Something is rotten in Barcelona. While the coronavirus has brought the sports world to a standstill, the sense of chaos and uncertainty at F.C. Barcelona, the Spanish soccer club, seems to be more pronounced than anywhere else. Much of it is self-inflicted. Simmering boardroom infighting erupted into embarrassing public revelations of how one of the […] More
As far as Rámon Rodriguez Verdejo — the man everyone knows as Monchi — is concerned, there is as much work to do as there ever was. The game of soccer is paused, indefinitely, placed in the same anxious limbo as every other sport, as every other industry. But on laptop screens and cellphones, the […] More
Willie Davis, the Hall of Fame defensive end who played on five Green Bay Packer championship teams and anchored one of pro football’s greatest defensive alignments, died on Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 85. His death was announced by the Packers, who said he had been hospitalized with kidney failure. Playing in the […] More
LONDON — Anil Murthy had already been facing a barrage of criticism. But as a former diplomat for Singapore, Murphy, the president of Valencia, a top soccer team in Spain, was ready for most of the barbs directed his way for imposing restrictions on access to the club’s players. On Feb. 29, however, the complaints […] More
Megan Rapinoe, the star midfielder of the United States women’s national soccer team, for whom she has taken home multiple golds in the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, is almost as opinionated off the field as on … her nighttime skin care routine, on fragrance and on fresh hair color. Though her soccer season […] More
It is a ubiquitous sight at the N.F.L. draft in a normal year. One by one, after their names are called, the newly drafted players bound onto a stage and envelop N.F.L. commissioner Roger Goodell in a bear hug. Not this year. Not only will Goodell abide by federal guidelines and remain at least six […] More
Alpha Entertainment, the company that owns the XFL, filed for bankruptcy on Monday, three days after the league suspended operations and laid off its staff. “The XFL quickly captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of people who love football,” the league said in a statement. “Unfortunately, as a new enterprise, we were not insulated […] More
The 10-year labor agreement between the N.F.L. and players union that was ratified on March 15 is filled with dozens of incremental changes, most notably the one-percentage-point increase in the share of league revenue that the players will receive. One of the biggest overhauls in the agreement, though, was a change the league had long […] More
