Since his takeover of Newcastle United in 2007, Mike Ashley has had a turbulent tenure as owner of the Toon Army. Ever since I left the North East to attend university in Leeds, I get asked quite a lot what I think about Mike Ashley and why the fans have such a strong dislike towards […]

In partnership with Russian Football Now, EPL Talk presents the eighth episode of RNF’s podcast. After months of build-up, the German national team's trip to Moscow lived up to the hype. Punching their ticket to the World Cup, Germany downed the upstart Russians 1-0, leaving hosts Chris Riordan and Richard Farley to explain where things […]

It was a short but very important message, when Bundesliga-club Hannover 96 addressed a petition to the DFL and DFB to abolish the “50+1-Rule”. The “50+1-Rule” implies that one person can only hold shares by the size of 49% of a club. Because of this, a prospect club owner has no majority vote and […]

UPDATE: SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN, IT HAS SURFACED THAT FIFA MAY CHANGE THE CRITERIA FOR SEEDING TO BE BASED SOLELY ON WORLD RANKINGS. IF SO, THE US IS LIKELY TO BE SEEDED IN THE 2010 WORLD CUP, IF SWITZERLAND AND/OR FRANCE DOES NOT QUALIFY. IT IS POSSIBLE ONLY ONE OF THOSE TWO NATIONS NOT […]

If you need proof that kindness still exists in football, look no further than Dr. David France and Everton Football Club, and the story behind the greatest collection of football memorabilia ever assembled. Known as The David France Collection, it's an incredible assortment of more than 18,000 items that Dr. France has collected. But rather […]

After week 30 the numbers look like this... 5 year comparison WK 30 209 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 18,417 6 15,969 15,108 192 2006 20,277 10.10% 6 16,247 1.74% 15,402 1.94% 192 2007 20,575 1.47% 7 16,600 2.18% 16,812 9.16% 195 2008 […]

On this edition of the EPL Talk podcast, we get insights from Reuters Sports Writer Simon Evans on both Fabio Capello and Giovanni Trapattoni. Evans covered both gentlemen when he was posted to Italy. We hear about Capello and Trapattoni's management styles, their interaction with the media and their history. We also discuss Jack Charlton's […]

The chattering from the American peanut gallery is that Clint Dempsey should be permanently dropped. The theory is that Dempsey doesn’t give a proper effort and has held the US team back. So the fans who advocate the permanent benching of Dempsey are comfortable: Dropping the only American to score in World Cup 2006 The […]

With a 3-2 victory over Honduras in San Pedro Sula, the US National Team secured its spot in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. This is the sixth straight World Cup qualification for the US, following a 40 year absence from the biggest sporting event in the world. While the first half in […]

Simon Evans of Reuters joins host Kartik Krishnaiyer to review Honduras-USA, and take a look around the rest of CONCACAF. The US records an impressive victory for the ages in San Pedro Sula. Where does the US still need to improve before World Cup 2010. Also, we look at Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica and T&T […]

Now that the United States team has qualified for the 2010 World Cup, the agonizing wait begins until the final draw is held on December 4, 2009. The draw will be beamed around the world, and we'll finally be able to learn which countries will be grouped against each other next summer in the 2010 […]

Yesterday's impressive three-nil victory by Portugal over Hungary puts Carlos Queiroz's just one game away from qualifying for a play-off place in their quest to go to the 2010 World Cup. England, meanwhile, suffered a 1-0 loss versus Ukraine in a game that meant much more for England's opponents. So with England and Portugal capturing […]

This was absolutely a nerve racking second half for the USA and all of us supporters. Who would've thought going down a goal in the 46th minute that the USA would gather their thoughts very quickly and go out on a three goal rampage and especially from Conor Casey by not scoring a goal, but […]

A resourceful, gritty victory for the US, which should shut up the critics including myself for the foreseeable future. Again all odds, and an infamous referee known for favoring Latin teams over the US or Caribbean based sides, the Americans rallied for three second half goals in a match the US basically controlled from minute […]

Today, the United States is likely to clinch its sixth consecutive trip to the World Cup Finals. For a nation, who followed up its famous 1950 victory over England with nine consecutive World Cup misses, the achievement is nothing short of remarkable. In the current, hyper competitive climate for world football, the US achievement is […]