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 on Jun 30, 2008 - View this thread

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 on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

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 on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Mar 31, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Dec 2, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Aug 30, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Aug 9, 2006 - View this thread

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

Sports Illustrated explains seven or eight professional soccer/football teams, including highly regarded Manchester United and FC Porto, are interested in "a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil" : Jean Carlos Chera, nine years old and 4' 6". A video (additional source) [wmv format, 8MB] demonstrates Jean's abilities.
posted on Jan 27, 2005 - View this thread

Sir Clive Woodward to switch from rugby to football? Sir Clive Woodward is the head coach of the England rugby union team. Appointed in 1997, he has had stunning success, including winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail carried an incredible story: Woodward was planning to turn his back on rugby in favour of association football (soccer). Premiership club Southampton appear to be his next port of call with his ultimate aim, the England football team. Is it possible for a head coach to switch sports like this? Many experts think not. Is there any previous example of a coach switching sports like this?
posted on Sep 1, 2004 - View this thread

Virtual Replay - Shockwave recreation of the major incidents in all the Euro 2004 matches. Select from multiple cameras, players' viewpoints or even the point of view of the ball. note - doesn't seem to work in Firefox.
posted on Jun 16, 2004 - View this thread

"And The 100 Best Ever Football Players Are..." The great Pele, himself one of Time's 100 List, has just presented his very own list, not entirely as diplomatic and Kofi Annan-like as FIFA would perhaps have wished, as it includes, imo, some quirky and interesting choices. It was announced today, so there's time to bitch about unacceptable omissions and incomprehensible inclusions before the print mob get their dirty little hands on it and tell us all what to think.
posted on Mar 4, 2004 - View this thread

Euro 2004: Now We Know Who Is Going To Play Who are we any wiser? Bets are on and early predictions from the bravest punters are welcome. Who's going to disappoint? Who's going to surprise? Who will win, dammit?!
posted on Dec 1, 2003 - View this thread

Putting your faith in your kids. Only a little soccer story about a possible new England goalkeeper but its quite sweet.
posted on Aug 19, 2003 - View this thread

Old Firm dialectics It's going down the thinnest wire tomorrow in the Scottish Premier League (football/soccer/fitba that is) as Celtic and Rangers, with one game left to play in perhaps the most absurd league in Europe, stand equal on points and goal difference after 37 games thus far.
posted on May 24, 2003 - View this thread

Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far: Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team Vitoria de Setúbal has just been sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted on Mar 31, 2003 - View this thread

Soccer team loses 149-0 on intentional own goals. I've heard of taking dives but this sounds a bit much!
posted on Nov 2, 2002 - View this thread

The Rec.Sports.Soccer Statistics Foundation is heaven for all football buffs (attention: proper football). For example, what is the worst football team in the world? Or when did the most ridiculous penalty shootout happen?
posted on Sep 6, 2002 - View this thread

Ronaldo experienced a seizure on the day of the WC98 final. This is a good background article on the events of July 12th, 1998 in Paris, where Ronaldo was foaming at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably just hours before game time. Also note the various conspiracy theories; from Nike forcing Ronaldo to play, to organizers bribing the Brazilians to lose the game.
posted on Jun 29, 2002 - View this thread

Is Univision's coverage of the World Cup, like, way better than ESPN's or what?
posted on Jun 25, 2002 - View this thread

Ready To Rumba? Or Samba? Will England or Brazil go through in tomorrow's crucial World Cup game? Predict at your peril. I'd love Brazil to win but, no doubt influenced by the treacherous utterances of Pele and Jairzinho[see penultimate link], say England will tragically but deservedly win 2-1.
posted on Jun 20, 2002 - View this thread

World Cup Conspiracy. Here's one for the X-Files. The Azurri believe they were the victims of a conspiracy to oust them from World Cup 2002.

Alessandro Del Piero broke his usual cool exterior as anger seeped through. "In ten years of my career I have never complained," said the Juventus star, "but in four games too many strange things have happened."
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

Korea 2-1 Italy. A classic World Cup in the making? First it was Senegal dumping out the French, and then the Argies and the Portuguese were left biting the dust. Spain and Ireland fought out a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, Saudi Arabia got hit for eight, and now South Korea continue their miraculous journey by sending Italy home. Next on the cards: let's hope for another classic when England take on Brazil!
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

One of the teams in the Mexico vs. USA World Cup game made history. As of before the game, the USA has never won a knockout game of the World Cup - Mexico had never won a knockout game of the World Cup when not in Mexico. Click the article to see which team made history - or if you don't want it spoiled, don't click at all!
posted on Jun 17, 2002 - View this thread

The ugly side of football: man dies in Moscow riots. The World Cup has been great so far, but it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.
posted on Jun 9, 2002 - View this thread

How two perfect moments in time brought such tremendous joy and pride to a nation. To me, this truly is the world's most beautiful game, if just for moments like these. I wish everyone could feel this kind of passion for something, whether it be football or not. Sadly, we may never experience this kind of a reaction to anything here in the US.
posted on Jun 4, 2002 - View this thread

Check out this soccer/baseball stadium. You can fold the baseball field and roll in the soccer one. Animation here. Amazing.
posted on Jun 1, 2002 - View this thread

World-wide obsession I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted on May 29, 2002 - View this thread

Captain of Irish World Cup squad Keane sent home
This is big news here in Ireland. He's our best player - he keeps the team together on the pitch. But after some incidents in the past couple of days, and some prima donna style behaviour (something he's always been known for), he's been told to feck off. I think the manager did the right thing, but I can't help thinking that our chances of getting out of our group have been diminished...
posted on May 23, 2002 - View this thread

Forget about Palestine, Afghanistan and Venuzuela, Britts are praying for Beckham's foot and Uri Geller is set to help. Meanwhile, Argentines forget their economic woes, but the Financial Times fears this could kick start a second Falklands War. Is sport this important in your country?
posted on Apr 14, 2002 - View this thread

UEFA postpone all European Champions League ties. The European soccer community postpones its soccer matches as a mark of respect to the US tragedy. Good move, I would think. After all, everything else seems so trivial now.
posted on Sep 12, 2001 - View this thread

stopping football holigans in the gambia security forces banned from football tourney - "the beating of some of the footballers, team officials and supporters of the opposing team which resulted in the admission to hospital of a footabller and the serious wounding of some supporters is a total violation of fair play and can no longer be entertained by the committee." well you've got to draw the line somewhere
posted on Aug 26, 2001 - View this thread

Liverpool win the cup triple. It's the kind of thing bring a tear to your eye even if you're an Evertonian. I always said Golden Goals were a great idea.
posted on May 16, 2001 - View this thread

Go to a football match. Police arrive with tear gas and start a riot. 130 people die. I wonder if the police get some kind of bonus for killing innocent civilians...
posted on May 10, 2001 - View this thread

"Soccer" has been nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. No, really.

Any other suggestions for nominations?
posted on Jan 22, 2001 - View this thread

Oh great...another sports riot. Let's hope soccer never catches on in the states. Just imagine what our football hooligans would be up to...
posted on Jun 20, 2000 - View this thread

The recent World Cup Soccer Tournament was one small step forward for women in sports, but this is one giant leap behind
posted on Jul 15, 1999 - View this thread