Human Interest

One small step for Luís Figo, one giant leap for... well, I'm not sure who really benefits from this situation apart from Luís Figo and the seven players who got to set a world record for the highest football match ever at 20,230 feet in zero-gravity.

It's pretty crazy to think that Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz, Bolivia, isn't all that far behind at 11,932 feet.

But Figo, along with a team of footballers from across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, set the new Guinness World Record inside an aircraft that contained a pitch measuring 807 square feet.

A total of 2,198 football-related arrests were made in the 2021-22 season in England and Wales, the highest number since the 2013-14 season, a report by the Home Office said on Thursday.

The 2021-2022 season was the first full season where all scheduled matches were played at full spectator capacity following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The arrests made last season were around 59% higher than those in the 2018-2019 season, which was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common offense types were public disorder (36%) and violent disorder (20%).

DOHA - "Stop! Can't you see the metro station is full? Stop!" a frazzled supervisor shouted as green-vested marshals linked arms to contain thousands of fans streaming from the stadium that will host soccer's World Cup final in Qatar.

It was after midnight on Friday and, for hours, nearly 78,000 people had been filing out of the stadium after a near-capacity match tested the small Gulf state's readiness for the tournament, which kicks off on Nov. 20.

Alex Morgan is once again calling out the nonsensical boys club that exists in the NWSL. Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson is once again being called out for failing to do the right thing.

Ray Hudson is back! After a year away from national TV, the inimitable soccer commentator returns to our TV and streaming sets for U.S. coverage of the Champions League in 2022-23. He’s one of many Champions League announcers you’ll be hearing this season. 

A youth soccer match at the Graham County Fairgrounds in Safford, Arizona, ended with deputies being called to the scene after multiple reports of a parent tackling the referee before his 17-year-old son threatened the official with gun violence. 

According to witnesses, the referee was separating two players who were fighting on the field when the suspect, identified as Michael W. Goodwin, told the ref not to touch his son and tackled him.

During a distinguished playing career with Boca Juniors that included five Primera División titles and three Copa Libertadores triumphs, Argentine legend Juan Román Riquelme made a habit of destroying rival River Plate.

He loved nothing more than snatching the souls of lost Millonarios. 

24/05/00

The Greatest Nutmeg Ever

By Juan Román Riquelme on Mario Yepespic.twitter.com/hs1T4bWuE2

BENGALURU - India's soccer fraternity breathed a sigh of relief as FIFA lifted the suspension imposed on it after 11 days, but the decision came too late for Gokulam Kerala FC whose hopes of playing at the AFC Women's Club Championship were shattered.

FIFA suspended the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Aug. 15 for undue third-party influence leading to Gokulam Kerala being banned from the club championship — a pilot tournament before the launch of the AFC Women's Champions League in 2024.

No country has been distancing itself from middle school putdowns as effectively as Turkey this summer.

Back in June, the United Nations agreed to officially change the country's name from Turkey to its Turkish name of Türkiye. While obviously not a big deal inside the country, NPR's Peter Kenyon reported that the move was a rebrand "to dissociate the country's name from the bird that traditionally appears on American dining tables at Thanksgiving and from the slang definition of a turkey as something that doesn't work or is foolish."