The European Champions League is a very big deal in most of the world. Especially once we get down to the group stage, which boasts 32 of the best club teams in Europe — which generally means 32 of the best teams in the world. We at The National hold deadline an additional 90 minutes, […]

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On this side of the Atlantic, they have a tired, trite expression for perennially successful soccer teams. Those that dominate their league, pay the best salaries and seem to suck up the best players, as they become available. “Giants”, they inevitably are called. “Juventus, the Serie A giants … Bayern Munich, the German giants … […]

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In much of Eurasia, Italian soccer was the first external brand seen on local TV. This was in the 1990s, when Europe’s other big leagues were still pretty much off the air. Certainly overseas. Italy, then, filled a programming void, and soccer fans all over the Middle and Far East of Asia, for instance, regularly […]

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We edit and write in British English, here at The National, in Abu Dhabi. Which can be tricky. And sometimes annoying. But the newspaper made one decision back before the launch, in April of 2008, that is brilliant. No diacritical marks. Ever. Expedient? You bet. Sensible? Absolutely. Hence, none of this in our pages:

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First, the irony. World soccer governing body Fifa won’t tell you how its two-dozen executive committee members voted after they hand out the World Cup … But Fifa gives us chapter and verse on how the voting goes for the Ballon d’Or, the player-of-the-year award. Which Cristiano Ronaldo won tonight, as he should have, for […]

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This may have been the highest-profile sports event in the history of the UAE. No, really. Perhaps the most famous soccer team in the world, Real Madrid, led by one of the two most famous players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, against an Italian club, AC Milan, that has won more European championshps (seven) than […]

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Two weeks ago, I would have described myself as a Cristiano Ronaldo partisan in the great global struggle for hearts and minds and jersey sales pitting Ronaldo and his Spanish league rival, Lionel Messi. Casual fans of world football almost always prefer one or the other. And along with that usually goes casual allegiance to […]

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This comes up every four years. Or every four years after the U.S. national team has, at least, made the second round of a World Cup. Like this time around. “Is soccer about to make a breakthrough in the U.S.?” Will it be mentioned in the same breath as football and baseball and basketball? Or […]

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Clocks in Western Europe and Britain were moved ahead by an hour over the weekend — about three weeks behind the U.S. clock-tweaking. They have moved to Euro daylight savings time, and England is now three hours behind Abu Dhabi, sted the four hours during the winter, and the continent is two hours behind, sted […]

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Has this percolated back to North America? This Messi versus Ronaldo thing? It is nearly inescapable, here in the Old World. Who is the better player? Who is more valuable? Whom do you prefer? Lionel Messi? Or Cristiano Ronaldo? It’s almost as if two-thirds of the planet organizes itself into two camps. The Messis and […]

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