In the latest of brewing Cold War sentiments between the US and Russia, controversial Republican Senator John McCain recently reissued a demand to pull the plug on Russia’s right to host the World Cup in 2018. Speaking to ESPN/ABC podcast Capital Games program, McCain asked whether it was “appropriate to have this venue in Russia,” — although he’s not the first Republican to struggle at his own language, by venue he must have clearly meant event or tournament — “and aren’t there other countries that would be far less controversial?”

McCain wasn’t finished, adding that FIFA’s decision “absolutely should be reconsidered… [and] I’d like to see the United States and other — say, the British perhaps and other countries — raise the issue in ordinary meetings, periodic meetings that they have.”

Servile disciples of their American suzerains, the British did answer McCain’s call to pile the pressure on Russia, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg telling the Sunday Times that it’s “unthinkable to allow Putin to preside over the biggest event in global sports,” adding that threatening Russia’s 2018 World Cup would be a “very potent political and symbolic sanction.”

This isn’t the first time the West, clearly at political odds with Russia, have called on FIFA to replace the venue of the 2018 World Cup. This past March, two US Senators wrote a letter addressed to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. In their missive, Senators Mark Kirk and Dan Coats, both Republicans, didn’t only ask FIFA to forbid Russia from hosting the World Cup, they also wanted the Russian national team to be banned from participating in this summer’s World Cup in Brazil and in more thespian fashion, to completely expel Russia from FIFA. Their precedent was the Western-imposed ejection of Yugoslavia from both the 1992 European Championships and the 1994 World Cup.

As was expected, after sleazy Western media coverage of the Sochi Olympics, they have now targeted Russia’s legal right to host the 2018 World Cup. Under the pretext that Russia is the culprit behind the still under-investigation Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 disaster, the West and its allies have been unyieldingly castigating Russian. In times that resemble the Cold War more than ever before, the US and Russia have been at political loggerheads since former US President George W. Bush voided the Anti-Ballistic Treaty signed by the two countries in 1972.

When President Putin became president after Boris Yeltsin’s tenure came to an end in 2000, and the US realized Putin wouldn’t be as obeisant as his predecessor, relations began to sour. Clinton was also replaced by President George Bush in that same year, and it took two years of contretemps before Bush did away with the 1972 treaty. This effectively meant that using territory of its NATO allies, the US could place missiles on Russia’s doorstep, like in Poland for example, or Turkey. Several ensuing political differences firmly place the two countries on different ends of the table. From the erstwhile Iraq War and South Ossetia/Abkhazia conflict to the more recent wars in Syria and the Ukraine, time has isolated the two camps greater than it has in recent history.

Instead of using the worthwhile effect sport has on the masses, where it bridges people together casting aside all differences, the US and co. are using a sleazy tactic to do the complete opposite. Imagine a World Cup encounter between Russia and the United States, even though a more interesting bout between the two sides would most likely be in an ice-hockey rink, the adrenaline between both teams would be high and the crowd would love to watch such a heated derby.

Funnily enough, during the Cold War era both the USA and the USSR were a bit more classy; by way of boycotting tournaments such as the Olympics in lieu of threatening each other. The Americans did this for the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow, and the Soviets didn’t go to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Wanting to play the peacemaker, FIFA said that it wants “its tournaments promote dialogue, understanding and peace among peoples,” and has steadfastly rejected any motion to relocate the 2018 World Cup in Russia, adding that it will “achieve a positive change.”

Senator McCain’s last option is to be the better man, and bow out – either bowing out of his preposterous ploy to politicize sport, or to ask the US Men’s National Football team to bow out. And after their performance in Brazil, with their match against Portugal having more viewers than the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final combined, they won’t be so complacent with the idea of boycotting the World Cup.

As for the soccer-loving Brits, no matter how servile they are, they will never boycott a World Cup.

