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It was the first time that Video Referee Assistant (VAR) technology was used in a World Cup final but controversial refereeing decsions ensured that a spectacle of the calibre of the final might have been marred by inconsistencies.

Argentine referee Nestor Pitana, who was also took charge of the first match played between Russia and Saudi Arabia was handed the duty to bring the curtain down on the showpiece event.

Both France’s opener and their second goal which handed them the lead in the second half were controversial in their own rights.

The first goal would follow after Antoine Griezmann was fouled outside the area. Griezmann looked to shimmy his way past Marcelo Brozovic, perhaps going down easily under the midfielder's attentions to set up a set piece in a very dangerous area. Replays looked unconvincing as Griezmann looked like he either accidentally tripped himself or went down against minimum contact.

VAR did not intervene due to the guidelines which suggests that it should only intervene in case of goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity. It was not a penalty or a red card incident so VAR did not intervene.

Controversy followed the actual scoring of the goal as well after Mario Mandzukic had scored the first ever own goal in a World Cup final. French midfielder Paul Pogba appeared to be in an offside position when Mandzukic headed into his own net.

The Croatia forward had jumped higher than Pogba and interfered with the play. Notably former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas had his say on the matter over twitter.

“Honestly, I do not understand the use of VAR very well,” Casillas wrote.

“The referee points to a foul that wasn’t on Griezmann and France’s goal comes from that action and nothing happens.”

Uruguay and Barcelona striker Luis Suarez agreed with the former Real Madrid goalkeeper and wrote: You are right Iker and Paul Pogba was offside when he ‘participates’ in the play.

While the controversies in the first goal may get overlooked, it was France’s second goal ten minutes before half-time which might have changed the tide of the match after Croatia had fought back with a equalizer from Ivan Perisic.

Blaise Matuidi went up for a near-post header, but missed the nod-on. Instead, the ball landed near the defending Perisic's arm, prompting wild gesticulations from French players, pleading for a handball. The ball went out of bounds and was originally ruled a goal kick for Croatia, but the officials decided to use the VAR to check the play.

The referee put his finger to his ear, and after what felt like an eternity, signalled that he would consult the VAR. Whether it was deliberate, or whether Perisic's hand was in an unnatural position was not clear, even after repeated viewing of the incident.

Even when he appeared to come to a decision, the referee quickly spun on the spot and returned to the screen for one quick look before awarding a penalty to France from which Griezmann scored.

It looked highly unlikely that it was a case of deliberate handball and might have even been a case of ball to hand.

Alan Shearer led the criticism of the refree while talking at the BBC studio, claiming Pitana’s decision-making had been “ridiculous” and that both pivotal decisions were, in his opinion, wrong.

“They’re losing this game to a free-kick that wasn’t a free-kick, and penalty that definitely wasn’t penalty,” Shearer said.

Jurgen Klinsmann agreed, while Rio Ferdinand added: “Two bad decisions have really turned this game on its head.”

It was the biggest game in the biggest showpiece event in the world. A game which should have been lit up by the footballing excellence of the participating teams. In a way, that probably was the case. France had the most talented squad in the tournament and they managed to showcase their abilities. However, football is a crazy game where moments can decide the outcome of a match and before the second France goal, Croatia were looking like the better side. Whatever the result, maybe controversies should not lead discussions in the aftermath of such an important game, which is what happened after the final.

Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly set to receive a ban and a fine for making obscene gestures during Al-Nassr's 3-2 win against Al-Shabab in the Saudi Pro League on Sunday night.

Ronaldo was subject to chants of Lionel Messi from opposition supporters as Al-Shabab fans sang for his Argentine rival throughout the match,

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the game from the penalty spot, his 22nd goal of the SPL campaign as he leads the scoring charts ahead of Aleksandar Mitrovic.

However, a goal and three points were clearly not enough to soothe the Portugal star, who responded to such chants by gesturing towards his crotch in the direction of the home crowd. Ronaldo came in for immediate criticism and has now reportedly been punished.

Saudi outlet Arriyadiyah claim Ronaldo is set to receive a two-match ban and a fine for the gesture, although this is yet to be confirmed by Al Nassr or the Saudi Pro League and hasn't been widely reported.

The Arriyadiyah X account tweeted: "Al-Riyadiya sources: The Disciplinary Committee is moving to suspend the Portuguese captain for two matches and fine him due to unsportsmanlike behavior."

This news comes after many pundits called for the Al Nassr striker to be sanctioned for the gesture.

Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr have cancelled their two-game China tour after the forward suffered an injury, the Saudi club said on Tuesday, sparking concern over the Portuguese's participation in their upcoming encounter against Lionel Messi's Inter Miami.

Al-Nassr were scheduled to play Shanghai Shenhua on Jan. 24 and Zhejiang four days later, with both games now postponed.

"We are willing to complete our training camp as planned in Shenzhen, a city that has warmly welcomed us and shown so much love for us and our Captain," Al-Nassr said in a statement.

"Furthermore, we have agreed with the organizer to schedule a new match as soon as possible."

The 38-year-old Ronaldo apologised to fans as he confirmed he was struggling with a fitness issue.

"I have played for 22 years and I am a player that doesn't have too many injuries. So I'm really sad because Al-Nassr and myself have come to China to enjoy the tour," Ronaldo said.

"We have not cancelled the game, we want to push for the game and be back here... Unfortunately, I have some problem, but this is part of football and my life."

Ronaldo, who was in Dubai last week to receive three prizes at the Globe Soccer Awards, was absent from Al-Nassr's training at the beginning of this week, local media reported.

Following their now-cancelled China tour, Al-Nassr will next face Messi and his Inter Miami side in a friendly tournament in Riyadh on Feb. 1.

The two teams will also play Neymar's Al-Hilal, the current Saudi Pro League leaders.

