On June 18, FIFA finally handed down a meaningful sanction to the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), requiring Mexico to play its next two home games without fans because of continued use of a homophobic chant during matches. Now the FMF is trying to pull a fast one and make its women’s team serve the punishment.
Classy.
UEFA likes to claim it supports human rights — until there’s any sort of pushback. Europe’s football governing body once again showed how fucking feckless it is by banning rainbow ads at Euro 2020 quarterfinals in Saint Petersburg and Baku.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines was forced to play a Gold Cup qualifier with 13 players — 11 starters and two subs — and no goalkeeper on Friday against Haiti. To no one’s surprise, Haiti won 6-1, moving to within one win of qualifying for this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines was the victim of reported visa issues ahead of the match in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It never helps when one side has 10 more bench players available than the other, especially when one team doesn’t have a goalie.
When you look at the Chile national team, one player might appear out of place. Ben Brereton is not your usual Chilean; he doesn’t even speak Spanish, the primary language spoken by the rest of the team. The English-Chilean forward had played with England's U19 and U20 national teams for almost five years before switching to Chile's squad this year for the Copa América.
While the Euros roll on through the knockout rounds, we have plenty of wild fan interactions already. From fans showing up to support their team in the wrong country to pitch invaders wielding rainbow flags, anything goes as fans are enjoying their time back. Football fans were kept from stadiums and fully supporting their teams for over a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, diminished to yelling at screens instead of faces, so we wouldn't expect anything less extravagant than what has been happening. Let's take a look at the best Euro 2020 fans so far.
This Spain own goal vs Croatia is going to go down as the craziest mistake of Euro 2020.
Spain had their metaphorical hand snatched on Croatia’s scruff for the opening 20 minutes of Monday’s Round of 16 clash. Sitting in almost total control, the only worry for Spain was a Croatia counterattack. Or so they thought.
If someone watching the game looked away for a split-second, they would have missed this unbelievable error from Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón. A simple back pass from Pedri turned disastrous.
Released on June 24 on HBO Max, “LFG” is a documentary following members of the U.S. women’s national team in their fight for equal pay from the U.S. Soccer Federation. Based on the tweets from U.S. Soccer this week, I need to get an HBO Max subscription ASAP to see what has the USSF in such a tizzy.
LFG is the USWNT’s adopted slogan, an acronym for “Let’s Fucking Go!” The film, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, appears to be “Let’s fucking go after USSF,” if a recent Twitter thread is anything to go by.
The Colombian Football Federation (FCF) has asked Copa América organizers to suspend the referee from their 2-1 defeat by Brazil, saying he prejudiced the result by not halting play when the ball hit him in the lead up to a goal.
Néstor Pitana, the Argentine who refereed the 2018 World Cup final, waved play on when the ball bounced off him outside Colombia's box and Brazil continued passing for Roberto Firmino to head in an equalizer.