soccer

14 posts

French Football Clubs Will Strike To Protest Supertax

Soccer BallFrench football (meaning soccer to the Americans) clubs are going on strike to protest the 75% tax on those earning over 1 million euros annually. Ligue 1 and 2 clubs have announced that matches have been cancelled for the last weekend in November.

The two-year tax is meant to be a temporary measure as France deals with an economic crises. Originally meant to apply to households, the French constitutional counsel held that the tax as then written was unconstitutional. Lawmakers rewrote the law so that the tax would be on employers instead. Continue reading →

Corruption in Chinese Soccer and Beyond

On Monday 19 December 2011, China commenced the trials of about 60 players, referees and officials over allegations of corruption and match-fixing, after a crackdown that began in January 2010 (see above video). Besides match-fixing for gambling syndicates linked (inevitably) with organised crime in East Asia, the trials cover more petty forms of corruption such as the sale of positions in the Chinese men’s national soccer team, which has gone from qualifying for the World Cup in 2002 and making the final of the Asian Cup in 2004 to not qualifying for any World Cup since then. To put this in perspective, North Korea qualified last time and China did not. Continue reading →

10 “Unique” Gifts For Your Soccer (Football) Fan

Do you have a soccer fan who already has every jersey, scarf and Official Team Wine of his or her favorite club? Are you racking your brain trying to figure out what to get him or her, be it a birthday or holiday? Here’s a list of more, er, unique gift items for your favorite ultra:

(1) Auto valve cap: For the extremely detail-oriented car owning fan (offered by Borussia Dortmund). Continue reading →

2011-2012 Champions League Preview

There’s football and then there’s football (played mainly with, you know, feet). It’s that time of the year again, when Europe’s (and parts of Asia’s) best teams battle in what amounts to an intercontinental version of the Super Bowl and World Series. As liveblogged by JustTyler, FC Barcelona beat Manchester United to win it all last year. But can Barca continue its dominance?
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English Premier League Week Two Wrap-Up


Money, like air and sex, can never really be appreciated until it’s gone. Likewise a cash injection after a long dry spell (not unlike its counterparts) can bring a smile and an optimism about the road ahead. Football teams are affected by this phenomenon as we all are. Manchester City’s cash infusion has brought a trophy, European competition, and resulted in the best football any team has played over the first two weeks – seven goals and six out of six points. Cash-strapped and overmatched Blackburn and West Brom toil at the bottom already pitted in a relegation battle that will surely last through May.

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English Premier League Week One Wrap-Up


It’s been just over three months since Manchester United secured their 19th Premier League title by drawing 1-1 at Blackburn, but for soccer fans in England and abroad the EPL off-season seems as long and gray as a London winter. American football’s off-season is over twice as long, but at least we have basketball, hockey, and baseball to keep us company.

The Premier League is like the NBA, NHL, MLB, and Real Housewives of Manchester all rolled up into an annual nine-month long soap opera. It has drama, skill, heartbreak and triumph all acted out by highly skilled and impeccably trained practitioners of the beautiful game. So stakes were high when the first balls were kicked on Saturday to uphold the long, proud tradition of 120+ years of professional English football. Continue reading →

Riverplate Soccer Relegation Sparks Riots in Argentina


One of the most storied soccer clubs in South America, River Plate of Argentina, a club which has won the Argentinian league 33 times in its 110 year history, was yesterday relegated to the 2nd division for the first time ever.

River Plate fans did not take this well. Their final match was stopped a minute before the appropriately-named injury time as irate fans, obviously not believing in their team mounting a comeback from 2 goals down, began to charge the ground and throw objects at the players and referees.  Opposition fans were forced to stay for hours in a closed off section of the stadium surrounded by police, while River Plate fans set things on fire, smashed shops, threw rocks at the police, and generally behaved like soccer hooligans. Continue reading →

Members of Libyan National Soccer Team Join Rebels

Bloody civil wars in the 21st Century have taken on a distinctly ludicrous quality in many ways. Consider this story of the National soccer team of Libyan throwing its support behind the rebel factions engaged in war with Col. Moammar Gadhafi and forces loyal to him. Well it’s not the entire team I don’t think but 17 high profile figures in Libyan soccer have reportedly defected to the rebel side, including the national team’s goalkeeper Juma Ghat and the coach of Tripoli’s top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.

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