The draw for the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations was completed in Zurich on October 21, 2008. The 20 African nations remaining were drawn into five groups of four teams each. The five group winners qualify directly for the FIFA 2010 World Cup finals. The top three teams [. Click to continue reading...

The Confederation of African Football named its shortlist of five for 2008 African Footballer of the Year yesterday, and Didier Drogba's name was on there. Problem is: Didier Drogba wants nothing to do with the award. Seems odd to not want to be named the best player in your confederation, but Drogba has his reasons: After [. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, fresh of his four goals scored against Swaziland last Saturday, was nominated for the CAF Best African Footballer of the World award. The nominees are: Mohamed Abou-Treika (Ahli, Egypt), Amr Zaki (Wigan Athletic, Egypt), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Togo). Click to continue reading...

Unfancied CFR Cluj and FC BATE Borisov have made good starts to their UEFA Champions League campaigns (Cluj are still unbeaten after playing Roma away and Chelsea at home). But they have a long long way to go to match Dynamos FC of Harare, Zimbabwe. Despite facing multiple political and economic problems (eg Robert Mugabe and [. Click to continue reading...

In this section, we give our take on one of the most hotly-contested issues in US Soccer. In a brief September 8th article, we brought up the debate on the difficulty of CONCACAF away Qualifiers, citing Ives Galarcep's "Hazards of road qualifiers" and Luis Bueno's "Debunking the myth." While looking through Soccer by Ives this morning [. Click to continue reading...

"And he also let us stay up really late too."

Sir Alex: So, what...och aye, what did do when Carlos was around?

Rio: We did some boxes. Like played a game with three guys keeping the ball away from another one.

Sir Alex: Okay then. Do that then. That sounds good. Click to continue reading...

Earlier this week I talked about how combining CONCACAF and CONMEBOL would make sense but it's all but a pipe dream.

A reader though picked up on the idea and formulated his own concept of a new football region and how it would look like. It gets my stamp of approval.

From reader Brian:

Combine North and South America into a single football federation
(Federacion Americana de Futbol or Confederacion Americana de Futbol)
and run the World Cup qualifying, the federation cup (Copa America),
and the champions league similar to UEFA. Click to continue reading...

I'm not giving England the picture 'cause it's easy, it was actually the most compelling match-up of the day.

Holy freakin' Theo Walcott. The teenager with a hat trick, are you kidding me? Dang kid.

England 4-1 over Croatia.

Other highlights? Denmark beats Portugal. Sweden, Israel and Greece pick up much needed wins. Click to continue reading...

Here, the latest scores from the latest round of 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers...

The joint qualifying campaign will decide which five teams will join hosts South Africa at the World Cup in 2010.

The qualification process will also decide the 15 teams who will join host Angola to take part at the 2010 African Cup of Nations.

Click to continue reading...

I know that this post is off topic for this blog, and I know that what I'm going to say will never happen, but I was bored. Forget about the UEFA Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, and any other such thing. There should be a true FIFA Club World Cup. The top 32 teams from around the world will meet in order to crown the true club champion. Click to continue reading...

- A group of MLS executives are set to visit Portland, Oregon, to assess the feasibility of placing an expansion franchise there by 2012. The committee will meet with Merritt Paulson among other local officials and businessmen to determine whether they have the proper facilities to maintain a club. The startup cost of an MLS franchise is $20m.

- The International Olympic Committee has placed their support behind UEFA President Michel Platini in his quest to take football out of the hands of profit for the better of the sport. Click to continue reading...