It arrived in one of those daily “your highlights” list of links sent to me by Twitter with the aid of their spyware. Tweets on topics I have shown an interest in the past. Like English football or foreign affairs. Do they send those messages to everyone? Or just to people who aren’t tweeting enough? […]

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The financial ramifications of failure in England’s Premier League are the most dramatic in sports. The difference between income inside the league … versus income outside it for the three clubs who will be relegated in May … appears to be something north of 400 million pounds. Maybe around half a billion. Per club, per […]

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U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd, twice the Fifa women’s world player of the year, said this week she will spend three months this year playing for Manchester City of England’s Women’s Super League. This is the same Manchester City organization that has been competing for championships on the men’s side, in England, for the past half-dozen […]

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This has been an oft-revisited topic over the past five or six years. Has Arsene Wenger, on the job since 1996, stayed on too long as coach of English Premier League side Arsenal? Increasingly, the answers have come back, from fans and pundits, “Yes. It is time for Wenger to go.” The criticism of his […]

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I take a few long looks at the crowd whenever I watch an English Premier League soccer match. I am always impressed at what appears to be a person sitting in every seat. At every match. For every minute of every match. No matter the weather. In the winter, the fans stand out a bit […]

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Great story out of Italy. FC Crotone, a small club from the deep south of the country, qualified to play in the top-flight Seria A this season — a first for the club from an ancient city in the deep south of the country. As one might imagine, the local fans of calcio were quite […]

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Is Landon Donovan’s playing career over? It may be, and not necessarily because he prefers it that way. First, the LA Galaxy in December said Donovan had retired — after the club could not come to terms with him. Donovan remained quiet, however, and then came a reported offer from Real Salt Lake. That alleged […]

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This must be a time of some anxiety for Landon Donovan. The top scorer in the history of the U.S. national team, as well as Major League Soccer, is thought to be on the verge of extending his playing career with MLS side Real Salt Lake. But it has been nearly a month since it […]

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This is an earworm of the worst kind. The inescapable, empty-headed, athletes-flogging-stuff, music-based advertisement that turns out to be nearly inescapable. I despise it, but it for weeks now it comes up ahead of every video clip shown on espn.com. I go to a story, and I have to hover over the “pause” key for […]

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And you thought it was difficult to keep track of 32 World Cup teams … Starting with the 2026 tournament, Fifa will give Planet Soccer 48 national teams for its quadrennial event. If it seems like overkill, it is. Nearly one in four of Fifa’s 209 members will be at the 2026 World Cup, which […]

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