About: football Archives

Eight football teams will duel it out in the foothills of the Caucasus this month to decide which is the best in Europe. But you will not find Germany, Italy or Spain on the match list and none of the teams taking part are fully recognised by the international community.

Spanish football club Real Betis is well known for the colours of its T-shirt, green and white. But now they want to integrate that concept into their whole policy by leading the way in making soccer more sustainable.

Criticism over football carbon footprint erupted as English clubs fans had to travel the world to see their teams playing against each other, thousands of kilometres away from home in Spain and Azerbaijan. 

The French professional football governing body and the environmental NGO WWF signed a partnership in April to reduce the ecological footprint of football clubs.

Football can bring joy or frustration to supporters... but also a lot of waste. UK football teams have decided to introduce reusable cups in stadiums, as part of a joint initiative by the Premier League and British TV channel Sky News.

Spanish football club Real Sociedad is turning the shells of sunflower seeds that supporters eat during matches into compost that local farms use as organic fertiliser.

The Spanish soccer league's organising body La Liga is ready to turn to the European Union if UEFA does not enforce its Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules against Manchester City and Paris St Germain, a spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday. '

Bulgaria will take part in a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov announced on Friday (2 November), together with Serbia, Greece and Romania, a format dubbed by diplomats and journalists “the Orthodox Four”.

The manager of English football club Tottenham Hotspur has blamed the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union for his team’s failure to sign any new players before the start of the new campaign.

The euphoria triggered by the FIFA World Cup quickly gave way to divisive, ugly debates about national identity and race, around players of diverse ethnic origins. These controversies highlight the need for measured exchanges on belonging in today’s Europe, writes Michael O'Flaherty.

Let’s not pretend, we all watched the Germany game yesterday, in Berlaymont, in offices, in nearby pubs. At least the shocking end, Mannschaft’s first group stage exit from a World Cup in 70 years, which aroused considerable interest around the globe.

Football superstar Lionel Messi won the backing of European Court of Justice judges on Thursday (26 April), when they ruled that the Barcelona player’s request for a trademark is legitimate, citing his fame outside the world of football as a crucial element of the case.

Former soccer star George Weah was set to win the first round of a presidential election in Liberia after the elections commission said on Sunday he was leading with 39% of votes and less than 5% of precincts still to be counted.

World football players' union FIFPro is lobbying the European Union to ban transfer fees, which it says concentrates power in the hands of a few mega-rich clubs, to the detriment of most players and to the sport itself.

Some of Spain's top football teams - including Real Madrid and FC Barcelona - will have to pay back illegal public aid worth up to €70 million as it represented “an unfair advantage” versus other teams, the Commission said on Monday (4 July).

Striking rail workers halted about half of French train services on Wednesday (1 June) in a dispute over working time as a standoff between the militant CGT union and the Socialist government over a proposed labour law reform escalated.

The possibility of Britain voting to leave the European Union in its 23 June referendum leaves the lucrative and globally popular English Premier League facing an uncertain future.

The world union for footballers called for the transfer system to be “abolished” on Friday (18 September), and slapped in an EU legal challenge to FIFA that could ban transfer windows and drive down the price of players.

A legal complaint against UEFA's break-even rule 'Financial Fair Play (FFP)' has been referred to the European Court of Justice (EJ), the lawyers who brought the case said on Tuesday (23 June).

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's Competition Commissioner, will make a decision in the cases concerning alleged illegal state aid to the football clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid by the end of the summer, the Commissioner revealed in an interview Monday (22 June).

Anne Brasseur spells out exactly what Sepp Blatter or his successor must do to “lance the boil” and clean up football’s world governing body.

First world champion in football, now best image: in a global comparison, Germany was bumped to best nation status – not least because of its top performance in sports – while Russia suffered the largest demotion. EURACTIV Germany reports.