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![FIFA doesn’t want to ask itself the hard questions [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/a44dd2b11a33459944cad5312eacef87.jpg)
FIFA doesn’t want to ask itself the hard questions [Updated]
It is so simple, at least to anyone not entangled in the middle of the mess. All of Poland, Czechia, and Sweden have said they will refuse to play Russia in World Cup qualifiers at the end of March. While a ban from FIFA isn’t going to end Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, there is no pressure point t...

Washington D.C.’s most famous athlete is notably silent on Putin invading Ukraine
As far as approval ratings go, Alexander Ovechkin’s standing among Washington, D.C., natives is as high as it gets. He’s arguably the greatest professional athlete to call the District of Columbia home. He’s been there for 17 seasons. He’s a 12-time all-star. He led the Capitals to a Stanley Cup tit...

Fedor Smolov is that guy
After years of political tension between the countries, Russia officially invaded Ukraine on Wednesday, bringing swift sanctions and reaction from around the world, as countries almost unanimously opposed the actions spearheaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin....

Champions League Final likely to be moved out of Russia over Ukraine conflict
Not less than a week after the Russia Olympic Committee won 32 medals — second most overall but somehow ninth in the standings because of questionable Russia shit — Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing to invade the Ukraine. Now, the sporting world seems to be paying attention to the crisis in rea...

USWNT settlement was 30 years in the making
The U.S. Women’s National Team has spent its entire existence not just battling opponents from abroad, but its own soccer federation. After a nearly three-year-long legal battle, U.S. Soccer settled in court with the U.S. women’s soccer team. The settlement, which was agreed to six years after five ...

Let’s see All-Stars, Pro Bowlers mess around with generational wealth on the line
The reason why I’m against an NBA midseason tournament is the same reason why All-Star weekend events and Pro Bowls don’t work: incentive. Rings are the only unit of bragging rights that matters. It’s why people laugh when Carmelo Anthony talks about all of his Olympic gold medals. There’s no reason...

New Zealand was shut out, yet one of their players still recorded a hat trick
The U.S. Women’s National Team is celebrating victories on two fronts today. The first, and most important, victory concerns the $24 million the team settled for in their equal pay lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. That settlement was obviously a long time coming and well-deserved for a te...

No one is prepared for the Florida Panthers to be this good
Mason Marchment had his first career hat trick Friday night, leading the Florida Panthers to a 6-2 rout of the Minnesota Wild in a game that could be a Stanley Cup Final preview....

Kylian Mbappé continues to bend Champions League to his will
Kylian Mbappé is only 23, but his plunge into the world soccer scene keeps growing. The French dynamo, playing for his home country’s most successful club over the last dozen years, Paris Saint-Germain, as well as being an integral member of France’s national team, keeps scoring critical goals. Two ...

Sidney Crosby nets 500th goal vs. team he seemed to score nearly all of them against
Sidney Crosby scored his 500th career goal on Tuesday night, and of course he did because the Penguins were playing the Flyers and exactly 10 percent of Crosby’s career goals have come in the Battle of Pennsylvania....

James Harden expects us to believe he had no choice in going to the Nets last year
So, apparently, James Harden didn’t pick and choose his trade destination in the deal that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets last January. If you’d asked most people, including those in the media, about how that trade went down, most would undoubtedly have told you that Harden chose to play with old OKC...

What will make James Harden happy?
James Harden has just strong-armed his way out of his second team in two years. What’s weird is that he was in two completely different situations. ...

Should Wolves be the fans’ favorite to finish in the top four?
The Premier League might not have much of a title race at the moment (a lot is going to have go right for Liverpool and a lot wrong for City to change that), but it’s relegation fight will be, to quote Jim Ross, “A Saturday night on payday weekend in Muskogee.”...

City of Angels is City of Titles
The Rams have made history by joining the Colts and Raiders as the only franchises to win the Super Bowl representing different cities, but they’ve also accomplished something just for Los Angeles....

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of Kyrie Irving’s own actions
This is what it’s come to for the Nets....

This was not Miracle on Ice
Fact, an American team primarily made up of NCAA players took down a veteran Canadian team 4-2 in the preliminary round of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing late Friday night. ...

Mikaela Shiffrin doesn’t have to look too far for a tale of redemption
When Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of her second event at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday night, it was shocking. She’s been the face of U.S. Olympic coverage, including my coverage, and not only did she fail to medal in her first two races, she failed to even finish a run. ...

Automated offside is here, and it’s pretty damn cool
Even through its many, many bumps and hiccups (the kind of hiccups where you feel like you’ve pulled an oblique) I have been pro-VAR. It is hardly perfect, and far too much of it still depends on the whims and judgements of people. Except now being in the hands of whatever is floating between one pe...

Brooklyn is facing a tough decision with James Harden, but they do have options
So, the cat seems to have entirely escaped the bag at this point. James Harden allegedly wants out of Brooklyn barely one calendar year into his stint with the team. It sounds like it’s more than just the part-time status of teammate Kyrie Irving that’s bugging Harden. Although the Nets, losers of e...

Olivier Giroud continues to just do the work
It is hard to look at Olivier Giroud and think “grafter.” Because it’s not hard to look at Giroud at all. Ask Leslie Jones. It would be silly to suggest that people don’t make conclusions based on how a player looks. It’s hard to reconcile him as a pure, old-school center forward. Strong, holds up t...