Monthly Archives: September 2008

Toronto FC defender Marco Velez took an extra game’s ban from MLS and an added fine of $250 for the red card offense of striking Chivas USA striker Alecko Eskandarian in the face last weekend.

The ink has just dried on Gianfranco Zola’s signature to become the new West Ham United manager. Now the team’s sponsor, AL Leisure Group, has gone into bankruptcy. The team signed a new three-year, $15 million deal with the company in February.

Newcastle United fans are planning up to five separate demonstrations against club owner Mike Ashley Saturday, when the teams faces Hull City at home. Supporters are deeply unhappy about the departure of manager Kevin Keegan.

A verdict on whether FIFA was wrong not to sanction Qatar for fielding an ineligible player in a World Cup qualifier could take several weeks, the Court of Arbitration for Sport warned. Iraq is hoping that it can be reinstated to World Cup qualifying at Qatar’s expense.

A Madonna concert earlier in the week at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Commerzbank-Arena stadium ruined the grass playing surface, causing Friday’s Bundesliga game against Karlsruhe to be called off.

Argentine playmaker Guillermo Barros Schelotto is 35 years old, but has started all off league-leading Columbus Crew’s 23 games this season. He’s also been voted MLS Player of the Week four times, and is league leader in assists with 18, almost twice as many as the Real Salt Lake’s Javier Morales in second place. So […]

Seattle Sounders FC has been given permission by the New England Revolution to talk to assistant coach Paul Mariner about its head coaching position, a league source confirmed to Monique Walker.   Mariner recently said he is interested in coaching the expansion team, set to start play next season. He also told the Arizona Republic […]

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said he fears that foreign takeovers of English clubs will erode the role of managers in the Premier League. At the same time, he disputes that English teams are following the mainland European model of employing directors of football with the responsibility of finding new players.   “I am scared […]

The New York Mets are still interested in buying a Major League Soccer team once they’ve completed their new $600 million Citi Field stadium, according to David Howard, the team’s executive vice president for business.   “We’re not resting,” Howard told Bloomberg Radio in a segment to be aired Sept. 13. “Before even Citi Field […]

FIFA Vice President and “special advisor” to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation Jack Warner may have picked the wrong opponent when he sent a letter to Sunderland manager Roy Keane earlier this week accusing him of “callous disregard” for small soccer nations. The former Manchester United and Ireland captain is not known for backing […]

Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has led two teams to the European Cup, but on Wednesday experienced the “bitter embarrassment” of being in charge of only the third ever country to lose to Luxembourg in a World Cup qualifier, and the first on home soil. “Now is the time for the team to pull together and […]

Although 2010 World Cup host South Africa has failed to qualify for the next African Cup of Nations, people who criticize the South African Football Association’s development program are “idiots,” says SAFA’s CEO Raymond Hack.

The English FA will report racist abuse leveled by Croatian fans at striker Emile Heskey to soccer’s world governing body FIFA.

During past qualification campaigns, German teams used to grind out unspectacular results against mediocre countries, writes Juergen Schmieder. Wednesday’s exciting 3-3 draw in Finland was a reflection of the changed times — no one knows what to expect from the Germans any more.   “Against clearly weaker teams like Poland [Euro 2008] or Belgium [first […]

The first time this season that the Houston Dynamo returned to the franchise’s previous home in San Jose, the players were perhaps more focused on the occasion than the soccer. “It was supposed to be a special night for many Dynamo players who either grew up in the San Jose area or through the years […]

It only takes a second to score a goal, the Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough used to say. And it only takes a single game to restore a team’s international reputation, judging by the reaction to England’s 4-1 road win in Croatia Wednesday.   Nothing prior to the performance had suggested that England would show […]

FIFA president Sepp Blatter will travel to South Africa later this month to inspect the country’s 2010 World Cup facilities, soccer’s global governing body announced Thursday. It said he would spend four days in the country from September 14-17 “to get a first-hand impression of the progress of the preparations for next year’s Confederations Cup […]

It’s nigh impossible to get figures out of Major League Soccer on which teams are earning a profit and which are not. All thanks then to Forbes Magazine for an independent review of the league’s finances. On the whole it presents an optimistic picture of a burgeoning league, especially for those teams with a home […]