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)It's a showdown between the two top teams in women's football -- and according to United States star Alex Morgan, it is "virtually a final." Morgan and her USWNT teammates take on favorite Germany in Montreal for a place in the Women's World Cup final against either England or Japan on July 5. It's hard to pick a winner from two nations which have each triumphed at the tournament twice -- even though the USWNT have not lifted the trophy since 1999 and Germany have won two of the last three tournaments. So far, neither team has had an entirely...

The pitch in Split, Croatia, appeared to show the pattern of a swastika during Friday's Euro 2016 qualifier.SPLIT, Croatia -- Croatia could face punishment by UEFA after a swastika pattern could be seen on the pitch for its European Championship qualifying match against Italy. The Nazi symbol was clearly marked in the middle of the half Italy was attacking in the first period of Friday's 1-1 draw. Ground staff attempted to cover the symbol up during the half-time interval but were unable to do so and the Croatian Football Federation expressed its regret over the incident and confirmed the symbol...

The 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada is the biggest tournament ever for women’s soccer. Expanded to 24 teams for the first time in history, the action begins on Saturday, June 6 and the final is on July 5. It promises to be a spectacular month of soccer north of the border. ... Below is a look at the day-by-day schedule for each group game, including where you can watch the games in the U.S. on TV, followed by the schedule for the knockout stages. All times listed are Eastern Time.

This week, the U.S. women begin their quest to win the World Cup, a feat they haven’t accomplished since July 10, 1999. More than 90,000 people attended the match that day at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, while 40 million watched on TV. I watched, too, from a stuffy, third-floor apartment in a Somerville triple-decker; I covered my eyes as Brandi Chastain buried her penalty kick in the goal’s top-right corner, lifting the U.S. to victory over China. As a player, I didn’t have one thousandth of Mia Hamm’s talent, but how her team captured my imagination. Sally Jenkins,...

These are good times for United States national soccer teams of all genders and ages. 1. The U.S. women's team is on top of Group D (the Group of Death!) in the Women's World Cup after a 3-1 win over Australia. The USWNT is still one of the tournament's two big favorites. 2. The U.S. men's team just beat Germany (the reigning World Cup champions and No. 1-ranked team in the world) and the Netherlands (the team that finished 3rd at the World Cup) on the road in the same week, scoring six goals in the process. 3. The U.S....

...it is very important for FIFA to be able to operate with integrity and transparency and accountability,' Obama told reporters at a news conference after the G7 summit.

A day before the U.S. women’s national team opens its World Cup play, the sister of goalie Hope Solo has spoken up and documents reveal new details about a domestic violence incident involving the family last June. On ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” Mark Fainaru-Wada reports that police records, depositions and an interview with Teresa Obert, Solo’s half-sister and one of the alleged victims in the incident, are at odds with Solo’s comments on what happened on “Good Morning, America,” on Facebook and in a new ESPNW story. Charges against her in Kirkland, Wash., were dismissed last winter, but prosecutors have...

Interpol issued wanted-person notices Wednesday for six people accused by the Department of Justice of being involved in a vast corruption network surrounding soccer's FIFA governing body. The so-called "red notices" — which do not have the power of an international arrest warrant — were issued at the request of U.S. authorities, Interpol said in a statement. Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner and former FIFA executive committee member Nicolás Leoz were the top names on Interpol's list, followed by Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, all heads of marketing businesses based in Argentina, and José Margulies, who runs...

'True, football, or soccer as it is known here, is not as central to American as it is to European, African or South and Central American life. Nowhere near. Up until recently, the game has been unloved by the major US television networks, which have long bemoaned the lack of breaks in play, the paucity of goals and the glut of draws. Absent from the US game are big-name male stars and big-name clubs. The New York Red Bulls will never rival the New York Yankees. Real Salt Lake pales, rather risibly, alongside Real Madrid. However, football is no longer...

Size of 2008 transfers outlined in indictment said to require approval from a small group at FIFA’s highest levels Ten million dollars in transfer payments were sent from FIFA bank accounts in Switzerland to a Caribbean soccer organization in 2008 and used to pay bribes to secure votes for South Africa’s bid to host the World Cup in 2010, the Department of Justice’s indictment alleges, in what could emerge as the most direct connection between the Zurich-based organization’s executive offices and the corruption probe shaking the world’s most popular sport. The size of the transfers, allegedly sent in three installments,...

