There's an argument based on game theory that both the United States and Germany should pretty much just stand around the ball during their match on Thursday.

How World Cup Points Work

In the World Cup tournament, the first round consists of eight groups of four teams each. Each team plays all the other teams in its group.

If a team wins a game, they get three points and the losing team gets nothing. If the teams tie, they both get one point.

The two teams with the highest number of points go on to the next round. After Sunday's heartbreaking tie with Portugal, the U.S. has four points, as does Germany. The other two members of our group, Ghana and Portugal, each have just one point.

So, if the U.S. and Germany draw on Thursday, both teams will have five points, and neither Ghana nor Portugal can have any more than four points. This would mean that both the U.S. and Germany would advance into the knockout round of the tournament. If the U.S. wins (which FiveThirtyEight only gives a 14% chance of happening), they will advance, and Germany will very likely also still advance, barring something very strange happening in the game between Ghana and Portugal leading to a blowout for one team or the other. If Germany wins then they advance, but things get rather complicated for the U.S. and their chances.

For more details on what the possibilities are for our group, check out our own Tony Manfred's write up here.

Neither Team Needs To Win And Neither Wants To Risk Injuring Players

This makes a win not particularly important for Germany. They should be perfectly happy to take the draw, and a draw is basically the best reasonably expectable outcome for the United States.

This has caused some people to speculate that Germany and the United States could collude and fix the game — neither team would try to do much of anything on Thursday, leading to a pre-ordained 0-0 tie. U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann has denied any intention of doing this, but it might be the best option for both teams, since both would advance, and without playing particularly hard, both teams could avoid any risk of injury or player suspensions going into the knockout round. 

Making collusion work, however, would be tricky. While both teams would be best off not trying too hard and aiming for the draw, one team might betray the other, and launch a sneak attack against a team expecting a quiet day in the park. This would give the betraying team an advantage. However, collaborating and not really playing to win to get to the draw is still a better option, since now both teams are exposed to risk. Further, the collusion could completely collapse, with both teams trying to actually win, leading to a normal looking soccer game.

The Stag Hunt

This situation is actually an example of a classic problem in game theory: the stag hunt. The problem, originally formulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, involves two hunters who can choose between hunting stags or hunting rabbits. If the hunters team up, they can take down a stag, and eat like kings. If only one hunter tries to hunt a stag, and the other just goes for rabbits, the stag hunter is out of luck and goes home hungry, and the rabbit hunter gets a rabbit. If both hunters go for rabbits, they both get rabbits.

The issue is similar to whether or not the U.S. and Germany should play to win or just run ninety minutes of passing drills. While it would be better for both overall to cooperate, it's safer for a team or hunter to defect. Both hunters going for a stag will get more meat, but a hunter going for rabbits is guaranteed to get a rabbit.

It's helpful to put this situation into numerical terms. If both teams collude and don't try to win on Thursday, let's say each get 3 utility points, representing a safe path to the next round. If one team is not trying, and the other team defects and plays to win, the defecting team gets 2 points, and the now-betrayed cooperating team gets 0 points, representing the advantage the defecting team gets over the surprised cooperating team. If both teams defect and play to win, each gets 1 point, representing a normal soccer game.

In the analysis of game theory, this kind of situation is usually written out as a payout matrix like the one below. Each row shows the U.S. team's possible decisions, and each column shows Germany's possible decisions, with the respective U.S. utility points for each situation in blue and the German points in red:

This gives us an idea for what each team should do. If the USA cooperates and lounges on the field, they either get the best score of 3 utility points if Germany joins them, but with the risk of getting the worst score of 0 if Germany defects and plays seriously. Meanwhile, defecting is less risky — the U.S. gets at least one utility point — but there's no chance of getting the best possible outcome.

The resolution to this game relies on how much the two teams can trust each other. If Klinsmann wants to collude, and he's confident that Germany will go along with the plan, then both teams can reasonably safely aim for the best possible outcome, and safely and easily walk into the next round. However, if there's doubt in his mind and he expects the Germans to defect and play to win, then the U.S. team should do the same.

These Situations Happen Frequently

This puzzle and others like it, such as the famous Prisoner's Dilemma (which is very similar to this game, except that the payoff for betraying while the other player cooperates is higher than the reward for both cooperating, leading to the best strategy being to always betray the other player) are frequently used in economics and the social sciences as a highly simplified model for how interactions work in society.

