Spain’s national soccer team wins an unprecedented third-straight international title with Sunday’s 4-0 European Championship …
football
A Frank Interview with Ukraine’s President: ‘Politics Is the Ability to Control Your Emotions’
Viktor Yanukovych is clearly unhappy with threats by European leaders to boycott the finals of Euro 2012, and he makes his feelings known in an interview with TIME
Will Poland vs. Russia Spark a Soccer War on Warsaw’s Streets?
As the two historic rivals squared off at the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, fears grew over animosities spilling onto the streets of Warsaw
Must-Reads from Around the World, June 8, 2012
Internal Democracy — The South China Morning Post reports that senior members of the Communist Party held an internal poll in May to select their favored top leaders for the party’s 25-member Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee, its inner-most cabinet, for the next 10 years. It writes: “If this experiment goes well and …
What’s Behind La Roja: The Politics and Poetry of Spanish Soccer
As Euro 2012 kicks off in Ukraine and Poland, Jimmy Burns, award-winning journalist and author of La Roja, a history of Spanish football, talks with TIME about Spain’s football past and the prospects of an even more glorious future.
Why Real Madrid Can’t Beat Barca at Football, But Leads Comfortably in Business
The target market for Real Madrid’s new theme-park and resort venture in the Persian Gulf is not the tens of thousands of Spanish fans who fill the club’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium and, together with tens of thousands of Catalan rivals, turn their team’s frequent showdowns with arch-rivals Barcelona into a passionate ritual …
Bahrain’s attacks on protesting athletes shatters chances for Olympic glory
Nobody likes to be the one to say “serves you right” and certainly I am against the idea of punishing a nation for the failures of a few, but when Bahrain lost out to Japan yesterday in the Olympic qualifying finals for …
Egyptian Protests Continue After Deadly Soccer Riot
Demonstrators and police clash over the deaths in Port Said
Many Feared Dead After Soccer Riot in Egypt
Rival groups of fans attack each other, and police after a match in the city of Port Said
Europe’s Soccer Clubs: The Continent’s Other Looming Debt Crisis
Euro zone governments aren’t the only entities seriously needing to get their debt levels down these days. Information revealed this past week showed Europe’s leading soccer clubs are similarly spending their way into a …
Soccer Legend Eric Cantona’s New Goal? The French Presidency
During his varied and fruitful life, Frenchman Eric Cantona has been a soccer hero, ad man, philosopher, kung-fu enthusiast, actor and musician, living legend, and even a king. Were that not enough, the 45 year-old Cantona is …
Why Qatari Owners of Paris’ Soccer Team Hanker For Aging Englishman Beckham
Why does perennially under-performing Paris Saint-Germain of France’s anemic professional soccer league see hiring a fading star at over $1 million per month as vital to assuring its future? Because the aging player in question …
Can A French Sports Star Change China’s Soccer Fortunes?
Chinese online-gaming mogul Zhu Jun is used to winning big. After all, he made his fortune in part by being the first to nab China distribution rights for the World of Warcraft franchise. But the soccer team that he bought with …