soccer

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N Korea, Iran Battle to Soccer Stalemate

Result could hurt Ahmedinejad's election chances

(Newser) - There was more than World Cup qualification riding on the soccer game between the two remaining members of George W. Bush’s "axis of evil" today, the Financial Times reports. Mahmoud Ahmedinajad has long been criticized for interfering with the national team, and today's frustrating 0-0 stalemate with North...

Roman Soccer Fans Will Kick, Er, Stab Your Butt

Anyway you slice it, extreme fans like to attack from behind

(Newser) - People who attend soccer games in Rome have to watch their backsides, warns the BBC. That's because Romans are particularly fond of stabbing rival fans in the butt. Stabbings are "now so frequent they're hardly reported in the press," said a professor who has studied the attacks. "...

Widow of Victim in Soccer Mob Attack Pleads for Peace

Don't retaliate in his name, she asks

(Newser) - The wife of a Catholic man beaten to death by a mob of Protestant soccer fans in Northern Ireland wants no violence in her husband's name, the Telegraph reports. "He wouldn't want retaliation for it," said Evelyn McDaid, who has two black eyes and a bruised face from...

Fandom: Baseball 'Kings' Sit, Soccer 'Plebes' Stand

(Newser) - Try putting a European soccer match and an American baseball game on split screen sometime and looking at the stands. You’ll notice a bunch of standing soccer fans, and a lot of sitting baseball spectators. Austin Kelley set out to explain that phenomenon for the Wall Street Journal, finding...

For NYC Homeless, Soccer a Field of Dreams

Street Soccer gives hope, builds strength, teaches teamwork

(Newser) - It's a small step from the streets of New York to the bright lights of the soccer field, the New York Times finds in a look at Street Soccer USA, a nonprofit that's giving homeless men the chance to pull themselves up by their cleat-straps. The 16-city network turns shelter...

Obama Backs US Bid to Host World Cup

(Newser) - President Obama is jumping into a new kind of global politics. An ardent advocate of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid, Obama is now pushing hard to bring the World Cup to America in 2018 or 2022, the New York Times reports. Obama recently wrote personally to the president of soccer’...

22 Fans Crushed at Ivory Coast World Cup Qualifier

50,000 came to see European stars play

(Newser) - At least 22 people were killed and 132 wounded in a stampede yesterday at a packed Ivory Coast soccer match, the Telegraph reports. The panic was sparked as fans without tickets broke down a stadium wall and poured inside. Victims were treated just yards away as Ivory Coast beat Malawi...

Argentina's Soccer Saint Is Back

It's cocaine-addict, stomach-stapled, socialist saint

(Newser) - Diego Maradona arrives at practice like an eclipse. Suddenly, no one much cares about the players on the Argentinean national team—not even the great Lionel Messi. It’s the coach, a 48-year-old, graying, thick-bodied man who draws the media swarms, reports the Washington Post in a profile. Maradona was...

Détente? Iran Soccer Rivals Will Play on US Soil

(Newser) - Two of Iran’s most bitter soccer rivals may soon become tools of diplomacy, the Guardian reports. Persepolis and Esteghlal Tehran are planning US tours, to culminate in a match, likely in a city with a large Iranian population. “For holding several friendly matches, including one against the Tehran...

Soccer Offers an Escape in Bloody Juárez

Mexicans fill stadium seats despite threats, drug cartel violence

(Newser) - Even as the drug war claimed nine more lives in Ciudad Juárez last weekend, Mexicans filled the local soccer stadium to cheer on their team, the Indios. It’s perhaps the remaining safe bastion in the ravaged town. In May, when the Indios clinched promotion to the Mexican League’...

AC Milan Haggles for Beckham
 AC Milan Haggles for Beckham 

AC Milan Haggles for Beckham

Italian club to offer Galaxy $12.7m to free him

(Newser) - With David Beckham hesitant to return stateside next month and AC Milan as eager to keep him, the Italian club is sending a rep to Los Angeles to broker a deal for the midfielder, the Guardian reports. LA Galaxy remains adamant that Beckham return unless a $15 million fee is...

Becks May Check Out of Hotel California

AC Milan hopes to wrest soccer star from LA Galaxy

(Newser) - Soccer virtuoso David Beckham may have kicked his last ball in the US, reports the Los Angeles Times. The midfielder is on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy to AC Milan until March, and the boss of the Italian club has said he would welcome Beckham with "open arms"...

Rawwk! Polly Want a Red Card?
Rawwk!
Polly Want
a Red Card?

Rawwk! Polly Want a Red Card?

Parrot booted from UK soccer game for imitating ref's whistle

(Newser) - A rare parrot had to be thrown out of a British football match when he began imitating the referee’s whistle, the Daily Mail reports. The parrot’s call was so realistic it actually stopped play dead 10 minutes into the second half, and continued disrupting the game thereafter. The...

Victoria to Becks: Enough Tattoos!

Soccer star gets yet more ink

(Newser) - David Beckham got himself a new tattoo for Christmas—a biblical proverb written in Hebrew—despite objections from wife Victoria, who thinks he's sporting enough ink already, the Sun reports. “She likes his tatts but wants a bit of his skin to be left,” a source said of...

Maradona to Coach Argentina
 Maradona to Coach Argentina 

Maradona to Coach Argentina

'86 World Cup hero, with limited experience, takes reins next week

(Newser) - Soccer great Diego Maradona will take the helm of his native Argentina’s national team Tuesday, the Guardian reports. Argentina has been without a coach since mid-October, when the last coach stepped down. “I think we must make the players understand that our shirt is the most important thing,...

Becks May Play for Milan on MLS Break

Italian juggernaut talking to MLS' Galaxy about loan deal

(Newser) - Officials of Italian soccer juggernaut AC Milan officials are confident David Beckham will play for the team during his break from Major League Soccer, the Guardian reports. Though Beckham has remained mum, a Milan exec was emphatic. “Beckham wants to train and play for Milan. We want him and...

Cuban Players Ditch US Hotel, May Plan to Defect

Cuba's soccer prez denies the 2 men ever left for United States

(Newser) - Two Cuban soccer players fled a US hotel in Virginia yesterday and may plan to defect, the Washington Post reports. Pedro Faife, 24, and Reynier Alcantara, 26, are slated to play in a World Cup qualifier tonight and have not turned themselves in to Customs—but Cuba's coach doesn't expect...

Tot's Death Spurs Soccer Goal Recall

Toddler strangled after head became trapped in mesh

(Newser) - Some 190,000 fold-up soccer goals are being recalled after the strangulation death of a Texas toddler, NPR reports. Distributor Regent Sports will replace all MacGregor and Mitre brand nets with a 5-inch grid sent in by customers. The 21-month-old child died last year when his head became entangled in...

Congo Probes Witchcraft Stampede Deaths

13 killed after accusations of sorcery provoke fighting, panic

(Newser) - Accusations of witchcraft led to a deadly stampede at a soccer game in the Congo, the BBC reports. Fighting broke out between rival teams after players from one team accused the rival team's goalkeeper of casting spells. Police intervened but were pelted with rocks by the crowd. They fired tear...

Clues Point to Rigged World Cup Match

Asian betting syndicate may have connections to Ghana team

(Newser) - Asian betters may have fixed a World Cup game between Brazil and Ghana 2 years ago, a Canadian reporter says. His research links players on Ghana's team with a Bangkok betting ring that wanted Brazil to win that match—and it did.

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