{"id":1033415,"date":"2026-06-18T00:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1033415\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T00:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:07:16","slug":"world-cup-live-fifa-ban-player-as-broadcaster-pulled-from-tournament-football-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1033415\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup LIVE: FIFA ban player as broadcaster pulled from tournament | Football | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Jeremy Cross in Houston <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The atmosphere amongst DR Congo supporters couldn&#8217;t be happier.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the one engulfing the Portuguese media covering their side&#8217;s opening World Cup game of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Most of them are sat inside the Houston Stadium shaking their heads at what has been witnessed in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>Portugal took the lead, but Congo equalised through Yoane Wissa, with a goal of historic proportions.<\/p>\n<p>It is Congo&#8217;s first ever goal at a World Cup. Back in 1974, their only previous appearance at the tournament, they lost all three games by an aggregate of 14-0.<\/p>\n<p>They were so bad, even Scotland beat them.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s not Wissa&#8217;s header which has aggrieved the Portuguese press pack.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the performance of Cristiano Ronaldo, and manager Roberto Martinez&#8217;s reluctance to take him off.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Martinez has taken Bernardo Silva off, despite him posing much more of a threat than Ronaldo did.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo is doing a fine impression of walking football.<\/p>\n<p>He looks all of his 41 years today. Trouble is brewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy Cross in Houston The atmosphere amongst DR Congo supporters couldn&#8217;t be happier. Unlike the one engulfing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1033416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[4116,393,12632,2746,285055,79,6573,16,15,191125,93214,280410,285056],"class_list":["post-1033415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-england","tag-england-football-team","tag-lionel-messi","tag-portugal-vs-congo","tag-sports","tag-thomas-tuchel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup-section","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-world-cup-news","tag-world-cup-updates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116768200918694451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1033416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}