I have been off the grid for most of two weeks, but we have an excuse: We were waylaid by thieves on our way out of Barcelona as Part 2 of travels with Leah’s parents, back on June 12. We lost thousands of dollars worth of technical gear, as well as cash that had been […]

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At this moment, only one story commands the attention of European sports fans. And that would be the misguided attempt by a dozen of the continent’s best-known clubs to break away from the European Champions League and form their own elite competition — which they plan to call the Super League. Twelve clubs have announced […]

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It looked like it would be a Messi mess, but it turned to be much ado about nothing. And just when soccer fan were getting their heads around the idea of Lionel Messi playing for a club other than Barcelona. He did say that was his preference, getting out of Dodge, following another Champions League […]

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I have been looking at this thing every day for years now. However long I have used Firefox as my browser. And I have no recollection of making that choice, so it has been a while. I don’t go looking for it. It waits for me, lying in ambush when I log in. The message […]

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In 2008, when Manchester City Football Club was sold to a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, it hardly warranted intense foreign interest, let alone surprise. Man City was a middling-to-lower-middling club in the English Premier League, and foreigners already were buying up English soccer teams. Two of the biggest brands in English soccer, […]

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I have some history with Jonathan Wilson, going back to when I was in Abu Dhabi working for The National, the emirate’s English-language newspaper. Wilson was one of our European soccer correspondents, contributing a couple of pieces per week. He often took on topics focusing on what he perceived to be significant trends in the […]

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Yes, I am one of those guys who looks at some abstract art and says, “a chimp could do that.” Talking about paint thrown at a canvas … a couple of random shapes swimming in space … a bucket, a hammer and a broom entitled “Young Man”, or something of the sort. I readily concede […]

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Have I done this before? After 10-plus years I must have. But know what? I’m not going to check because the 10 teams I love to hate changes a bit, from year to year. This list would probably be unlike any other I might have done. For instance, most of my life I have wished […]

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We tried for six years to get a reservation at Tickets, the well-known (and Michelin-starred) Barcelona tapas restaurant based on molecular gastronomy. We have tended to stay in the Barcelona neighborhood named Poble Sec, where Tickets is located, and when we discovered that … the building seemed to sort of taunt us whenever we walked […]

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So, back in Barcelona. Hard to avoid the place when it remains one of the world’s great cities … and when visiting friends and family (from the U.S.) stage through the Spanish town on visits to Europe. But it also has that one major problem that has not been resolved. And this is not about […]

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