The world of soccer has been rocked by a French player's game-defining handball in the much-anticipated qualifier match between France and Ireland. Thierry Henry has admitted to the offense, but said ultimately it is the duty of the linesman to make the call. His action and subsequent admission have drawn strong reactions, including attempts to vandalize his Wikipedia page. [more inside]
posted by lovermont on Nov 19, 2009 - 112 comments

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 14, 2009 - 60 comments

Yesterday evening, Robert Enke, goalkeeper of Germany's national soccer team, committed suicide. At a press conference today, his wife revealed, that he had been suffering from depression for 6 years and had been in therapy. He covered it up out of fear to lose custody of his adopted daughter and his career as a professional footballer. [more inside]
posted by starzero on Nov 11, 2009 - 27 comments

The Guardian recently published a beautiful article about Danish Dynamite, the '80s Danish national soccer (football) squad. Rob Smyth and Lars Eriksen write about how the success and failure of the national team highlighted national traits that Denmark has. The writing about the matches is among the most inspired I have ever read. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Nov 11, 2009 - 6 comments

"If you're gonna pull someone's ponytail and about snap their head off with it, that's going over the line." BYU advances in MWC tournament despite multiple dirty plays from New Mexico's Elizabeth Lambert.
posted by hermitosis on Nov 6, 2009 - 152 comments

What`s great about the World Cup of football is that everyone gets a chance to qualify, against all odds. This week was a fascinating week of World Cup qualifying matches around the world. But while the world's attention was focused on Portugal and Argentina and France and Cameroon and England, among others, a small victory was won in a dusty forgotten corner of UEFA Group Seven. On Wednesday the Faroe Islands recorded their first cWorld Cup win , a 2-1 victory over Lithuania. [more inside]
posted by salishsea on Sep 10, 2009 - 46 comments

Football legend Sir Bobby Robson dies, following a long battle with cancer. Further tributes via the Guardian. Donate to his foundation via here.
posted by Webbster on Jul 31, 2009 - 25 comments

"I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f------ miserable. I don't want to have soccer be this way." Landon Donovan , center midfielder for the USA soccer team which recently lost to Brasil 3-2 in the USA's first FIFA final, talks about playing with David Beckham in an excerpt from Grant Wahl's forthcoming book 'The Beckham Experiment'.
posted by dig_duggler on Jul 1, 2009 - 84 comments

20 years ago today, a crush of fans at the Leppings Lane entrance of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium killed 96 people, among them the cousin of current Liverpool player Steven Gerrard (who has the dubious honour of being the youngest victim). Coming just 4 years after the Heysel stadium disaster, which killed 39 people and was officially blamed on Liverpool fans, and almost two decades of hooligan violence, the most obvious or convenient conclusion was that history had repeated itself. [more inside]
posted by MuffinMan on Apr 15, 2009 - 61 comments

America is doomed. Why? Soccer.
posted by Artw on Mar 12, 2009 - 150 comments

Now's the time in the 1974 Bundesliga new uniform unveiling presentation where we dance. Happy Monday! :)
posted by miss lynnster on Dec 22, 2008 - 30 comments

The future of soccer in America is black, female and from the inner-city.
posted by Artw on Dec 5, 2008 - 27 comments

Two slimes. One circle. Infinite addiction. Welcome to the world of Slimeball. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Aug 8, 2008 - 16 comments

See Nemo fetch. Want to train your comet to join the Comets? Your Shubunkin to do some dunkin'?

Goldfish training.

A school of fish or a school for fish? You be the judge.
posted by OhPuhLeez on Jul 22, 2008 - 10 comments

The Journal of Footballing History is a scholarly journal about the history of football (soccer) all over the world. You need to register (or "subscribe" as JOFH calls it) but it's free. Gloriously, gloriously free. After you've subscribed you can enjoy articles on matters such as France's footballing culture, a back and forth about the state of African football, a pair of articles about Euro 2000 and what England's dismal failure at that European Championships tells us about the national side and on shooting from free kicks. There are also short histories of kits, boots, passing and squads and a book review section.
posted by Kattullus on Jun 30, 2008 - 21 comments

Felicidades España! [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jun 29, 2008 - 25 comments

Rémi Gaillard leaves a trail of befuddled witnesses and victims in his wake. [more inside]
posted by Dave Faris on Jun 24, 2008 - 43 comments

70 year old Pak Doo-Ik will lead North Korea's prestigious Olympic torch bearers to Beijing this summer. In the 1966 World Cup at Middlesborough, Pak scored the goal that lead his team to a stunning 1-0 upset win over Italy (video). Pak Doo-Ik and the team returned home as heroes, but ultimately fell under the suspicion of North Korean leadership. The team underwent "mental re-education" and were exiled, Pak Doo-Ik spending ten years as a forest laborer. Dear Leader Kim Jong-il later allowed Pak to coach North Korea's national soccer team, and a fascinating 2002 BBC documentary brought Pak Doo Ik back to the international stage.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Mar 27, 2008 - 12 comments

