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.
football
Port Said Stadium Disaster: What’s Behind Egyptian Soccer’s Bloodiest Day?
Bill Shankly, the late legendary manager of Liverpool Football Club, is forever remembered for this dramatic claim: “Football isn’t about life and death. I can assure you it’s much more important than that.” Shankly …
Must Reads from Around the World: Jan. 31, 2012
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 …
Should World Soccer Chief Sepp Blatter Quit Over His Racism ‘Denial’?
Updated: Fri. Nov. 18, 4.45 a.m. ET
The irony was inescapable. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a man who can’t seem to avoid controversy and spends much of his waking life shaking hands, has found himself at the center of a new imbroglio by suggesting that pressing the flesh was a suitable remedy for racial abuse. Specifically, he …
Another FIFA Fiasco: Iran Women Banned from Olympic Qualifier Over Headscarves
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week joined the chorus of critics blasting soccer’s governing body, lashing out at FIFA for banning the Iranian women’s national team from an Olympic qualifier on account of their headscarves. The team forfeited the qualifier against Jordan last Friday because they would not play without their …
Despite Corruption Outcry, FIFA Reelects Blatter to Run World Soccer
FIFA president Sepp Blatter may have survived the storm ravaging soccer’s global governing body, but don’t expect his reelection to quiet the growing challenges to the organization’s status quo. Nor will critics be placated by the procedural changes Blatter has outlined for the way FIFA will choose which countries host the 2026 …
FIFA’s Deepening Crisis: Global Soccer’s “Arab Spring”?
The line may well earn a spot aside infamous expressions of denial like Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook”, Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, and MLB star Roger Clemmons’ suggestion a fellow pitcher “misremembers” their discussions about The Rocket’s use of banned steroids. Like other …
French National Soccer Rocked By Accusations Of Racist Quotas
In the wake of its 1998 World Cup win, France’s victorious national soccer team was a source of French pride beyond its success in bagging the country’s first world crown. It was also celebrated for its black, blanc, beur make-up: the mix of black, white, and ethnic Arab stars who in the space of a month gelled as a peerless …
FIFA’s Blatter and Yemen’s Saleh: Which International Strongman Will Fall First?
An embattled leader — who has maintained his grip on power for years, is constantly dogged by allegations of corruption, and is well versed in the dark arts of politics — announced to much relief Tuesday a date by which he would finally step down. And in other news, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said much the same.
Uprisings …
Global Briefing, Feb. 28, 2011: Ten Stories to Start Your Day
Not in Bloom — TIME’s Austin Ramzy chronicles the ‘sad farce’ of China’s would-be Jasmine revolution.
The Palin Doctrine — Foreign Affairs asks what Tea Party populism means for American foreign policy.
The Right’s Might — A flagging Europe is at risk of a fascist renaissance, warns Ian Kershaw in the National …