fifa Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Israeli Government Bans Palestinian Soccer Players From Traveling To West Bank For Tournament Final
The FIFA Palestine Cup is meant to crown the best club team in Palestine each year, with the final pitting the holders of the Gaza Cup against the West Bank Cup champions. This season, however, the final of the tournament has been cancelled due to interference from the Israeli government. As reporte...

FIFA's The Best Awards Are The Worst
In what universe is Marcelo still one of the best defenders in the world? Not in this one, or any other where performances on the field or even the amorphous “club success” criteria apply. The only place where Marcelo could be considered a starter in a world’s best XI is one where nothing matters to...

FIFA Releases Meaningless Statement Condemning Iran's Ban On Women In Soccer Stadiums
An Iranian woman recently died from from self-inflicted burns after she was arrested for trying to attend a soccer match in the country, and her death has brought renewed scrutiny to Iran’s law that bans women from entering soccer stadiums. FIFA, an organization always eager to do the bare minimum i...

Hong Kong Soccer Fans Turn Their Backs And Boo Chinese National Anthem
Fans at Hong Kong Stadium turned their backs on the Chinese national anthem prior to a World Cup qualifying match against Iran on Tuesday, bringing the long-running pro-democracy protests to the sporting world, per the Associated Press. The fans not only turned their backs, but also held up signs wi...

Iranian Woman Dies From Self-Inflicted Burns After Arrest For Attending Soccer Match<i></i>
Sahar Khodayari, a 30-year-old Iranian woman, has died after she self-immolated outside of a courtroom where she was being tried for attempting to enter a soccer match disguised as a man. Khodayari was arrested in March as she tried to attend a match featuring her favorite team, Esteghlal. She was ...

Brazilian Referee Becomes Second Ref This Month To Stop Match Due To Homophobic Chants
While FIFA’s recent disciplinary code changes meant to address racist abuse from supporters in the stands, the updated rules have already been called to action this month to combat homophobia, first in France and now in Brazil....

FIFA Is Screwing Up The Women's World Cup
On Wednesday, FIFA approved the expansion of the 2023 Women’s World Cup from 24 teams to 32, ignoring concerns about match quality and financial investment in an attempt to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s soccer. It’s a very FIFA move, as no entity is better at taking a good idea and...

Here Are Some Potential Locations For FIFA's New Headquarters
According to a report from the New York Times, soccer federation and bribe repository FIFA is considering moving away from its longtime headquarters in Switzerland and setting up shop elsewhere. The Times speculates that potential host countries could potentially engage in an Amazon-style competitio...

FIFA Puts A New, Useless Coat Of Paint On Its Anti-Racism Rules
FIFA announced changes to its disciplinary code on Friday, and the biggest tweak is a new addition to referee power that, in theory, could do much to help curb some of the racist abuse from supporters. Unfortunately, this is FIFA, where the theory almost never comes through in practice....

The Women's World Cup Has A Refereeing Problem
Despite what our lovely commentariat might believe, we here at Deadspin do not have a quota of anti-VAR posts to hit. If it feels that way during the Women’s World Cup, it’s only because FIFA, through the kind of casually negligent behavior that typifies its treatment of the women’s game, has put it...

VAR Has One Job, And It's Failing Miserably At It
The most common complaint against VAR—or any form of video review in sports—in one of aesthetics. If referees insist on stopping the game for several minutes to double check every key play, the thinking goes, all the drama and intensity and emotion of the biggest moments will be lost, and the celebr...

Verizon Media Group CEO Praises Yahoo Sports' Important Coverage, Like This Syndicated Wire Story
Verizon Media Group CEO K. Guru Gowrappan began his memo to staff today by praising Yahoo Sports for writing a story on the theme of the Women’s World Cup: equity. It was a nice thought, but Yahoo Sports didn’t even write that story....

The End Of Argentina-Scotland Was A Fucking Mess
Scotland just had to defend a 3-0 lead over the final 20 minutes of their match on Wednesday against Argentina in order to make it to the knockout stage of the World Cup. They couldn’t do it, and as a result will exit their first World Cup after just three games....

FIFA Screws Up Ticket Sales For Women's World Cup, Does Terrible Job At Apologizing
Soccer fans who purchased tickets to attend the Women’s World Cup in France this summer were finally able to download their pre-ordered tickets on Monday. Many who had bought groups of tickets were understandably pissed off at discovering that not all of their seats would be together....

Manchester City Face Champions League Ban For Breaking UEFA's Dumb Rules
Things are moving quickly against Manchester City. After a report earlier this week that the back-to-back Premier League champions could face a ban from the Champions League, the New York Times reports that a ruling is imminent. All of this because Manchester City, the poster boys for the current fi...

Sepp Blatter, Who Tried To Use Money To Ruin Soccer, Thinks That Money Has The Potential To Ruin Soccer
Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA who was ousted after the Justice Department caught his organization doing a corruption or two, hasn’t been one to shy away from an interview despite being quite a reviled figure in the sport he used to be in charge of. His latest take comes courtesy of Swis...

FIFA Bans Chelsea From Signing New Players Until Summer 2020
FIFA has hit Chelsea with a registration ban for the next two transfer windows, preventing them from signing new players until the summer of 2020, because of violations related to the signing of players under the age of 18....


Qatar Tuned Up For The 2022 World Cup By Winning The Asian Cup For The First Time
On Friday, the Qatari national soccer team did what it had never done before, beating Japan 3-1 in the final of the Asian Cup to claim its first continental trophy ever....

Alleged Football Leaks Hacker Seeks "Whistleblower" Protection After Arrest In Hungary
Since its inception in 2015, Football Leaks, a website that publishes documents obtained from the hacking of various powerful soccer clubs and organizations, has been the bane of European soccer. The website has helped surface scandals ranging from Cristiano Ronaldo’s rape case and Jose Mourinho’s t...