When it comes to the heart-stopping, heartfelt and hilarious moments we love about soccer, we tend to focus on what unfolds on the pitch. It follows logic that a substitution -- an activity occurring on the periphery -- would not warrant much more attention than the obligatory clap that comes with one player's exit, another's entrance and some extra time tacked on to the end of the match.
With most domestic leagues moving towards the use of video evidence to retroactively ban players for simulation and feigning injury, and with the gradual implementation of Video Assistant Referees to stamp out the behavior altogether, football's greatest evil is heading out the door.
However, it’s literally leaving kicking and screaming like a petulant two-year-old that’s been denied viewing one more train on YouTube. The latest, and perhaps greatest, has come from 34-year-old former Serbian international Danko Lazovic in the Hungarian league.
Thomas Tuchel is out as Borussia Dortmund manager, the club announced Tuesday.
Tuchel was rumored to have been feuding with Dortmund's front office near the end of his second season in charge.
From a statement on the club's website:
Former Eintracht Frankfurt fullback Guillermo Varela has proven that you don't need to be an Ohio State football player to get in trouble for unauthorized tattoos. Varela, who spent this season on loan at Frankfurt from Mancheser United, has had his loan deal terminated because of a tattoo.
Manchester City defender Jason Denayer, who spent this season on loan at Sunderland, said he was reacting instinctively when he kicked a man in the head during a brawl in Belgium.
The 21-year-old's agent said Denayer "was in the wrong place at the wrong time".
City defender Jason Denayer was filmed kicking a man in the head during a brawl outside a bar in Brussels. pic.twitter.com/x0jTwdjJDr
Italian football has a crisis on its hands and I’m not even sure they realize how serious it is. For the better part of a decade now, with the exception of Juventus, Italy’s Serie A has been in decline. League officials would like to blame the country’s aging stadiums or the lack of a lucrative television deal - and those are valid points - but the real issue is much more serious.
Italy does not have a football problem. Italy has a race problem.
Sulley Muntari, whose exceptional professional career has seen him play extensively for Udinese, Inter and AC Milan, was booked for reporting racial abuse from the stands and subsequently walked off the pitch in protest in Cagliari.
Sulley Muntari walks off pitch at Cagliari (playing for Pescara, Sunday) after yellow crd for reporting racist abusepic.twitter.com/tTtZLUQ7Ip
You know that scene in various movies in which a character either fakes his or her own death or is otherwise presumed dead but actually alive, and that character watches his or her funeral from behind a tree while wearing sunglasses? Ricardo Oliveira came about as close as you can get to that experience in real life.
The Europa League quarterfinal between Lyon and Besiktas was delayed for 45 minutes when supporters were forced to invade the pitch after projectiles and firecrackers were thrown from the upper deck and into the stand below.
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