Nobody would have hand-picked the tournament's two worst teams to launch the 2018 World Cup, but when Russia and Saudi Arabia meet on Thursday form will be irrelevant as the world's biggest sporting festival explodes into life in Moscow.

Hosts Russia, and Saudi Arabia are the two lowest-ranked teams at the tournament by some distance and they are both in dire form. But their clash will set the tone for the global showpiece.

Partly due to a lack of competitive matches, Russia have slipped to 70th in the FIFA rankings, which sounds shockingly low for a World Cup team until you glance up to see the Saudis, despite securing automatic qualification from a competitive Asian confederation, at 67.

Despite failing to win in seven matches stretching back to October, 2017, the hosts still have realistic hopes of making it to the second round for the first time in more than 30 years after being drawn in a group also containing Egypt and Uruguay.

Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov has been working overtime trying to rebuild his team, particularly defensively, after a cruel run of serious injuries to some of his most experienced operators, but the tournament has arrived without him showing much evidence of progress.

His team last tasted success via a 4-2 victory over South Korea - and even that win needed two own goals - and their most recent warm-ups brought defeat by Austria and a 1-1 draw with Turkey.

In those games, Russia's laboured build-up play and careless passing looked light-years away from the irresistible, quicksilver side that lit up the European championship a decade ago.

That 2008 tournament, in which they reached the semifinals, is something of an island of success for a nation who failed to qualify for the World Cups either side of it and made no impression in 2014 when they finished behind Belgium and Algeria.

That historical and recent lack of form means that few in Russia are holding out much hope of glory on home soil but the players will almost certainly be lifted by the occasion and by finally getting their teeth into a competitive match.

They also have a puncher's chance in the shape of striker Fyodor Smolov, who has become a scoring machine since being left out of the squad in 2014 with more than 60 goals over the last three seasons for his club Krasnodar.

If they are going to do it against anyone then it should be against a Saudi team coming off the back of successive friendly losses to Italy, Peru and Germany, though they showed patches of encouraging form and did beat Algeria and Greece in May.

Updates

Fedor Smolov will line up as a lone striker for Russia as the World Cup hosts attempt to end a seven-match winless run in the opening game of the tournament against Saudi Arabia in Moscow on Thursday.

The Krasnodar forward will be supported by Aleksandr Golovin and Alexander Samedov out wide as Russia bid to win a World Cup game for the first time since 2002.

Saudi Arabia return to the tournament after a 12-year absence and are the second-lowest ranked side in the competition at 67th in the world, three places above Russia.

Saudi coach Juan Antonio Pizzi will hope Mohammed Al-Sahlawi, who bagged a staggering 16 goals in qualifying, can snap a nine-game scoring drought in Russia.

Starting line-ups for the opening match of the World Cup between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia in Group A in Moscow on Thursday (1500 GMT kick-off):

Russia (4-2-3-1)

Igor Akinfeev (capt); Mario Fernandes, Ilya Kupetov, Sergey Ignashevich, Yury Zhirkov; Iury Gazinsky, Roman Zobnin; Alan Dzagoev, Aleksandr Golovin, Alexander Samedov; Fedor Smolov

Coach: Stanislav Cherchesov (RUS)

Saudi Arabia (4-5-1)

Abdullah Al-Muaiouf; Osama Hawsawi (capt), Omar Hawsawi, Mohammed Al-Burayk, Yasser Al-Shahrani; Salman Al-Faraj, Yahia Al-Shehri, Abdullah Otayf, Taiseer Al-Jassam, Salem Al-Dawsari; Mohammed Al-Sahlawi

Coach: Juan Antonio Pizzi (ESP)

Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG)

Clubs worldwide spent a record $9.63 billion on international transfers in 2023, an increase of nearly 50% compared to 2022, world soccer's governing body FIFA said in its Global Transfer Report published on Tuesday.

After transfer spending fell in 2020 and 2021 due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, outlays on players have only increased, with last year's total spend seeing an increase of 48.1% compared to 2022.

The figure also smashed the previous record set in 2019 by more than $2 billion, with English clubs spending the most with a new high of $2.96 billion while four countries' associations received more than $1 billion in transfer fees in 2023.

England were followed by Saudi Arabian clubs who tried to draw some of the best players from European sides to the Saudi Pro League last year following the marquee signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, which saw several players move to the Middle East.

"Clubs from Saudi Arabia featured among the top five spenders for the first time with a total outlay of $970 million in 2023, compared to $50.4 million in 2022," FIFA said.

"Clubs from Germany were the number one recipients of transfer fees with a total of almost $1.21 billion, the first-ever time that clubs from any one association have received more than $1 billion in transfer fees in a calendar year.

"That being said, three more associations also joined Germany in this exclusive group in 2023: France ($1.19 billion), England ($1.04 billion) and Italy ($1.02 billion).

The top men's transfers include Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, Enzo Fernandez from Benfica to Chelsea and Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur to Bayern Munich.

"The top 10 player transfers alone generated more than 10% of the entire amount spent on transfer fees in 2023," FIFA added.

Women's football also had 20% more international transfers last year compared to 2022, with the number of clubs involved rising from 507 in 2022 to 623 in 2023.

FIFA said a record 131 associations were involved in 1,888 women's transfers, with the annual outlay hitting $6.1 million -- also a record and an 84.2% increase from 2022.

The biggest international transfers in women's football included Jill Roord from VfL Wolfsburg to Manchester City, Kyra Cooney-Cross from Hammarby to Arsenal and Lindsey Horan from Portland Thorns to Olympique Lyonnais.

However, 84.7% of the transfers were for out-of-contract women's players.

FIFA also said that more than 50,000 amateur players moved across borders to join a club in a new association, with 91.7% of those being male players.