The embattled head of FIFA Sepp Blatter was reelected Friday as president of the organization, amid allegations of the worst corruption crisis in the world soccer league’s 111-year history.

Lawmakers in Russia have announced plans to use prison labour to help drive down the cost of hosting the 2018 World Cup by forcing them to take jobs that ordinary Russians won't do. Politician Alexander Khinshtein, from the ruling United Russia party, has said he is drawing up proposals which would see inmates taken to work in factories producing materials for the games. Meanwhile Alexander Rudy, head of Russia's prison service, has said that he was keen to use prisoners for 'tasks that, let's say, wouldn't appeal to the ordinary citizen.'

Actually, it’s the Swiss who are probing the 2018 World Cup award to Russia, and the US bid was for the 2022 World Cup that went to Qatar.  Vladimir Putin won’t let those facts get in the way of a good anti-American rant, of course. The Russian strongman publicly questioned why the US would have any interest or jurisdiction over a legal argument that doesn’t involve its own citizens, which also turns out to be … not true: Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of meddling in FIFA’s affairs and hinted that it was part of an...

WASHINGTON — The embattled Clinton Family Foundation received as much as $100,000 from FIFA--the scandal-tarred world soccer federation, available records revealed....the Clinton Foundation is under fire for accepting undisclosed multimillion-dollar contributions from foreign nations while Hillary was Secy of State. Bill was honorary chair of the effort to bring the soccer event to the US in 2018 or 2022 and hobnobbed with FIFA President Sepp Blatter at the World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2010..... the tiny Gulf emirate of Qatar prevailed for the 2022 competition.

Soccer's Embattled Governing Body Made Donation To The Clinton Foundation By Malia Zimmerman May 27, 2015 Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and FIFA President Sepp Blatter attend the 2010 World Cup Group C soccer match between the United States and Algeria at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria June 23, 2010. The Clintons, already under scrutiny for accepting foreign donations to their family foundation and keeping them secret from the Obama administration while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, have received money from another controversial source: the Federacion Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Soccer’s governing body, which donated between $50,001...

America does not even like football, or so many people think. Why is it leading the charge against alleged Fifa corruption? At dawn, Swiss police rounded up seven Fifa officials at the behest of US authorities who have conducted a massive investigation into corruption at football's governing body. So how did a country where football is more niche than entrenched come to police the world's beautiful game? "Too many countries are cowed by Fifa," said Alexandra Wrage, a former Fifa anti-bribery adviser who resigned in protest from the organisation. "As with international bribery more generally, the US Department of Justice...

Corrupt FIFA Has Clinton Foundation Ties; World Cup Host Qatar Gave Millions Both Bill Clinton and his family’s charity have been tied to soccer’s governing body, as well as Qatar’s disastrous World Cup bid. And just like that, another Clinton Foundation donor is in the news. The Clinton global charity has received between $50,000 and $100,000 from soccer’s governing body and has partnered with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association on several occasions, according to donor listings on the foundation’s website. Several top FIFA executives were arrested Wednesday in Zurich and face corruption charges stretching back two decades, according to...

RUSH: FIFA. When I first heard about this, I was stunned. We've got a new attorney general, and how long has this investigation been going? She didn't do this. Did she start this? How many moons ago has this been going on? Holder started this or some -- not that that matters. The thing about this that blows my mind, of course FIFA is corrupt. They're a bunch of Western socialist guys. Of course it's corrupt. That's the story of the world before the United States of America came along. It's just another opportunity here to define American exceptionalism in...

.....FIFA, the powerful and polarizing governing body for soccer, came under prosecutorial assault from two fronts Wednesday. Acting on an indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, Swiss police arrested several top FIFA officials, including two vice presidents, during an overnight raid in Zurich on charges of corruption Wednesday. The U.S. investigation targets alleged wrongdoing that spans 24 years. U.S. prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 14 people, on charges ranging from money laundering to fraud and racketeering.

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Russia’s official emblem of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be unveiled late on Tuesday night in Moscow, reflects the soul and heart of Russia, Sepp Blatter, the president of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), said. The official emblem of the 2018 World Cup will be unveiled late on Tuesday night in the Russian capital during the Evening Urgant television talk show by FIFA President Blatter and Secretary General Jerome Valcke, jointly with Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who is also the chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and Fabio Cannavaro, captain of...