London (AFP) – England international midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has been banned for five games after he was found guilty of using racially abusive language by an independent panel on Tuesday. The 24-year-old — who won the last of his six caps in 2015 — was also fined £100,000 ($123,000, 118,000 euros) for abusing Moroccan midfielder […]

While MLS and many of the European leagues go into hibernation, the English Premier League continues through the holidays with a flurry of games in one of the most exciting times of the season. There are so many games, in fact, that NBC Sports will be broadcasting all 30 Premier League matches within a span […]

Lausanne (AFP) – Real Madrid can buy new players in next summer's transfer window after sport's highest court on Tuesday halved their initial two-window ban imposed by FIFA. The European champions had been sanctioned by world football's ruling body for irregularities in the signing of foreign under-18 players. But after an appeal the Court of […]

Los Angeles (AFP) – The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced on Monday that it has selected four first-time hosts among its 14 venues to stage the 2017 Gold Cup tournament. The four hosts comprise the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas; FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio; Levi's Stadium in Santa […]

Nice (France) (AFP) – Nice fans are dreaming of seeing their Mario Balotelli-fuelled underdogs do a Leicester and steal the French title from the likes of crisis-stricken Paris Saint-Germain. Balotelli's double in a 2-1 victory over Dijon on Sunday ensured Nice will go into the winter break on top of Ligue 1, and victory over […]

Paris (AFP) – Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish coach Unai Emery is in the spotlight as his side close a difficult first half of the season at home to Lorient on Wednesday. Emery always faced a tough task in improving on the capital side's achievements in the previous three seasons under Laurent Blanc, but the former Sevilla […]

Milan (AFP) – Italy striker Ciro Immobile insists he's staying put in the capital as Lazio head to shaky Inter Milan looking to underline their status as potential Champions League candidates. The final round of Serie A games in 2016 are held in midweek without leaders Juventus and AC Milan, who will contest the Italian […]

Liverpool (AFP) – Jurgen Klopp finally had a reason to celebrate Christmas after Sadio Mane's dramatic 94th-minute goal saw his side move second in the Premier League table with a 1-0 victory in the Merseyside derby at Everton on Monday. The result hauled Klopp's team to within six points of leaders Chelsea heading into the […]

For soccer fans, the launch of the brand-new DIRECTV NOW streaming service means that there's another option to be able to cut the cord and watch the Beautiful Game without having to pay exorbitant cable and satellite TV prices. First, the most important thing to know about DIRECTV NOW is that you don't need DirecTV […]

Liverpool (AFP) – Sadio Mane's 94th minute tap-in ensured Jurgen Klopp enjoyed his first visit to Everton with a 1-0 win that saw his Liverpool team move into second in the Premier League on Monday. A game with an abundance of passion and pride failed to deliver many goalmouth incidents and seemed more likely to be […]

London (AFP) – English champions Leicester City appealed on Monday against striker Jamie Vardy's red card in Saturday's ill-tempered 2-2 Premier League draw with Stoke City. Match referee Craig Pawson infuriated the Leicester players and manager Claudio Ranieri in also booking five players in the final seven minutes of the first half — Vardy had […]

Zurich (AFP) – FIFA fined England 45,000 Swiss francs ($43,850, 42,000 euros) on Monday for wearing a poppy tribute to British war dead during their November 11 World Cup qualifier against Scotland. Scotland were fined 20,000 Swiss francs, while Wales and Northern Ireland were given 20,000 and 15,000 Swiss franc fines respectively for making their […]

Doha (AFP) – World Cup 2022 labourers in Qatar are to be given "cooling" hard hats which reduce their body temperature as they build football stadiums in the fierce desert heat, tournament organisers announced Monday. The innovative technology uses a solar-powered fan to reduce the skin temperature by up to 10 degrees, said the Supreme […]

If you've been contemplating signing up for fuboTV's soccer streaming service, the time to act is now. Reason being is that when fuboTV launches their two new streaming packages (fuboTV Deportes, $14.99/month and fuboTV English Basic, $34.99/month) in the coming days, the base package of $9.99 per month will no longer be available. Having the […]

London (AFP) – Premier League leaders Chelsea's storming 11-game winning run was forged in their back-to-back defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal, according to manager Antonio Conte. Chelsea's 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday equalled the club record for successive league victories, set over two seasons in 2009, and left them seven points clear at […]