Category: Story

The tell-all memoir of David Davies, the former executive director of the English Football Association, continues to leak its pre-publication scoops to the U.K. media. The latest revelation is that the FA was offered the chance to buy votes while bidding for the 2006 World Cup.   The call to the FA offering to set […]

In other alleged bribery news, Zenit St .Petersburg has denied allegations that it paid Bayern Munich to throw last season’s UEFA Cup semifinal. Spanish newspapers El Pais and ABC reported that a leading Spanish judge has heard a taped telephone conversation in which Russian criminal Gennadios Petrov claimed to have paid the German team “vast […]

Austin Kelley hopes that the still nameless L.A. team set to compete in Women’s Professional Soccer next year will pull out all the stops to sign Brazilian Marta, after winning the somewhat flimsy right to try and negotiate a deal with the player in the league’s ‘international draft’ last week. “Start the bidding war,” writes […]

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber has admitted that the league will be hit hard by FIFA international dates next season, but said there’s not much that can be done about it, Luis Arroyave reports. “There are 13 weekends affected by international play and we have a 30-week season,” Garber said in Chicago. “To not […]

Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA has warned Poland that it risks losing the 2012 European Championship if it does not reinstate the country’s suspended Football Association. The Polish FA was suspended Sunday by the government, which said the organization had failed to tackle corruption. It appointed an administrator to run the body instead. Both UEFA […]

Every year bar one so far, the Major League Soccer MVP award has gone to a player prolific in tallying goals and assists. Only goalkeeper Tony Meola in 2000 bucked the trend when he helped the Kansas City Wizards win MLS Cup. Pat Walsh reckons it’s time to show a little more imagination in our […]

Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan bought the team eight years ago when he made $64 million from selling his mobile phone company. His team is close to the bottom of the Championship (England’s second tier), does not own its stadium, Selhurst Park, and is mortgaged to a hedge fund, Agilo, that caters for “distressed companies.” […]

At the third attempt, Scotland has persuaded Argentina to play a friendly game at Hampden Park in Glasgow next month. The first request fell through when Argentina demanded 100 percent of the gate money and television revenue. The Scottish Football Association didn’t go for that at all. Then the SFA polled its own fans to […]

“If that happened to someone on a school team, you’d tell them, ‘Clear off and go play the piano or the flute’.” Franz Beckenbauer reacts to an own goal from Bayern Munich defender Martin Demichelis in Tuesday’s 1-1 Champions League draw with Olympique Lyon.

“People aren’t happy in the France team. [Coach Raymond] Domenech plays with people but if you keep doing that, you stumble in the end. It’s ever so sad because there’s an amazing quality in that group and it’s all being wasted.” Goalkeeper Gregory Coupet burns his bridges with the French national team.

“By playing like crap on Saturday we’ve put ourselves in a familiar situation where we’re forced to get a result.” Quakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon looks forward to his team’s game at FC Dallas Thursday.

“By early 2002, the club had only played nine seasons of top flight football in 90-odd years of existence, and were in the third division drawing paltry crowds of around 200. Then Árpád Pászkány arrived.” Andy Clark tells the remarkable story of Romania’s unlikely Champions League participants, CFR Cluj.