico’s squad has three players who have close connections to Portugal.

Likewise, Australia’s trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand should not be discounted as easy beats.

New Zealand will be missing West Ham defender Winston Reid through injury, but Leeds forward Chris Wood should lead the attack as the All Whites aim to improve on warm-up games which saw defeats against Northern Ireland and Belarus.

– Cameroon and Chile will meet for just the second time; they drew 1-1 in their only previous clash at the 1998 World Cup.

Among those who will be watched closely is Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) winger Julian Draxler, who has been named Germany’s captain for the tournament. The Confederations Cup brings together the best teams from the different continents. Thierry Henry paid tribute to the former Manchester City star, pointing to the sky after he opened the scoring in France’s 3-2 semifinal win over Turkey, just hours after Foe passed away.

Federation Internationale de Football Association unveiled a monitoring system previous year to oversee labour conditions at the Russia 2018 World Cup stadiums and insists it has helped to improve standards.