Fans of Futbol (Links to futbol vids) should enjoy this short vid of some amazing skillz. [more inside]
posted by snsranch on Feb 19, 2008 - 8 comments

"I'm on Setanta Sports" with José Mourinho. Fantastic. The Special One returns to the world of football with his very own talk show. Very good. More clips inside. Be champions! [more inside]
posted by sellout on Feb 8, 2008 - 12 comments

"Geordie messiah to return - Kevin Keegan is returning to Newcastle United as manager". Thus read the official statement issued by Newcastle United heralding the improbable return of Kevin Keegan to be manager of the club, the perennial under achievers in English football. [more inside]
posted by iboxifoo on Jan 17, 2008 - 30 comments

On the same day that Sevilla's Antonio Puerta passed away in Spain, Clive Clarke, a defender on loan to Leicester City from Premiership side Sunderland, suffered a heart attack after collapsing in the dressing room during half-time of a League Cup match with Nottingham Forest, a series of events was set in motion that resulted in a truly great display of sportsmanship
posted by Deep Dish on Sep 19, 2007 - 35 comments

Post your grandson's mad football skills on YouTube, get him recruited by Manchester United.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Aug 2, 2007 - 52 comments

In Britain, just as the football season ended 5 months ago, a football fan and journalist launched an endeavour to buy a club. MyFootballClub asks for £35 from their members and in return, trustees are given the right to vote on transfer deals, squad choices and managerial appointments. But first they are to decide which football team to buy. From across the world people are invited to play the tycoons at their own game. With the target 50,000 members signed up already, and with the new season set to start in a few weeks it looks like this radical trust has a fighting chance.
posted by takeyourmedicine on Aug 2, 2007 - 22 comments

Iraq wins! When everything that could go wrong goes wrong, it is awesome to see that something like this happened.
posted by dov3 on Jul 29, 2007 - 46 comments

Ready or Not. "South Africa is a great place to have a party, and people are incredibly generous of spirit. What we should be doing is trying to make the World Cup experience uniquely African: where the bus comes 10 minutes late but nobody gives a toss because they are having such a good time. Instead, the organisers seem to want to try to run the World Cup as efficiently as the Germans did. What a load of bull. The Germans could invade Poland in three days. We could not invade Swaziland in three months." Article in today's Observer about preparations in South Africa for the soccer World Cup in 2010.
posted by hydatius on Jun 3, 2007 - 17 comments

When Sports Fans Go Mad. Just in time for your NCAA Final Four weekend: a celebration of sports fans' best and worst pranks, taunts, and hijinks. This ain't no Brady Bunch episode. Some require the skills of a tattoo artist. Some are confusing. Some are about public humiliation. This one, however, really takes the cake.
posted by papoon on Mar 31, 2007 - 14 comments

"It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. [Southampton] Fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football statue anywhere both in size and the amount of detail" -- Ted Bates Trust chairman Dave Ford

Then again, maybe not.
posted by crumbly on Mar 27, 2007 - 38 comments

Prior to a soccer game between Argentina and Brazil, a condom company from Argentina ran an ad to inform Brazilians what awaited them at the upcoming match. But Brazil won, and the Brazilian Football Organization ran their own ad in response.
posted by fandango_matt on Feb 27, 2007 - 25 comments

After the death of the policeman Filippo Raciti during the fights happened during and after the soccer match between Catania and Palermo, Italy is trying to decide what to do against violent ultras.
The Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies had a big impact on the english soccer. Is Italy going to start an effective crackdown against football violence?
posted by darkripper on Feb 4, 2007 - 22 comments

Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. “There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,”
posted by wavespy on Jan 23, 2007 - 162 comments

Guy Kawasaki interviews Aziza Mohmmand. What’s the most inspiring story of entrepreneurship that you’ve heard in 2006? My answer does not involve two guys in a garage who sell their company to Google for $1.6 billion. No way...my answer is a woman who runs a soccer-ball factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.
posted by davar on Jan 8, 2007 - 6 comments

European Fields: Landscape of Lower League Football Gorgeous shots of some football pitches throughout Europe. Taken by Dutch Photographer Hans van der Meer. From SpoFi
posted by psmealey on Dec 2, 2006 - 14 comments

Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net is a vast archive of current and historical sports logos from leagues large and small, brand new or defunct. Some of my favorite retro logos involve mascots (often anthropomorphized) performing sports-related activities. Of course, some were retired for good reasons.
posted by kyleg on Aug 30, 2006 - 14 comments