The stag hunt game and the decision of whether or not to play to win on Thursday are small scale illustrations of situations where people collaborating and banding together can get much better outcomes for everyone involved than everyone working on their own, but if some people work together and some people work alone, the people working together get nothing.

One example given at Stanford's website explaining the stag hunt is pollution: everyone near a lake wants a clean lake, but if it's possible for one person to dump their garbage in the lake and ruin things for everyone, it's hard to coordinate everyone to keep the desirable outcome of a clean lake instead of moving to a nightmare scenario of everyone dumping their garbage.

SEE ALSO: According To Math, You Should Believe In God

Join the conversation about this story »

In the aftermath of the United States men's national team's gutting 2-2 draw against Portugal, there's still a lot of optimism in the air about the Americans' chances of getting out of the group.

The U.S. will advance with a win or a draw against Germany.

Even if the U.S. loses — and there's a 64% chance they lose, according to Nate Silver — there are a bunch of scenarios where they'd still advance, most of which require Portugal to draw or beat Ghana. That's the real reason we're all so optimistic — there's a general sense that the U.S. will be okay, even with a loss to the Germans.

The problem is this: The U.S. would likely need a point against Germany if Ghana beats Portugal.

And right now Ghana looks like a much, much better team than Portugal.

Here's a chart of U.S. advancement scenarios IF Germany wins and Ghana wins. There's a ton of red:

The tiebreakers are complicated (read all about them here), but the bottom line in this scenario is that any Ghana win by more than one goal OR any U.S. loss by more than one goal sends the U.S. home.

That's a scary proposition, especially with how bad Portugal has looked.

Portugal has a roster full of Champions League players, but they've been an hot mess at this World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo is clearly not himself after a knee injury. Fabio Coentrao, who's so integral in starting counterattacks, is out for the World Cup. Their starting center forward has come out injured before halftime in two-straight games. 

Through two games they have one point and a minus-four goal difference. Their chances of advancing are slim — 5% to be exact. Will they even be motivated for the Ghana game? Every World Cup we see a big team with star players collapse (France in 2010 is the prime example). Portugal might just be that team this time around.

Ghana, on the other hand, has probably been the second-best team in this group. They deserved a result from the U.S. game, which they dominated for 85 minutes before letting in a game-winning goal on a set piece. They pushed Germany, one of the three best teams in the world, to the brink and were 20 minutes away from winning before another set piece goal.

In short, you'd pick Ghana in this game if you were judging solely on form.

And if Ghana wins, the U.S. likely needs a point against Germany.

Germany has looked rampant going forward in this World Cup, scoring six goals in two games. While the U.S. defended well for big stretches against Ghana and attacked with purpose against Portugal, they've been prone to defensive blunders. All three goals the U.S. has allowed were the result of poor defending.

Germany is much more clinical than those two previous opponents. They don't need defensive blunders to score. The U.S. could easily lose by two goals if we see the sort of mistakes we've seen through the first two games.

It's a tall task for the U.S. to get a point here. It's also a bit more necessary than some are making it out to be.

Join the conversation about this story »

Deutsche Bank's World Cup forecasts haven't been that bad.

Like many firms on Wall Street, Deutsche Bank published a lengthy preview of the World Cup before the tournament kicked off.

Strategist Henrik Gullberg analyzed FIFA rankings, historical performance, and group strength to find the best "value" picks in the tournament.

Deutsche defined their value picks as teams undervalued when comparing the firm's assigned chances of that side winning the World Cup against what bookmakers were expecting.

Gullberg's top value picks among what he called the "near contenders" were France and the Netherlands.

The Netherlands have been stellar, and are so far the only team that has successfully navigated the group stage without a loss or draw. 

France are also undefeated, and with a game to play have the second-most goals scored in the tournament with 8.

A win or draw tomorrow against Ecuador will secure France victory in the group stage.

Here's the table showing Deutsche's 15 best value picks.

SEE ALSO: GOLDMAN: Here's Why Brazil Is A Much Bigger World Cup Favorite Than People Realize

Join the conversation about this story »

It is becoming increasingly more lucrative to win the world's biggest soccer tournament as FIFA will pay this year's winning team $35 million.

The winner's prize is up 16.7% from 2010 and 74.2% from 2006. Meanwhile, the amount that will be paid to the runner's up is up just $1 million to $25 million.

Curiously, there is little financial reward for making it out of the group stage as the payout to the teams that don't qualify for the knockout stage is $8 million and making it to the round of 16 only guarantees those teams an addition $1 million.