After Romelu Lukaku posted a picture on his Instagram account with the caption ‘time to write a new chapter’ with a gleaming smiling, many thought either he was returning to Stamford Bridge to play for Chelsea next season, or the unfounded rumors were true, that Lukaku was on his way to Real Madrid. The next picture he posted revealed it was neither Chelsea nor Real Madrid he was going to. Lukaku had arrived at Goodison Park.

Lukaku’s deal was worth a whopping £28million, nearly doubling the previous transfer fee record of £15million that Everton paid for Marouane Fellaini. For the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, and even Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham these days, the amount may seem a lilliputian figure, but for a club like Everton, the only one of the aforementioned clubs without a foreign investor as its owner, it’s a landmark signing. To lure a player from UEFA Champion’s League contenders like Chelsea and Real Madrid was a feat, but for a player of Lukaku’s stature, the tides could very well turn for the Toffees.

Previous manager David Moyes was instrumental in making the Toffees a Premier League mainstay club, nearly guiding them to the Champions League Group Stage in 2005 and always ending the season in respectable positions. But it was the Scotsman’s inability to hold onto key players like Wayne Rooney, Thomas Gravesen, Joleon Lescott, and Jack Rodwell that casts him aside from current coach Roberto Martinez.

The Spanish coach has proved to be a consistent manager from his previous positions at Swansea City and Wigan Athletic, and has been nothing short of remarkable in his first season with the club. Last season, Martinez’s team was the longest running side that went unbeaten (for nearly 2 months), and although they underperformed in the both the FA and League Cup, Everton finished 5th, meaning they will play Europa League football this upcoming season. On their way to finishing just one position away from Champion’s League football, Martinez steered his side to wins against Chelsea and Arsenal, and most impressively, Everton completed the double against Manchester United, then coached by former Everton boss Moyes.

In addition to Lukaku opting to remain a Toffee, Everton has a new acquisition in Muhamed Besic, signed from Hungary’s Ferencvaros, and perhaps Bosnia and Herzegovina’s best player in their World Cup run this summer. They have also managed to get midfield sensation Ross Barkley to extend his contract with the club, and have swayed former Manchester City man Gareth Barry to make his move to Goodison a permanent one.

With one more month left for clubs to wheel and deal in the summer transfer window, Everton will perhaps get one or two more players in, but it’s the signing of Lukaku that has been their biggest deal, not just this summer but perhaps ever. While on loan with the club last year, Lukaku scored 16 goals in 31 appearances, more or less scoring in every other match.

Martinez even went on to name Lukaku’s signing as “not just important for this season. [But] a significant day in the history of this football club.” And it’s true, it wasn’t inasmuch that Everton chose Lukaku, it was more that Lukaku choose Everton that makes this such a historic day for the Merseyside club.

If they perform like they did last year and clinch a UEFA Champion’s League berth for next season, Lukaku will be expected to stay with Everton, who will also be attracting the likes of Europe’s other star footballers. In a day and age where money talks and all else walks, Everton’s dishing out the cash for Lukaku is where the money talks, and where all else walks — or runs rather, is where that money spent should become money well spent, and that can only be displayed on the pitch. With 2013 FA Cup Winner Martinez at the helm, it wouldn’t seem so impulsive to foresee Everton winning a trophy this season. Finishing top of the league may still be somewhat of a long shot, but with Everton in three cups, they shouldn’t be written off.

BELGRADE: After stating that the “the FSS [the Serbian FA] showed a lot of initiative,” the well-traveled Dutch manager Dick Advocaat has decided that his next job will be in Belgrade. His main mission will be to guide Serbia to Euro 2016 in France.

The last time a foreigner coached the national side, Serbia didn’t make it to any major tournament while dropping points against Armenia and Finland and suffering an embarrassing loss to Kazakhstan in the process. The Spaniard at the helm from 2006 to 2007, Javier Clemente, was relieved of his duties after failing to reach Euro 2008. Although he tried to reshuffle the side, ditching familiar faces like Savo Milosevic and Mateja Kezman for a newer crop of players like Danko Lazovic and Marko Pantelic, the results never arrived. With Serbia out of the last two major soccer tournaments in Euro 2012 and the recent World Cup, Advocaat has a job to do.

