Were the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam premeditated?

Violent clashes between Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Amsterdam have drawn widespread condemnation. The city's mayor said supporters of the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv, which played a Europe league match against Dutch team Ajax, were abused and pelted with fireworks after the game. At least five people have been hospitalized and over 60 arrested. Israeli and European leaders have condemned the violence as 'antisemitic.' Videos documenting provocations and violence are circulating on social media.

Empowerment through football - The transformative impact of sport

In some religions and cultures, young women playing football is practically unthinkable. The Scoring Girls project shows how the sport is helping young women in Germany and Iraq to overcome anxieties. Hanover-born Tuğba Tekkal, daughter of Kurdish-Yazidi immigrants, defied all the odds to become a professional footballer in the Bundesliga. Now a coach, she founded the Scoring Girls project to offer girls and young women the opportunity to boost their self-esteem. The sport and its team-oriented nature can have therapeutic benefits for the budding sportswomen - many of whom have experienced racism in their everyday lives or faced the trauma of being a refugee. Maisa and Maisun had to flee Iraq with their parents to escape the horrors of Islamic State rule. In Germany, the Scoring Girls project gave the two sisters a long-forgotten feeling of freedom.

Wrexham: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney join open-top bus parade

 Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney joined Wrexham crowds for open-top bus parade celebrating club's return to English Football League.

Mariupolchanka FC: The women's football team under siege in Ukraine

 

As England continue to celebrate their Euro 2022 win, the women of Mariupol FC are simply dreaming of playing together again.

The southern Ukrainian city has endured weeks of relentless bombardment and now many of the city’s 400,000 inhabitants are in mourning.

Somalia’s first women’s football team, the Golden Girls

 

Courage, corruption, culture and competition – all major factors in the life and times of the first women’s football team in Somalia and its inspirational young coach, Shaima Sellal. The government gave the go-ahead for a women’s team in 1994, but it did not take off because of the continuing civil war. Football can be a casualty of the conflict in a “failed state”.

Football EURO 2020: A win for COVID?

 

The pandemic meant Europe's football fans were made to wait an extra year for Euro 2020 to kick off. Hence the confusing clash of name and date. But with the continent yet to rid itself of coronavirus, the European Championship still didn't come without risk.

Violent scenes as fans invade Manchester United stadium in protest at US owners - BBC News

 

There have been violent and chaotic scenes at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium as fans invaded the pitch to protest against the club’s American owners.

The Fans Who Make Football: Raja Casablanca AC

 

Raja Casablanca fans transform the political landscape of Morocco from inside the national stadium as they use the stands to send messages of defiance.

The Mohammed V football stadium in the centre of Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, holds more than its sports legacy. It is a space to protest the country’s social, economic and political structures on national television.

Surviving coronavirus: the fight to keep Tranmere Rovers alive

When league football was paused in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Tranmere Rovers chairman, Mark Palios, devised Project Malthus, his plan to keep the League One club alive. As he waits for fellow clubs to vote on the outcome of the season, which could mean their relegation, he explains why football needs to get serious about its messy economic situation, and why a club like Tranmere needs to look after its community during the coronavirus pandemic.

Why this Russian gas company sponsors soccer teams

Russia has the world’s largest reserves of natural gas, and most of it is controlled by the state-owned company Gazprom. But Gazprom has also built a global profile as a soccer sponsor. Good publicity for Gazprom means good publicity for Russia; since Gazprom is owned by the Russian state, domestic approval for the foreign energy provider can help build a reputation for Russia in places that might otherwise be wary of their creeping influence. And as Vladimir Putin pursues that influence abroad, building relationships with foreign business leaders using the sport of soccer has proven extremely useful.

Soccer kids kicking off their careers

Stivi and Mehmet have a dream: to become professional football players. They train with Rot-Weiss Essen four times a week and at the weekend there are league matches. Their life is all about football. Mehmet has a famous cousin and the German football champion Mesut Özil is also his role model. Like him, Mehmet wants to become a professional footballer, starting off at Rot-Weiß Essen.

Indonesia's Football Fever

101 East follows Indonesia’s die-hard football fans as violence threatens to shut down an entire league.

Football inspires fanaticism in Indonesia. It also inspires danger. Football violence has killed about 75 fans in the past 25 years. Thousands more have been injured.

Popular Indonesian teams travel to matches in armoured personnel carriers and riot police with automatic weapons are regular fixtures. Accusations of match-fixing fuel the anger of football crowds and brawling between fans.