Join the conversation about this story »

BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. sportswear group Nike is banking on its sponsorship of more of the world's best-known soccer stars than Adidas in its battle to overtake the German firm as the sport's top-selling brand at its World Cup.

Nike has signed six of the 10 most marketable footballers in the world, to just three for Adidas and one for smaller German brand Puma, according to a ranking by sports marketing research group Repucom published in May.

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, sponsored by Nike, tops the Repucom ranking, with almost 84 percent of people around the world saying they know the Real Madrid striker, helping to sell over one million shirts with his name on the back in 2013.

In second place is Lionel Messi of Argentina, front man for the Adidas campaign who scores 76 percent global awareness according to Repucom - his marketability little dented by a mixed run of form for Barcelona this season.

The appeal of the extrovert Ronaldo, who took the crown as the world's best player from Messi in January, is helped by his use of Twitter, where he has 27 million followers to just two million for the more retiring Argentine.

Ronaldo probably helps sell shirts even when he isn't wearing one - he poses nude on the cover of the latest Spanish Vogue with his model girlfriend Irina Shayk - though the branding benefits are shared as Adidas sponsors Real Madrid.

"While it is primarily about performance on the pitch, a player's appeal is about a whole range of variables. With a footballer, you see everything, on the pitch and off the pitch, week in, week out," said Repucom founder Paul Smith.

"Athletes like Ronaldo have something unique that if you could bottle it and sell it, you would do nothing else."

Nike tries to do just that with a glitzy ad featuring Ronaldo - and Shayk - in which boys playing soccer in the local park end up scoring a penalty in a huge stadium against their heroes, including others from the Repucom top 10 such as England's Wayne Rooney and Brazil's Neymar.

Adidas has retaliated with an ad showing Messi dreaming about his rivals such asBastian Schweinsteiger of Germany, Luis Suarez of Uruguay and Dani Alves of Brazil, none of whom feature in the Repucom ranking.

ADIDAS ON THE RUN

Adidas, which has long dominated the market for soccer boots, shirts and balls, is facing a fierce challenge from Nike, the world's biggest sportswear company that has only been a serious player in soccer for the last 20 years.

While Adidas has supplied the match ball for the World Cup since 1970 and has extended its sponsorship of the competition to 2030, Nike is for the first time kitting out more teams - 10 out of 32 finalists - including hosts and favorites Brazil.

Adidas, which is supplying nine teams including reigning champions Spain, as well as Argentina and Germany, expects to make a record 2 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) from soccer this year, still exceeding Nike's $2 billion of soccer turnover.

"Football is the DNA of our company. We want to clearly show that we are number one in football," Adidas Chief Executive Herbert Hainer told journalists last week, adding Adidas expected to sell significantly more balls than at the last World Cup in South Africa four years ago and about as many shirts. Hainer acknowledged that Adidas faced a "head-to-head" race with Nike in the soccer shoe market, but predicted Adidas would still sell 2 million pairs of special World Cup boots.

Nike believes it has already overtaken Adidas in boots, including in its rival's home market Germany.

While Adidas is supplying the German kit, many of the country's top players now wear Nike boots, with nine members of the team that started against Poland this month sporting Nike.

However, Hainer dismissed suggestions Adidas had not signed the right stars, saying 14 of the 27 members of the German squad would be wearing boots with Adidas' trademark three stripes.

Meanwhile, Puma, whose only player in the Repucom top 10 is former France striker Thierry Henry, is resorting to a stunt to attract attention: it has persuaded players such as Italy's maverick striker Mario Balotelli, Marco Reus ofGermany and Cesc Fabregas of Spain to wear one pink and one blue "Tricks" boot.

"I have to be honest, the first time I saw the Tricks boots, I thought the Puma guy was mad. But when I realized he wasn’t, I was already excited," Balotelli said.

"It is exactly the reason why I chose to be with Puma, they dare to be different and everyone knows that I do as well."

(Additional reporting by Joern Poltz in Munich; Editing by Mark Potter)

Join the conversation about this story »

Italy and Uruguay are playing for a spot in the round of 16 with Italy needing either a tie or win to advance. But the Italians were forced to play the final 30 minutes with just 10 men after Claudio Marchisio was sent off with a red card.

Uruguay would score a go-ahead goal in the 81st minute.