He will be replacing Ljubinko Drulovic, who was appointed caretaker manager after outspoken coach and former national team regular Sinisa Mihajlovic quit to take over the reins at Serie A club Sampdoria. To Mihajlovic’s own admission, his stint at the national helm was experimental. In his first match for Serbia against then European and World champions Spain, Mihajlovic introduced four debutants, left out regulars like Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Milan Jovanovic, and the average age of his squad was a tender 23 years of age. Many young Serbian talents, such as new Liverpool acquisition Lazar Markovic, were given their debuts under Mihajlovic.

Despite Mihajlovic’s risky selection of youngsters, he admitted when he took the job that if he did not reach the World Cup Finals he would resign, and this is where Dick Advocaat enters the picture. Drulovic, who was coaching Serbia’s U-19s before becoming acting manager, continued Mihajlovic’s test-and-try approach by fielding youngsters. As Advocaat steps into the frame, the lights are dimming for veterans of the national side like Vladimir Stojkovic and Zoran Tosic, and he will need to make the decision to axe the lot completely, or to give them a run for their money.

Some experienced regulars like Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic — the most obvious choice to be made captain — and Manchester City’s Aleksandar Kolarov will most likely remain mainstays, but national side under-performers like BVB Dortmund’s Neven Subotic and Internazionale’s Zdravko Kuzmanovic may face stiff opposition for their respective roles from the up and coming youngsters. It would make most sense to solidify the positions of striker and playmaker in Lazar Markovic and Dusan Tadic, and then permanently choose his central midfielders, with Nemanja Matic of Chelsea one definite option, with his partner most likely Nemanja Gudelj, who was made AZ Alkmaar skipper by none other than ex-AZ manager Advocaat himself.

Like Gudelj, Dusan Tadic — who has recently signed for Southampton AFC under another Dutchman in Ronald Koeman — has plied his trade in the Dutch Eredivisie for the past four seasons: with FC Groningen and most recently FC Twente. Proven to be the best satellite league for younger footballers, the Eredivisie has no shortage of Serbian players, with the current crop almost entirely featuring for Serbia at youth level.

Promising number ten Filip Kostic has made it into several Eredivisie teams of the week after scintillating performances for FC Groningen. And recently-capped Filip Djuricic’s trickery and confidence with the ball made him a fan favorite at SC Heerenveen before his departure to SC Benfica last summer. No-nonsense forward Uros Djurdjevic, who just penned a move to Vitesse, is surely going to be given his first cap any time now, as is Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic’s younger brother, also named Uros, who plays for NAC Breda. Another rising star that could recieve a call-up is Dejan Meleg, on loan at SC Cambuur from Ajax. The last and perhaps most interesting prospect for Advocaat would be to lure Ajax’s 18-year old winger Richairo Zivkovic to the Serbian setup. Although he represents the Netherlands at junior level, Zivkovic, who was described as “Groningen[’s]…best talent since the likes of Robben and one Luis Suarez (before to his move to Ajax)”, is of Serbian and Curaçaoan descent.

The pool of players at Advocaat’s disposal don’t only exist in the Eredivisie. With most young Serbian players these days skipping the ritual of signing for domestic powerhouses Red Star Belgrade or Partizan and jumping straight into European soccer, Advocaat has Serbs playing in every league in Europe. In last February’s English Premier League encounter between Manchester City and Chelsea, there were four Serbs on the pitch: Kolarov and Nastasic for City and Ivanovic and Matic for Chelsea. Ranging from the aforementioned EPL to La Liga to Serie A and finally to the Bundesliga, Serbs have become household names in many top European leagues. By no means in relation to their footballing skill and more to do with Serbs being found in any league, from the Faroe Islands to Georgia, Serbs have become the Brazilians of Europe.