Recently an entire league was suspended for a fortnight due to the violence, which threatens to shut the league down permanently.

Thailand's Football Factory

We meet aspiring African footballers as they try to make it in Thailand's big league. But competition is fierce.

Young West African footballers are leaving their homes and loved ones behind and heading to Thailand.

Arriving with little more than the clothes on their back, they share one dream - to become a professional football player.

Tassirou landed in Bangkok from Senegal on a three-month tourist visa. One month has already passed.

He needs to secure a contract fast, which will allow him to stay in Thailand and achieve his ambitions to play professionally. It will also allow him to repay the loans of family and friends who are supporting him.

Why Americans suck at soccer (well, the men)

There are a lot of reasons Americans suck at soccer - but if you look at the history, you’ll find a surprisingly compelling explanation for why American soccer never took off. In the 1920s, soccer was a surprisingly successful sport in the US, with massive matches and a robust league. What went wrong? American soccer and English football first diverged in the 1800s, when American colleges like Harvard and Yale started playing a more rugby-like game. But America quickly caught up with soccer in the 1920s, attracting large crowds and even stealing away European players.

How TV gave us the classic soccer ball

When you think of a soccer ball, you probably imagine a classic black-and-white paneled ball. It’s known as the Telstar ball, and it was created thanks to TV. The 1966 World Cup in England was broadcast live across the globe and it was at this point that television became a huge part of the sport. Thanks to the BBC, it was seen by four hundred million people. But spotting the ball was a bit challenging. Back then, soccer balls looked more like reddish-brown volleyballs. And on black-and-white TVs, it didn’t really stand out from the green field.

Thank You, Football: Yaya Toure and Yacine Brahimi

Cote d'Ivoire captain and Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure admits to being a dreamer from childhood, "Even wake up, I was dreaming sometimes."

The Ivorian had been training at the MimoSifcom Academy in Cote d'Ivoire - home to the ASEC Mimosas of Abidjan - when he was spotted by former player and coach Jean-Marc Guillou. Toure's brother, Kolo, had already made a splash playing for the Mimosas and soon joined Arsenal in the English Premier League. The two brothers would be reunited later in their careers. 

Guillou noticed the younger Toure's skill and ambition: "When they told me he was Kolo's brother, I said he was better than his brother ... Everything seemed easy for him. He was very determined and knew what he wanted. Back then I said this kid could eventually win the Golden Boot."  

India is in the game: Game of Our Lives Episode 6

In the sixth episode of Game of Our Lives, host David Goldblatt speaks with writer Supriya Nair about the little-known history of football in India, and the influence of celebrities in building up fan bases around the game.

"The Indian Super League is so young that to look at it would make you believe that football was born in India three years ago," says Supriya Nair, a Mumbai-based writer, editor, AC Milan fan, and this week's Game of Our Lives guest.

China's Big Goal

How China plans to conquer world football, spending billions on foreign players, coaches and training academies.

China is the world's rising superpower, but there is another area where it wants to excel: world football.

It plans to have 50 million players and 50,000 coaching schools within the next 10 years.

Its goal? To be a world football superpower by 2050.

Why women’s hockey has a higher concussion rate than football

In college, women’s hockey players are reporting concussions at a higher rate than male hockey players. In fact, female hockey players are reporting a higher concussion rate than nearly all sports sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In several studies, female hockey players have reported concussions more often than men’s college football, and at a rate that is comparable to men’s college wrestling and men’s college ice hockey. Compared to sports like women’s tennis or women’s basketball, hockey is faster, played on harder surfaces, and involves more collisions, which partly explains the high rate of concussions but doesn’t account for the fact that female athletes are reporting more concussions than male athletes who also play hockey. In fact, several surveys have demonstrated that, besides hockey, female athletes consistently report a higher concussion rate than male athletes playing the same gender comparable sport (e.g basketball, soccer, softball/baseball).

China's Big Goal

How China plans to conquer world football, spending billions on foreign players, coaches and training academies.

China is the world's rising superpower, but there is another area where it wants to excel: world football.

It plans to have 50 million players and 50,000 coaching schools within the next 10 years.

Its goal? To be a world football superpower by 2050.

As it spends billions buying up star foreign players, coaches and top European clubs, 101 East follows China's rising football stars to find out whether they can help the country conquer the "beautiful game."