National Teams

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has made it known that he wants to change the World Cup format to allow more teams to compete in the event. As opposed to the current 32 teams, he would like to expand the competition to 48 countries.

The 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations, the biennial tournament contested by the women’s national teams of Africa to decide the continent’s champion, ended on December 3 — the date of the final in Yaounde, Cameroon.

The tournament was won by Nigeria for a record-setting 10th time. The Super Falcons finished the tournament undefeated, scoring 13 goals and only conceding one in five matches. Players like Asisat Oshoala, Desire Oparanozie and Osinachi Ohale were national heroes, and they’d accomplished this all without having ever been paid.

It’s been more than 10 years since that infamous night in Berlin, where, in the 110th minute of Zinedine Zidane’s final professional match, the French captain was sent off for battering Marco Materazzi with his bald head.

Celtic’s Karamoko Dembele, the 13-year-old prodigy who made headlines when making his debut for Celtic’s U-20 side, has triggered an international arms race between England and Scotland as both countries look to secure his services at the youth level. 

The biennial CONCACAF Gold Cup returns in 2017, and the continental governing body for the region has announced that the tournament, which runs from July 7-26, will be played out in 13 cities across the United States.

The 14th edition of the tournament will be contested by 12 teams, beginning with the group stage in early July. Of the three groups, we now know that Group B will be headlined by the United States and Group C will have Mexico.

DaMarcus Beasley has been invited to the USMNT’s January camp, a glorified workout for MLS-based players and an opportunity for the national coaching staff to monitor them in an otherwise overlong offseason, and that’s really funny for people who seem to have a particular agenda. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has collected his fourth Ballon d’Or as the top player on the planet, according to France Football magazine, for 2016. Having led Real Madrid and Portugal to victory in the Champions League and at Euro 2016 respectively, Ronaldo now trails Lionel Messi, who has five in his collection, by only a single award.

When Jack Skellington grew tired of organizing Halloween Town’s Halloween celebration in Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, the ghost skeleton proceeded to plot and scheme over how he could take charge of Christmas as well. Unable to understand the spirit of the holiday and personally impulsive to a fault, Jack almost ruined Christmas for everyone.