Croatian authorities have taken legal action against the country's football union and two senior officials over an incident on June 12th which saw the country's national football side draw 1-1 with Italy in a Euro 2016 qualifier with a giant swastika visibly marked into the pitch. The game was taking place in Split behind closed doors following sanctions stemming from racist chanting heard at a previous Croatian qualifier. 

Vandal fans are being blamed for still making themselves known though, with the swastika applied using chemicals up to 24 hours before the match, spotted by TV cameras once the game had begun. Groundstaff attempted to cover up the offensive markings at half time to little avail. Now the executive chairman of Croatia's football union, HNS, Damir Vrbanovic and the man in charge of security at Split's Poljud Stadium ahead of the match, Zoran Cvrk have been charged with negligence and lapses in organisation by the Croatian police, according to news weekly Nacional.
You can read an excellent report from The Guardian which goes into the potential repercussions of the incident for Croatia, including a possible Euro 2016 ban, here.

Apparently there's a strong whiff of garlic at Old Trafford at the moment, with the laying of a new £200,000 pitch. According to the Sunday People groundstaff have sprayed the entire surface with a strong garlic liquid, which is intended to deter earthworms which plagued the previous pitch's roots (it also of course has the bonus effect of keeping vampires away).

The paper suggests that visitors to Man Utd's stadium tour recently have been confused by the strong smell of garlic, with groundstaff explaining it's to fight off parasitic roundworms which live in the loose sand under the pitch and can ruin the surface. The Sunday People quote a 'visitor' as saying, "”We were told it wouldn’t be there at the start of the season because you definitely wouldn’t want to be a player on the pitch playing with that smell.”


And the controversy which FIFA has brought upon themselves for staging Women's World Games on artificial pitches is not going away. Star American striker Abby Wambach, after to failing to hit the back of the net in their 0-0 against Italy,  was quoted as saying, "I think I score if we're on grass."
And famous faces have taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure. Gary Neville Tweeted, "Just watching the piece on the Artificial pitches being used in the WWC on SSN in Canada. What a joke!" Paul Burgess, Real Madrid's English groundsman, said, "Put Fifa politics to one side they have damaged women's football by allowing professional competitive games on artificial #lackofrespect." Whilst U.S Sports broadcaster Celeste Headlee said, "C'mon, this is just ridiculous. These women are world-class athletes. Show them some respect, @FIFAcom  #WorldCup."