TheRussianNavyintercepted the Arctic Sea 300 miles off Cape Verde, agroupof islands west ofSenegal, threeweeks after it vanishedandsparkedinternationalintrigue.
Despite a meteoric rise from a FIFA ranking of 155th out of 204 nations a decade ago to 70th in 2013, a notch below Scotland, Cape Verde seemed unlikely to emerge from the group stage, where it was drawn against two former champions, South Africa and Morocco.
That said, there is one wannabe bidder for Verde with advanced status: Co-operative Banking Group, owner of the Co-operative Bank, Smile and Britannia.
The branches, grouped together under the name Verde, will be operating as a separate business within the Lloyds group under the TSB brand by this summer.