Soccer

Brazilian footballer Rafinha was forced to apologise on social media after being slammed by critics for wearing an ‘Arab Bomber’ costume for Halloween this week.

Soccer players have been known to flop, faking injuries in order to get the officials to give them favorable calls. However, there was no faking the injury that befell a Scottish league soccer player on Sunday.

LEICESTER, England (AP) – A helicopter belonging to Leicester City’s owner – Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha -crashed in flames in a carpark next to the soccer club’s stadium shortly after it took off from the field following a Premier League game on Saturday night.

Upon detaining Cesar Altieri Sayoc on Friday, FBI agents also took possession of his white van covered in pro-Trump stickers. https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1055844916021071872 One Twitter user quickly shared photos that were taken of the van as it traveled down the highway in April.

Chelsea F.C. is ready to follow through on a threat made earlier this year to send anti-Semitic supporters to visit Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz instead of banning them from the club.

TEL AVIV – Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan on Tuesday called on the International Olympic Committee to follow in FIFA’s footsteps and ban the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub, for “inciting violence.” 

Real Madrid soccer club was criticised by Israeli officials on Saturday after Ahed Tamimi, a teenager who was jailed after she attacked an Israeli policeman, was pictured being presented with a club shirt.

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s newspapers on Friday blasted the decision of UEFA to award the Euro 2024 football tournament to Germany over a rival Turkish bid, saying it had been “stabbed in the back” and taking particular aim at UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.

A seven-year-old girl wowed a crowd of 25,000 fans with her performance of the national anthem at a Major League Soccer (MLS) game on Sunday night.

The head of the Palestinian football association pledged to appeal Monday against FIFA’s 12-month ban for comments made about Lionel Messi, calling it an “unjust and political decision.”

TEL AVIV— The head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, said he would appeal FIFA’s decision to ban him for inciting fans to “hatred and violence” against Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi as part of an intense Palestinian campaign that he launched in a bid to stop Argentina from playing a warm-up game in Israel this summer.

Geneva – FIFA on Friday hit the Palestinian Football Association chief with a year-long “match” ban after he called for protests against Lionel Messi over plans for Argentina to play Israel in Jerusalem.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranians reported Saturday that the state broadcaster had muted stadium noise during the previous evening’s soccer match in Tehran, in an apparent attempt to drown out anti-government chants.

A German football star of Turkish heritage has quit the national team and blamed “racism and disrespect” after he was criticized for posing for photos with the increasingly authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro declared on Tuesday that the continent of Africa was the real winner of the FIFA World Cup after France won the competition with a team comprising many players of African heritage.

American progressives use the World Cup soccer tournament for multiculturalist virtue-signaling, as an opportunity for them to sneer at the lowbrow Middle America who ignore an international sport that drives the rest of the world bonkers.

Martin Selmayr, the head of the EU bureaucracy once described as the ‘Rasputin of Brussels’, mocked England after they were knocked out of the World Cup by Croatia on social media. 

Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will join Russia President Vladimir Putin tonight in Moscow as they both watch England take on Croatia in the football World Cup. A pair of football-loving Israeli children fighting cancer will join them.

BEERSHEBA — The desert city of Beersheba in southern Israel may seem to have little in common with the gleaming capitals of Europe, but for the third year running its soccer club is to play in the UEFA Champions League.

Finally, after days of intense rescue efforts, all 12 of the trapped teenaged Thai soccer players and their coach have been rescued.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday morning that the United States is “working very closely” with Thailand’s government to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach who have been trapped in a cave.

A newspaper in Burkina Faso has hailed the French national squad an “African team” due to the high proportion of diverse players.

“Rabiot” may have predicted Japan’s World Cup soccer results, but he failed to foresee his own ignoble demise.

Criticism from disappointed fans has forced Iranian player Sardar Azmoun to retire from international football aged just 23 and enable him to spend more time with his mother.

President Donald Trump commented on the World Cup soccer tournament on Wednesday, revealing that one of his sons was a fan of the sport.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken to Twitter and delivered a message directly to the Iranian people who have taken to Tehran’s streets in the past 48-hours demanding change.

Iran’s hardline Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said Sunday he was “ashamed” to speak of the fact that women were permitted to watch a televised match of their soccer team competing at the 2018 World Cup in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.

Migrants are using the soccer World Cup ticketing system to illegally enter the European Union (EU) without a visa.

Egypt’s devout Muslim goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy declined to receive a player of the match trophy at the FIFA World Cup for religious reasons.

TEL AVIV – Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Saturday mocked soccer player Lionel Messi for missing a crucial World Cup penalty, saying it was the result of Argentina’s last minute withdrawal from a warm-up game in Israel.

With spirits high as their national team opened the World Cup in Russia Thursday, Saudi Arabian soccer fans said they would be open to the prospect of playing against Israel in the future, as Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman wished the gulf kingdom luck in the international soccer tournament.

“The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump wrote in April on Twitter. “It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid.”

TEL AVIV – Amid calls from Israel demanding soccer’s governing body FIFA to investigate threats against Argentinian players, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed concern that the South American country’s “disappointing” decision to cancel its friendly soccer match against Israel would not set a precedent. 

A brewery is removing the Saudi Arabian flag from football World Cup bunting in hundreds of pubs because people were offended that Islamic symbols were displayed in a place serving alcohol.

TEL AVIV – Israeli sports minister said the cancellation of the Argentina’s decision to cancel its friendly game with Israel scheduled for Saturday amid pressure from pro-Palestinian groups was “terror, not BDS.”