Advocaat’s eyes will definitely be focused on a select few players, all of whom have made their debuts. Apart from the already mentioned players, these players will attract Advocaat’s attention: Aleksandar Mitrovic (Anderlecht), Filip Djordjevic (Lazio), Milos Jojic (BVB Dortmund), Darko Lazovic (Red Star Belgrade), Nemanja Pejcinovic (Lokomotiv Moscow), and Adem Ljajic (AS Roma), to name a few.

A wide and tasty variety of players to select doesn’t mean Advocaat’s new job will be a bed full of roses. Off-the-field, the Dutchman will have to deal with a nation whose soccer is deeply entangled with politics, and more importantly, which has a fan base that is unlike anywhere else he has coached before. True, Advocaat may have coached Zenit St. Petersburg, whose fans have an important role at the club, but despite their opposition to the signing of black players, their power never amounted to being able to dictate the national side’s affairs. Advocaat can attest to that because he was also head coach of Russia from 2010 to 2012. But in October 2010 when Serbia faced Italy in Genoa, the match was called off after only six minutes because of rowdy crowds and the usage of flares. Why did this happen? Because Red Star supporters did not want to see Vladimir Stojkovic, who once played for Red Star but made the doomed decision to sign for eternal rivals Partizan, start as goalkeeper.

Vladimir ‘Pizon’ Petrovic, the Serbia boss at the time, should have foreseen the fans’ displeasure as Stojkovic’s obituary was published in local papers the day after he signed for Partizan. Perhaps this also means Advocaat should learn Serbian and read the morning papers before discussing tactics.

Still, unlike Clemente who had never tested the waters of Eastern European soccer before arriving in Serbia, Advocaat’s resume is perhaps best suited for anyone foreign that plans on succeeding there. His new test will kick off this September, when Serbia travels to Armenia to begin their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, which also includes games against tough opponents Portugal and Denmark.

Follow Ilija Trojanovic on Twitter: @paliserb

No one can deny Germany’s deserved success at this summer’s World Cup in Brazil. While teams like Brazil, Argentina, and Portugal centered their game around one special player, the Germans went for an all-inclusive style of play, a black and white phalanx of 11 men on the pitch, and reinforcements on the side waiting to come and bolster the team when needed.

To give them more credit, they dealt with a plethora of fitness concerns. Rising star forward Marco Reus was ruled out of the World Cup just before it started after suffering a serious injury in a friendly, while skipper Philipp Lahm and both holding midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira were not fully fit when the tournament got underway. In addition, before their quarterfinal against France seven of Germany’s players were struck with the flu. Still, they overcame all that to lift the cup.

Before the World Cup, Germany coach Joachim Low stated that “there are other important things: family, friendship, and values,” and it was these off-the-field elements mixed together that created Germany’s recipe for success.

A Eurosport report went on to call this Germany side “the best at this World Cup, [as] they exhibited all the qualities required of great champions – skill, discipline, unity, and determination.”

With their latest triumph, Germany is now one World Cup win away from Brazil’s record of five World Cup championships, and will now have four stars above their national badge on their jersey. But should they actually have four stars?

The truth is, they shouldn’t.

That same Eurosport report claimed that “Germany like to win World Cups the hard way. Their first, in 1954, saw them defeat a supposedly invincible Hungarian side.”

Perhaps that rings true for this past tournament as the Germans dealt with injuries, fitness, and illness to lift the cup. In the process, they recorded resounding wins like the 4-0 demolition of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal side and the unforgettable and record-breaking 7-1 win against Brazil, who were dealt their worst ever defeat at home and had an unbeaten home record in competitive matches stretching back to 1975 snapped.  In that same match, Miroslav Klose also added an individual milestone for Germany as he became the World Cup’s highest ever goal scorer with 16 goals, stealing a record from Brazil as he usurped the striker’s throne previously held by the legendary Ronaldo.

In 1954, however, the recipe for success was quite a different one.