Marchisio was moving in Uruguay's side of the field when he lost control of the ball to a Uruguayan defender. In an effort to regain possession, Marchisio made a reckless challenge, going over the ball and kicking the defender with the studs of his boot.

It was a foolish move and an easy decision for the referee in a huge match that could see the Italians sent home.

Join the conversation about this story »

For the third time in his career, Uruguay's Luis Suarez has bit an opponent in the middle of a game.

In the 79th minute, he got close to Giorgio Chiellini and bit him on the shoulder:

Chiellini tried to show the ref the bite mark, but Suarez wasn't penalized:

A close-up:

Uruguay scored a few minutes later and eliminated Italy.

NOW WATCH: How To Do That Whistle That Grabs Everyone's Attention

Join the conversation about this story »

Luis Suarez is probably the third-best player on earth going into the 2014 World Cup.

On the field he's smart, hard-working, and exceptionally skilled on the ball.

But a number of ugly incidents — including two separate biting fiascos and a racism controversy — have turned him into the most despised player in the world.

Looking through a list of his most outrageous scandals, it's easy to see why so many people will be rooting against him and Uruguay in Brazil.

He bit an opponent while playing for the Dutch team Ajax in 2010. He was banned for 7 games.

Source: BBC

He also bit Chelsea defender Branislov Ivanovic during a game in 2013, resulting in a 10-game suspension.

Source: Mirror

In the 2010 World Cup semis, he punched a shot off the line against Ghana with his fist and got a red card.

Luis Suarez appeared to bite Giorgio Chiellini during Uruguay's World Cup match against Italy.

After the incident, Chiellini pulled down his shirt to show what appeared to be a bite mark on his left shoulder. A Reuters photographer captures this stunning image (click on image for a larger view).

Here is the mark, zoomed in.

Here is another angle of the bite mark.

SEE ALSO: The 12 Most Outrageous Thing Luis Suarez Has Ever Done

Join the conversation about this story »

Luis Suarez bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini in one of the most shocking incidents in recent World Cup history.

While Suarez is one of the five best players in the world right now, he's also the sport's biggest villain. 

Inexplicably, this is his third biting incident.

1. While playing at Ajax in Holland in 2010, he was suspended for seven games for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal on the shoulder:

2. While playing for Liverpool in 2013, he was suspended for 10 games for biting Chelsea's Branislov Ivanovic on the arm:

3. While playing for Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup, he bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. He was not punished during the game:

Join the conversation about this story »

Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini slammed FIFA and the referee after the Uruguayan star Luis Suarez bit him in the 80th minute of their World Cup match.

He told Sky Sports Italia (as translated by the postgame broadcast on ESPN):

"Suarez is a sneak and he gets away with it because FIFA want their stars to play in the World Cup. I'd love to see if they have the courage to use video evidence against him. The referee saw the bite mark too, but he did nothing about it."

Suarez was not punished for the bite.

The only explanation is that the referee didn't see the incident. It occurred away from the ball, so it's conceivable that the ref didn't see it. Chiellini tried to show him his bite mark, but Suarez was still allowed to stay on the field:

SEE ALSO: The 12 Most Outrageous Things Luis Suarez Has Ever Done

Join the conversation about this story »

Greece converted a stoppage-time penalty to beat the Ivory Coast 2-1 and advance to the knockout stage of the 2014 World Cup in dramatic fashion.

It's absolutely brutal for the Ivory Coast. They would have advanced with a 1-1 draw, all they had to do was waste 180 more seconds.

Instead, in the 91st minute, Ivorian defender Giovanni Sio clipped Georgios Samaras's foot with his knee and brought him to the box.

It's probably the right call, but it's a harsh way to give up a penalty. There was no way Samaras would have scored this from the edge of the penalty box:

Sio was crushed:

Samaras stepped to the spot and converted it to send Greece into the last 16:

The Greeks went nuts:

Brutal:

Join the conversation about this story »

Today, during a tense and hard-fought World Cup match between Italy and Uruguay, Uruguay's Luis Suarez bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. This isn't Suarez's first taste of a player. Here's a brief history of Suarez biting other soccer players:

Suarez has twice been suspended from his professional teams for biting incidents. Considering Suarez's history, it only seemed logical that a betting website would offer the opportunity to gamble on whether or not Suarez would chomp down on a competitor at the World Cup.