Bending a soccer ball - mathematically. Found via Ivars Peterson's short exposition on Braungardt and Kotschick's The Classification of Football Patterns [pdf, technical].
posted by Wolfdog on Aug 17, 2006 - 18 comments

The Homeless World Cup: "Yes, there is a World Cup for homeless people, made possible with help from corporate sponsors such as Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Bank of America."
posted by kliuless on Aug 9, 2006 - 8 comments

The World Cup! This is your spoiler-free post... Don't be a dick. Don't post a FPP revealing who won!!!
posted by Cyrano on Jul 9, 2006 - 228 comments

Goals are become scarce in the final 16 knockout phase of the World Cup. A discussion has been going on over at the Guardian's World Cup blogs. In the knockout phase the number of goals has declined from 42 in 1986 to about 25 in 2006. There hasn't been a World Cup Final since 1986 where both teams scored. There have been a mere 3 games in the knockout phase from 14 where both teams have scored. For the first time ever a team, Switzerland, has been eliminated without conceding a single goal. Does something need to be done? Do bigger goals, no goalkeeper, fewer players or changed rules need to be considered?
posted by sien on Jul 6, 2006 - 124 comments

Two goals worth a million words. In Arabic, English, Chinese, Portuguese and yes, German. Italy's 2 goals against Germany, from 8 different commentators, one of them being Diego Maradona. Heavy YouTube usage unfortunately, although the post links to the leading Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera.
posted by keepoutofreach on Jul 6, 2006 - 26 comments

Keep your balls in check: The Saved Sect Website calls for Muslims to stop supporting The World Cup, as "[...]soccer plants the seeds of nationalism, and is therefore part of a 'colonial crusader scheme' to divide Muslims and cause them to stray from the vision of a unified Islamic identity."
posted by naxosaxur on Jul 3, 2006 - 47 comments

A collection of YouTube videos documenting the top 5 goals of the World Cup to this point. I mostly agree with the list; to me, it just doesn't get any better than Maxi Rodriguez's overtime goal vs. Mexico. Vintage World Cup excitement.
posted by charmston on Jul 2, 2006 - 49 comments

Brazilian striker Ronaldo is now "the most prolific scorer in World Cup history." Controversy surrounded him, literally, regarding his weight in the run-up to 2006 (not to mention a bit of competition from an heir apparent named Ronaldinho). But today is Ronaldo's day, and Brasilia's as well as they try to repeat 2002 and add a sixth star to their jerseys. (The list, updated to include Muller in 2nd, Juste Fontaine in 3rd, and fellow countryman Pele in 4th.)
posted by bardic on Jun 27, 2006 - 69 comments

The Da Vinci Cup Think of it as a gathering of tribes... There's a lot of ritual involved. It's probably the biggest single unifying event that our species can muster. Forget the Olympics. Not even close. Poor poor China. Keeping the romans entertained since BC.
posted by Unregistered User on Jun 25, 2006 - 11 comments

United States collapses as Ghana is "sick with happiness." World Cup, we hardly knew you.
posted by The Jesse Helms on Jun 22, 2006 - 171 comments

The London Review of Books has a World Cup blog. So has The New Republic and Tony Blair's spinmeister Alastair Campbell. WFMU tracks World Cup related fatalities on its World Cup Death Watch while Slate's William Saletan sends us Dispatches from the World Cup. And then there's the expected gaggle of World Cup blogs from the mainstream media (NYT, Sydney Morning Herald, Der Spiegel [in english], The Guardian, etc.)

And finally, the mother of all World Cup blogs, worldcupblog.org, with individual bloggers for each country, a main blog, and, my favorite section, a referee's blog.
posted by Kattullus on Jun 19, 2006 - 17 comments

A history of the online World Cup. Do you remember the first ever official FIFA world cup website? How much we've grown...
posted by ascullion on Jun 14, 2006 - 6 comments

Moritz Volz plays for Fulham and Germany- and he has a sense of humor.
posted by wfc123 on Jun 14, 2006 - 8 comments

Jugadas Espectaculares WorldCupfilter: clipshow of some staggeringly fancy footwork. Even non-fans should love this. (youtube)
posted by CunningLinguist on Jun 8, 2006 - 25 comments

Sorry, But Only One Of These Countries Can Win The World Cup. But which one will it be? And what are the odds? The Guardian's Fiver can be as funny about it as it likes, but this is no laughing matter, not anymore, as we will soon be surrounded by 31 unmistakable, irredeemable, inconsolable losers. Anyway, whatever happens, I'm sure everyone here at MetaFilter will join me in wishing it's one of the countries that speak Portuguese.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 8, 2006 - 108 comments

Please, do mention the war. Really, it's hard not to. After all, in a sense football is war, as the General famously joked. Sometimes it's peace. Same goes for that other football, by the way.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jun 3, 2006 - 11 comments