To begin with, while all the other sides were wearing boots that were designed to protect players’ feet, usually riding above the ankle area like modern day American football shoes, a German company supplied their national team with an avant-garde new boot that distinguished itself as a lighter boot. The innovative footwear that focused on agility also came with interchangeable studs that suited different climates. This brand was, and still is, called adidas.

Playing in their first soccer tournament since 1938 due to being barred from participation after WWII, even the fancy footwear couldn’t salvage the Germans on the pitch. They were annihilated 8-3 by mighty Hungary, led by captain and talismanic striker Ferenc Puskas, but still managed to navigate their way to the Final, a rematch with the same Hungarian team.

By the time the final arrived on an overcast Sunday on July 4 1954, Puskas was an injury concern, having suffered a hairline fracture in his foot in the group stage match against the Germans. The Mighty Magyars, as the Hungarians were known at the time, couldn’t risk leaving out their star player and coach Gustav Sebes insisted on playing him. The decision paid off as he scored the first goal, which was soon followed by a second by Zoltan Czibor, and the Hungarians were up 2-0 before ten minutes were even played. Hungary, the favorites to win the tournament, already had one foot on the winner’s dais with 82 minutes to play.

As the game would unfold, the Germans scored two quick goals soon after to equalize by the 18th minute, before scoring the winner six minutes from time. Puskas scored what appeared to be a late equalizer, but it was ruled out for offside. Due to poor television replay technology at the time, no real decision could be deduced about whether it really was offside or not. The score at full-time ended up 3-2, and the Germans would lift their first ever World Cup trophy.

It wasn’t Puskas’ disallowed goal and neither was it Germany’s pioneering footwear that better adapted them to the slippery pitch that questions the eligibility of their World Cup victory. It’s far more soiled than that.

After the tournament’s favorites walked away with their heads hung low and noses to the ground, the jubilant Germans were celebrating their return to the international stage with the biggest victory in soccer. But at the Wankdorf stadium in Berne, in the Germans’ locker room to be more precise, “syringes and needles were found.” Hungarian captain Puskas had a feeling there may have been foul play on his counterpart’s side, but the German doctor only admitted to “merely inject[ing] a placebo” to his boys.

Later on, the claim was that it was in fact Vitamin C, which could help with stress and can also reduce breathlessness, two factors that give the substance some validity in being taken before the match. There are stronger reasons to believe that substance given to the German players were neither placebos nor Vitamin C.

In an article that has since been removed from The Guardian, Erik Eggers, a German scientist who studied the case of the 1954 German side, claims that “several strong indications…point to the injection of pervitin in some Germany players and not Vitamin C as was claimed.” Pervitin is a stimulant that turns fears into aggression, and was used by German soldiers in World War II.

In a Der Spiegel article titled “The Grandaddy of Crystal Meth,” the author claims the “Wehrmacht, Germany’s World War II army, distributed millions of the tablets to soldiers on the front, who soon dubbed the stimulant “Panzerschokolade” (“tank chocolate”).” The same article highlights pervitin as the drug “many TV fans are familiar with…primarily from the hit American series ‘Breaking Bad’.”

As it turns out, many of the German players, including goalkeeper Toni Turek and captain Fritz Walter, were Nazi soldiers during World War II. In the 1950 and 1954 World Cups it was not uncommon for a player to have participated in the war. By the sound of it, they had to have partaken in both affairs. It would not be farfetched to say that over the course of their military stints they developed a habit for the drug and their addiction remained. They were both in their early twenties when they were drafted, the right age for a young troop to obey whatever order he was given by his higher rank.

The Germans did not stop there.

In 1966, FIFA medical committee chairman, Mihajlo Andrejevic affirmed that there were “very fine traces” of the then-banned substance ephedrine in three unnamed German players at the World Cup. They went on to reach the final of that World Cup, which they lost to hosts England.

