Politics

Jerome Valcke, the Dick Cheney to Sepp Blatter's George W. Bush, is appealing against his 10-year ban from footballing activities for various ethics violations.

The Court for Arbitration in Sport will handle Valcke's case, which is hopefully denied because Valcke is about as scummy as they come.

I do not want Jerome Valcke back in this game. He's done enough. Not that the current administration is all sunshine and roses, but FIFA will never get cleaned up if they let people like Valcke back in the picture.

Earlier this year, Donald Trump revealed his plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border in order to restrict illegal immigration. Despite the country being divided, Trump has made it clear that he will move forward with these plans and deport illegal migrants. 

Dani Alves has slammed FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu for the treatment he received during his final three seasons with the club, calling the directors “false and ungrateful.”

Barcelona and Alaves will face off in the 2017 Copa del Rey Final on May 27th at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid. Although the venue has already been selected, it’s incredible to think that a country that has been dominating European football in recent years can’t even set a location beforehand to play their domestic cup final. 

This time around, the decision was made much quicker as Atletico Madrid had already offered to host the final months in advance, but the selection process in years past would sometimes take almost a month to determine a venue. 

On Sunday, the game that was supposed to see Celta Vigo take on Real Madrid the Estadio de Balaidos was postponed because of stadium concerns. Extreme weather on the Friday before the game had caused some damage to Celta’s home stadium and after a report presented by Vigo’s city council, Balaidos was not deemed safe for the game to go on. 

Ukrainian international Roman Zozulya was set to move to Madrid and become a much-needed scoring threat for a struggling Rayo Vallecano side. 

Rayo reached a deadline-day loan deal with Real Betis and was hoping to count with Zozulya in its battle against relegation in the Spanish second division. However, instead of a savior’s welcome, Zozulya was received with protests by fans when he arrived in Vallecas.

Now, why would fans of a struggling second division club protest against the arrival of an international-level player?

Well, it was because of stuff like this:

Prior to Sunday’s match against Serbia, much of the coverage centered on the idea of dual-national American players. It’s not a new concept. The United States has been fielding dual nationals since US Soccer was founded.

A day after enfing his four-month goal drought for Bayer Leverkusen, Mexican striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed border wall, tweeting a poem by Mexican illustrator Jorge Mendez.

México en mi corazón. Orgulloso de ser mexicano hoy y siempre. Hoy unidos más que nunca. ¡Viva México! 

Escrito por mi paisano @cometa_ pic.twitter.com/NVhzPjY37R

While United States Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati has declined to comment on U.S. Soccer’s stance towards Donald Trump’s executive order to ban the entry of citizens from seven different Muslim countries, USMNT captain Michael Bradley criticized Trump with a heartfelt message on Instagram. 

You know about the wall, right? The big border wall between the USA and Mexico that our president wants built because reasons and reportedly might pay for by driving the prices up on everything imported from Mexico?

Yeah, that wall. Mexico captain Rafa Marquez is not impressed with the wall.