By James M. Dorsey The Israel Football Association (IFA) acting on orders of the police has suspended what it calls 'sensitive' matches, a reference ...

Eritrea's national team has for all practical purposes defected after 10 of its players this week refused to return home following a World Cup qualifier in Botswana.

Israel's most notorious soccer fan group, La Familia, known for its militant racism against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, has put itself in the firing line as Israeli-Palestinian confrontations threaten to spark a third Intifada or popular Palestinian uprising on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

While focused on Qatar, the campaign also targeted other Gulf states and prompted other activists to focus on high-profile construction projects like sites for Western museums and universities in the UAE. It also motivated countries across the region to tinker with their labour systems.

A staunch supporter of general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, has called on the government to allow soccer fans, a pillar of anti-government protest, back into stadia that have largely been closed to the public for nearly five years.

A few years ago I wrote a post about soccer parents, but at that point, I did not imagine that we would now be one of "those" families, driving to soccer games in different cities, spending the night in hotels, and paying buckets of money to play a sport that many of us just went out and played in the park after school.

Pictures of Saudi soccer players subjecting themselves to Israeli controls potentially could have been the cinder that put the House of Saud on fire where it not for the willingness of Sepp Blatter's FIFA fire brigade to come to Mr. Salman's rescue on what can only be opportunistic political grounds.

Most leadership and support structures in professional team sport are set up for failure. Although head coaches have their assistant coaches to lead certain aspects in training -- it is not what will prevent them from failure.

From now on, in addition to zipping my lip on the sidelines, I am going to seek out opportunities to encourage my two daughters to push more--legally, of course. Life, after all, can be a contact sport.

Manchester United completed two comprehensive victories this week; the first being a 3-2 Barclays Premier League victory over Southampton and the second a 3-0 victory over Ipswich Town in the Capital One Cup competition.

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In his 10 years, my son has turned me into a woman with an understanding of actual Game. I have become something I hardly recognize: Soccer mom. Basketball mom. A Mother of Game.

Inevitably, the mass exodus of refugees from conflict areas was going to provoke the spilling into Europe of multiple disputes in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Spanish soccer is the first to feel the weight of the baggage that has turned vast numbers into destitute refugees.

D.C. United needed a win to qualify for the MLS playoffs, but with only one point in their last four matches, while Columbus had won 3 over the same period, the omens weren't so good.

I moved to Western Massachusetts from Chicago last summer. I grew up in Chicago. I know that expressway exits are strategically the best place for people with dirt-covered hands to hold up signs asking for money and help.

The Homeless World Cup is devoted to combating homelessness in Scotland and around the world. Soccer can be a means to equip and empower homeless people to change their lives, by restoring their confidence and self-esteem and replacing isolation with belonging.