The fact of the matter is that at the time, there were no real regulations against doping. Many would argue that even now, tests for doping are insufficient. English football player Joey Barton, formerly of Newcastle and Marseille, commented on the subject claiming his “personal experience of drugs…is that they only take a urine sample from me…in over 10+ years of competing at elite level sport. Seems strange to me after reading about cycling’s procedures. Where they frequently take blood from athletes.”

“I have never had blood taken during my whole career!”

With doping tests only being introduced by FIFA in 1966, the first of four stars on any German national team jersey will always remain in its place. The woebegone part of this historical drama is not that German players weren’t playing by the rules. This practice is still in effect today, with many cases reported every year. Hungary however, have slipped off the grid in soccer, and it’s a crime that their history isn’t rewarded with at least one trophy, over half a century ago, when the team known as the Mighty Magyars once dominated the world of soccer.

You may have heard the news reports that two people died on Thursday when an overpass, which was supposed to be ready for the World Cup in Belo Horizonte to connect the international airport to the stadium area, collapsed, flattening a car, two trucks and trapping a bus. More than twenty people were injured in the accident. For city officials and FIFA, they were lucky the death toll wasn’t greater.

Breathing a sigh of relief, FIFA must be thankful that the bridge collapsed on a day when no matches were taking place otherwise the accident combined with a greater death toll would have overshadowed Tuesday’s semi-final in Belo Horizonte between Brazil and Germany.

But the fact still remains that two people are dead, and more than twenty others were injured. They may not have all been fans who traveled from faraway places to Brazil, but they were men and women working in accordance with the World Cup to make passage easier for soccer fans. These workers, like the the two men who died when a crane collapsed late last year while building Sāo Paulo’s Itaquerāo stadium, are the unsung heroes of Brazil’s World Cup.

Unfortunately, it gets worse for the host nation.

FIFA, busy pointing the finger at another World Cup’s reported flaws (yes, the one in Qatar no less than 8 years from now) and odiously casting aside the merited street-demonstrators trying to make their case heard, has also shelved any real concern for the quality of infrastructure in Brazil.

Many who followed Brazil’s trajectory to finally hosting the World Cup view the bridge collapse as little surprise. At this moment in time, with six more matches to be played until the tournament wraps up on July 13, nobody wants to witness another construction accident, but one has to wonder what if.

The harsh reality is that Brazil is ranked by the ILO as fourth in the world when it comes to work-related fatalities.

In the last 10 years alone, there have been numerous accidents that brings Brazil’s construction practices into question. In 2004, at least three people drowned after the Camara Dam burst in Paraíba, and six years earlier the Palace II residential tower block collapsed in Rio de Janeiro due to faulty engineering practices that killed eight people. Another residential block in Rio, this time more than one building, collapsed only two years ago in 2012, this time resulting in more than 15 deaths. The reason: illegal renovations.

Lastly, and perhaps the worst of all, seven people descended to their deaths during a game between Bahia and Vila Nova in 2007 when part of the stadium collapsed.

FIFA has in effect turned a blind eye to the notoriously decrepit construction practices that plague Brazilian infrastructure. A 2005 study from the Brazilian Ministries of Labor and Employment and Social Security highlighted that the “areas of the highest number of deaths are transport, storage and communications, with seven deaths reported among 3,855 workers; the Construction Industry, with six deaths for 6,908 workers; and Commerce and Repair of Vehicles with five deaths among 24,782 workers.”

Although building and stadium accidents are not unique to Brazil only, it is more so FIFA’s inability to implement sanctions, punish, or at least control the safety of host nations when it sees clearly, years in advance, that the host nation is not suitable to control the factors that determine safety and corruption.

While Thursday’s bridge collapse deals directly with the ministries’ statistics of where exactly work-related deaths occur most, everyone can only hope that no repeat of the carnage reoccurs. Belo Horizonte, the name of the city where the under-construction bridge fell, literally translates into English as Beautiful Horizon, and despite infrastructural shortcomings of this year’s World Cup, all soccer fans worldwide should hope no such incident happens again.

But if anyone should be most hopeful – and most worried, it’s FIFA.