World Cup Insight

Diving: It's not just limited to swimming pools and ocean cliffs. In Friday's World Cup action, Brazilian star Neymar's team beat Costa Rica 2-0, but he didn't get away with a now-infamous dive. On the way to the victory, Neymar, barely touched by defenders, flopped on his back as if to hint the refs should call a foul. The referee went along with Neymar at first, but consulted the tournament's controversial new video assistant referee system and changed his mind. Penalty, flop, or new hot summer dance move? pic.twitter.com/Gy7Szer7JC — CBS Sports (@CBSSports) June 22, 2018 Viewers quickly made the failed flop into a meme. "Neymar for best actor," joked several, while others dug up GIFs of various actors falling or fainting to compare to the player's dive. "Who does Neymar think he is? Neo? The Matrix has found its new actor," said one Twitter user. Neymar for Best Actor. #FifaWorldCup18 pic.twitter.com/2opQ0xhE9T — Boris...

Hoaxes, lies and doctored pictures are a plague of the modern internet, so why would the World Cup be any different? See how many of these hoaxes from Russia 2018 you recognise. It’s flying home Within days of the World Cup kick off, “it’s coming home” had gone from a catchy chorus in a song from the 90s to the inescapable sound of the summer: bellowed at every England game and whispered between fans as an informal greeting. When the RAF celebrated its 100th anniversary with a flyover of jets the day before England faced Croatia, a video appeared online showing dozens of Spitfires spelling the catchphrase of the competition in a formation over London. Hundreds of people shared it across Twitter and Facebook. Graphics and animation studio Potion Pictures waited a few days – and a few thousand retweets – before showing everyone exactly how they had faked it. Many were fooled by our manipulated RAF100 flyby video, here's our breakdown showing exactly how we manipul...

David Ramos - FIFA via Getty Images For every football fan, it doesn't get any bigger than the FIFA World Cup. Every four years since 1930, the tournament has been held in different parts of the globe, and honestly, it hasn't changed much. There was the expansion to include 32 teams in 1998, but the game's rules have rarely been altered -- largely because of FIFA's unwillingness to embrace emerging technologies. But the 2018 edition in Russia, which ended Sunday with France's win over Croatia, was different. For the first time ever, FIFA used the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at its flagship competition. And the tech, for better or worse (depending on which team you cheered on), certainly made a mark. There were 29 penalty kicks called at the World Cup 2018, 16 more than at the previous tournament in Brazil. Of those -- VAR, which lets referees use video to review questionable plays -- helped officials make a decision 11 times. Even if VAR wasn't called u...