Culture

“Banter club” is a common insult, but it’s 100 percent true for Tottenham Hotspur. How else do you explain the North London club’s recent acquisition of a paint sponsorship that’s already gone awry.

Spurs announced a new sponsorship deal on Thursday morning with paint company Dulux, the first official paint supplier of the Premier League club. Within hours Tottenham was forced to make fun of itself to save face after the new sponsor spent the morning making fun of Spurs on Twitter.

BUENOS AIRES - Maxi Bagnasco says he knows Diego Maradona's features by heart after painting portraits of the soccer star almost daily since the Argentine World Cup winner died last November.

The artist, who creates lifelike paintings with spray paint on huge canvases, decided to make Maradona his niche after the outpouring of grief over the footballer's death.

It’s always somewhat perplexing as to how streakers gain access to the field during professional sporting events. 

But doing it when football matches are being played behind closed doors and with the security that entails? That’s outrageous. And doing it in an empty stadium when it’s the most important match in the home side’s 89-year history? Well that’s unbelievable. 

And how about meeting all the above criteria but also doing it when your name around town is “The Nude Man of Granada”? That’s a miracle on grass. 

I spent a fair amount of time over the past month watching a sport other than soccer. The men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments returned from a year hiatus and produced thrilling competitions, with the Stanford women and Baylor men claiming the titles. Soccer fans who watched the tourneys will have noticed two things: The repeated use of FIFA songs in commercials/promos and basketball announcers pretending to know what they’re talking about while plugging the Champions League on Paramount+. 

Last summer, National Women’s Soccer League was the first major pro team sports organization in America to return to play during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup became a blueprint other leagues followed to safely return to play, and CBSViacom has created a one-hour special to commemorate the groundbreaking tournament. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch NWSL Challenge Cup 2021 and the documentary on the 2020 competition.

For all the wacky, zany, unexpected occurrences that have happened over the years in Scottish football (and there have been plenty), most of them have at least had a logical explanation.

The automated match camera that confused the referee's bald head for the ball? Completely improbable — but the deductive reasoning makes sense. 

Watching the Final Four on Friday night I was once again struck by how poor the referees have been during the women’s NCAA basketball tournament. From the first round when Texas A&M escaped an unprecedented defeat to a No. 15 seed over a missed back-court violation to UConn’s leading scorer fouling out in the semis on a call where she didn’t even make contact, the officiating in the tournament has not been good enough.

Taylor Twellman tried to take the high road in the Jozy Altidore-Twellman Twitter feud that spilled into Thursday, but Jozy didn’t want to hear it. Whether or not Twellman’s at fault here, Altidore does not deserve the hate coming his way on social media right now.

Jozy Altidore is sick of listening to Taylor Twellman. 

The Toronto FC striker took to Twitter on Wednesday to call out the former USMNT forward and current ESPN commentator, saying Twellman’s international career was “laughable.”