What are the odds!? http://t.co/TQhfrYLjq8

— Who Ate All The Pies (@waatpies) June 24, 2014

As it turns out, the odds were pretty long. Betsson, a gambling website based in Malta, offered the proposition bet at 175-1 odds. One gambler, Thomas Syverson of Trondheim, Norway, put $5.25 on Suarez's biting someone, and walked away with a cool $916. Betsson's sportsbook manager, Andreas Bardun, told ESPN a total 167 gamblers bet on the bite. The biggest winner was also a Norwegian, who took home $3,300.

Gambling does have a history of odd bets, especially when it comes to the Superbowl, when gamblers bet on everything from then length of the national anthem to the color of the Gatorade shower given to the winning coach. But this is probably the first time a bet was placed on biting. And almost definitely the first time it paid off.

SEE ALSO: Bitten Italy Player Slams FIFA Referee For Ignoring The Luis Suarez Bite

Join the conversation about this story »

Uruguayan players, coaches, and media are closing ranks around Luis Suarez after he bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini in a World Cup game— the third such biting incident of his controversy-plagued career.

Team captain Diego Lugano told reporters "you have to be stupid" to think Suarez actually bit Chiellini. He said the apparent bite mark on Chiellini's shoulder— which the Italian futilely showed the ref after the incident — was an old scar.

Lugano also told the Telegraph that Chiellini is a "snitch" and no one ever bit him:

"I’ve just watched the TV images and I didn’t see anything. What I saw was a struggle and a photo of Chiellini which showed an old scar. You have to be stupid to imagine that scar is recent, very stupid.

"If Chiellini spoke about that after the match then he broke every dressing room code and I never thought an Italian would be such a snitch off the pitch. It would have been more manly to accept defeat and correct mistakes made.”

Here's the bite mark in question:

Chiellini said after the game that Suarez was a sneak and the referee ignored the bite mark because FIFA wants its stars to play in the World Cup.

Still, Uruguay is having none of it.

Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez brushed off the incident, saying Suarez was the "preferred target" of the English press.

He added, "This is a football World Cup, not about morality, cheap morality."

Suarez himself didn't apologize and denied that it was a bite. He said to reporters after the match (via ESPN):

"These are just things that happen out on the pitch. It was just the two of us inside the area and he bumped into me with his shoulder, and that's how my eye got like this as well. There are things that happen on the pitch and you should not make such a big deal out of them."

As the European and American media call for a lengthy ban, the Uruguayan media is going the opposite direction.

One article in El Observador suggested that the bite mark photo was Photoshopped. Another article, about FIFA's investigation into the incident, closed with the sentence, "The media, especially English — even more than the Italians — has already started the campaign against the Uruguayan."

The evidence against Suarez appears to be overwhelming: It looked like a clear bite in multiple camera angles, Chiellini says he was bitten, and there's a bite mark on his shoulder.

Here's the bite again:

Considering Suarez's history of biting, it's hard to give him the benefit of the doubt. But that's exactly what his team is doing.

SEE ALSO: The 12 Most Outrageous Things Luis Suarez Has Ever Done

Join the conversation about this story »

SEE ALSO: New York Is Banning Tinder's Infamous 'Tiger Selfies'

Join the conversation about this story »

Before he was a star for Argentina at the World Cup and before he was 3-time winner of the FIFA Ballon d'Or, given to the world's best footballer, Lionel Messi played youth soccer for the Argentina powerhouse, Newell's Old Boys, based in his hometown of Rosario, Santa Fe.

It was there that Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency which ultimately led him to sign with Barcelona at the age of 13 when the Spanish club was willing to pay the $750 per month cost to treat Messi's condition.

Since Messi left Argentina when he was just 13, there are still some in his hometown that still refuse to root for him even as he leads the hopes of the entire country at the World Cup.

Wright Thompson of ESPN recently visited Rosario where he found a town with a strong passion for soccer and divided by the colors of Messi's Newell's Old Boys and their hated-crosstown-rival, Rosario Central.

A local doctor explained the feelings towards Messi.

"People from Newell's are expecting Messi to be the best," the doctor told Thompson. "People from Rosario Central are waiting for Messi to fail."

The doctor's 18-year-old son went further, explaining that supporters of Rosario Central "hate Messi." However, the doctor said "hate" was too strong, instead saying "They don't want Messi to be as important as he is."

Some locals also relayed a story to Jeff Himmelman of the New York Times about a recent match at Rosario Central's stadium when fans booed a picture of Messi in the national team's uniform on the scoreboard. The booing continued until the picture was taken down.

