WThe MLS Players Association, also referred to as the MLSPA, is the union of professional Major League Soccer players. The MLS Players Association serves as the exclusive collective bargaining agreements representative for all current players in MLS.
WIn 2015, U.S. federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.
WThe 2016 English football scandal was a sports corruption scandal which began on 26 September 2016 following the publishing of the first part of The Daily Telegraph newspaper's "Football for Sale" investigation into corruption in English football. It resulted in the resignation of England national football team manager Sam Allardyce after only one game in charge, as well as the sacking or suspension of numerous English Football League club staff, including Barnsley assistant manager Tommy Wright.
WSamuel Allardyce, colloquially referred to as Big Sam, is an English football manager and former professional player who is currently the manager of Premier League club West Bromwich Albion.
WJorge Luis Burruchaga, nicknamed Burru, is an Argentine association football coach and former professional football player. He played both as an attacking midfielder and forward and scored the winning goal in the final of the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
WChedwyn Michael Evans is a Welsh footballer who plays as a striker for Championship club Preston North End.
WJean-Jacques Eydelie is a French former professional footballer most noted for his role in the Marseille UEFA Champions league 1993 win.
WThe Football War was a brief war fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countries coincided with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The war began on 14 July 1969, when the Salvadoran military launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire on the night of 18 July, which took full effect on 20 July. Salvadoran troops were withdrawn in early August.
WThe French football bribery scandal occurred during a 1992–93 French Division 1 match between Valenciennes and Olympique de Marseille. Marseille president Bernard Tapie and general manager Jean-Pierre Bernès contacted Valenciennes players Jorge Burruchaga, Jacques Glassmann, and Christophe Robert through Marseille player Jean-Jacques Eydelie, who asked them to underperform in the match so that Marseille could stay fresher for their 1993 UEFA Champions League Final match against A.C. Milan six days later. Burruchaga and Robert accepted the bribe. However, Glassmann refused to partake in the bribe and was the one who publicly revealed the scandal. Glassmann was awarded the 1995 FIFA Fair Play Award for refusing to partake in the bribe.
WThe Garcia Report was an investigation produced by Michael J. Garcia into allegations of corruption in world football (soccer). Garcia was appointed in July 2012 to investigate ethical breaches at the FIFA, football's world governing body. A month later he announced an investigation into persistent public accusations of bribery and corruption in the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids, which had been won in 2010 by Russia and Qatar respectively.
WBruce David Grobbelaar is a Zimbabwean former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, most prominently for English team Liverpool between 1981 and 1994, and for the Zimbabwean national team. He is remembered for his gymnastic-like athletic ability, unflappable confidence and eccentric and flamboyant style of play. He has been the goalkeeper coach for Ottawa Fury FC of the North American Soccer League since 2014. In March 2018 he was announced as goalkeeper coach for the Matabeleland football team.
WThe Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, in an attempt to ease overcrowding outside the entrance turnstiles, the police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C opened, leading to an influx of even more supporters to the pens. This led to a crowding in the pens and the crush. With 96 deaths and 766 injuries, it has the highest death toll in British sporting history. Ninety-four people died on the day; another person died in hospital days later and the final victim, who had been put into a persistent vegetative state by the crush and had never regained consciousness, died in 1993. The match was abandoned but was restaged at Old Trafford in Manchester on 7 May 1989 with Liverpool winning and going on to win the FA Cup.
WThe Okęcie Airport incident was a dispute between players and technical staff of the Poland national football team on 29 November 1980, starting at the team hotel in Warsaw and climaxing at Okęcie Airport. As an incident of insubordination, when strikes and other forms of civil resistance were intensifying in communist Poland, it caused a domestic press storm, and led to the suspension of several prominent players and the resignation of Ryszard Kulesza, the team manager.
WR v John Terry was a 2012 English criminal law case in which the Chelsea and England defender John Terry was found not guilty of racially abusing the Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand in a football match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers on 23 October 2011. The prosecution, acquittal and civil inquiry and penalty by the Football Association received broad media coverage. The taint of bringing race into an retortive insult short of full, criminal law-defined racial abuse had repercussions in football. Terry lost the captaincy of the England national team which he retired from and England coach Fabio Capello quit as manager when the Football Association made its reprimand.
WWimbledon Football Club relocated to Milton Keynes in September 2003, 16 months after receiving permission to do so from the Football Association on the basis of a two-to-one decision in favour by an FA-appointed independent commission. The move took the team from south London, where it had been based since its foundation in 1889, to Milton Keynes, a new town in Buckinghamshire, about 56 miles (90 km) to the northwest of the club's traditional home district Wimbledon. Hugely controversial, the move's authorisation prompted disaffected Wimbledon supporters to form AFC Wimbledon, a new club, in June 2002. The relocated team played home matches in Milton Keynes under the Wimbledon name from September 2003 until June 2004, when following the end of the 2003–04 season it renamed itself Milton Keynes Dons F.C..
WRoberto Antonio "Cóndor" Rojas Saavedra is a retired Chilean football goalkeeper. In 1989, he deliberately injured himself during a World Cup qualifying match in an attempt to avoid a loss by the Chile national team. The incident resulted in a lifetime ban for Rojas and one World Cup ban for Chile. His ban was subsequently lifted in 2001.
WJohannes "Hans" Segers is a Dutch football coach and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
WThe shame penalty of Leipzig was a controversial penalty decision by referee Bernd Stumpf during a match in the 1985–86 season of the DDR-Oberliga between 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo, which took place on 22 March 1986 at the Bruno-Plache-Stadion in Leipzig. Following the match, the Deutscher Fußball-Verband (DFV), the umbrella organization for football in East Germany, for the first time permanently banned a referee.
WEduard Anatolyevich Streltsov was a footballer from the Soviet Union who played as a forward for Torpedo Moscow and the Soviet national team during the 1950s and 1960s. A powerful and skilful attacking player, he scored the fourth-highest number of goals for the Soviet Union and has been called "the greatest outfield player Russia has ever produced". He is sometimes dubbed "the Russian Pelé".
WJohn George Terry is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa; he is the assistant head coach at the latter. Regarded as one of the best defenders in the world at his peak, he is considered to be one of the greatest central defenders of his generation, as well as one of the best English and Premier League defenders ever.
WThe Thames Valley Royals proposal was a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful 1983 proposal to merge the Oxford United Football Club with nearby team Reading.
WTofiq Bahramov, in England often referred to as "the Russian linesman", was a Soviet footballer and football referee from Azerbaijan.