However, Messi is troublesome for even some of Newell's Old Boys supporters as he is described by Thompson as the "golden ticket" the club threw away because they were too cheap to pay his medical bills.

The disdain for Messi even extends outside of Rosario according to Himmelman. There are people in Argentina that are not fond of Messi because he left too soon and didn't play in Argentina's first division and that he "isn’t Argentine enough."

There is a lot of pressure on Messi to help Argentina win their first World Cup since 1986. But even if he succeeds, some will still not be happy for Messi, public enemy no. 1 to many in his own hometown.

Join the conversation about this story »

The big worry for the United States men's national team is that the physical and mental fatigue of the 2-2 draw against Portugal will be too much to overcome Germany.

The U.S. and Portugal played in Manaus — an oppressively hot, humid outpost in a remote part of the Amazon.

In this World Cup, the four teams who have played there (Italy, England, Croatia, Cameroon) have all gotten destroyed once they left.

They all lost their next games, and went 0-1-5 in tournament games overall after playing in Manaus. 

Italy beat England 2-1 at the Arena Amazonia on the first weekend of the tournament. England lost their next game to Uruguay and Italy lost their next game to Costa Rica.

Croatia beat Cameroon 4-0 in Manaus. Cameroon lost their next game to Brazil and Croatia lost their next game to Mexico.

All four teams have since been eliminated from the World Cup.

The sample size is small, but it makes sense that the Amazon would take its toll. Before the World Cup draw in December, USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann said he'd be fine with any outcome as long as he didn't have to go to Manaus.

The conditions are exhausting, especially with only a few days of recovery between games. The travel is a factor as well, with teams losing training days because they have to fly thousands of miles to the jungle.

The U.S. will have to overcome all of that to advance.

Join the conversation about this story »

Lionel Messi scored his third and fourth goals of the World Cup in the first half against Nigeria and the second goal was vintage Messi, curling a free kick into the upper-corner.

The keeper never had a shot.

This came just moments after the Nigerian keeper stopped a similar attempt by Messi with a great save.

But Messi wasn't going to be denied two times in a row and this is quickly turning into Messi's World Cup.

Join the conversation about this story »

During Nigeria's World Cup match against Argentina we got a scary glimpse at just how hard these players can kick a soccer ball and just how much damage the ball can do.

[WARNING: there is a GIF of the injury at the bottom of this post. It is graphic.]

With the ball bouncing loose about ten yards outside of the box, Ogenyi Onazi of Nigeria got about a 7-yard run at the ball before attempting a long shot at Argentina's goal.

Unfortunately, his teammate, Michael Babatunde, was between the ball and the goal.

Professional soccer players can kick the 1-pound ball 70 mph and players like Cristiano Ronaldo can kick the ball up to 80 mph. Onazi had a full head of steam on his shot.

Babatunde tried to brace himself when he saw the shot taken.

The results were devastating. The replay appears to show that the radius bone of his right arm was broken at impact.

Here is the injury:

Join the conversation about this story »

The Ghanaian government is flying $3 million in cash to Brazil to prevent a potential player boycott before Ghana's World Cup match on Thursday versus Portugal, CNBC.com reports.

The dispute between the government and the Ghanaian players stemmed from a disagreement regarding the mode of pay for the players' "appearance fees."In an interview with Accra's City 93.7 FM, deputy sports minister Joseph Yamin explained that the Ghanaian government wanted to use a form of e-banking while the players wanted physical cash payments because many players have bank accounts in the countries where they play club soccer, not in Ghana.

With speculation that the team would not board its plane to Brasilia, where they'll play Portugal, Ghana President John Dramani Mahama personally intervened earlier on Wednesday to ensure that the Black Star players received their appearance fees before their match with Portugal.

The Ghanaian Football Association said in a statement:

"President Mahama personally spoke to the players to assure them that the money will be paid by Wednesday afternoon which has brought some assurance to the Black Stars."

The chartered plane, carrying $3 million in cash, was said to arrive sometime on Wednesday. According to the same statement, FIFA will reimburse the Ghanaian government after the tournament ends. 

The incident marks the second major piece of off-field drama surrounding the Ghanaian team during the World Cup. On June 22, the Ghanaian FA filed a complaint to police officials and FIFA for a potential match fixing scandal.

Ghana needs to beat Portugal on Thursday if it hope to advance to the knockout stages of the World Cup.

Join the conversation about this story »