Pope Francis has organized an exhibition soccer match with all-star players to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The “match for the peace” will take place Sept. 1 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Among the top players, active and retired, scheduled to participate are Argentine greats Diego Maradonna and Lionel Messi. Maradona told Argentine…
The start of the Israeli soccer season was delayed for the second weekend in a row on Friday following the resumption of rocket fire by Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Football Association said. Play in the secondary Toto Cup competition, a regular precursor to the start of league action, was due to…
A top Israeli spokesman conceded the Israeli military should have been able to tell that four Palestinian boys killed on a Gaza beach while playing soccer were not terrorists. “The IDF had a target, a Hamas terrorist target,” Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told ABC, an Australian TV news outlet. “We had intelligence pointing specifically to…
Protesters against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza attacked Israeli soccer players at a friendly match in Austria on Wednesday evening, stopping play five minutes before the end. Salzburg police said on Thursday around 20 people with flags and placards, mostly Austrians of Turkish origin, stormed the pitch shouting slogans about the Gaza conflict, in which…
Sarah Seltzer with her twin brother as children. I have a twin brother who, as a kid, frequently ran around outside with a ball and his friends ? usually in New York?s parks. Woe to the teachers at our Jewish day school who denied them gym or recess: they acted up extra-rambunctiously when they were…
Palestinians rush wounded boy to safety after Israeli mortar killed four boys playing soccer on a Gaza beach. Getty Images (JTA) — Israel’s fight in the PR war just got that much harder. Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge last week, journalists and commentators — Jon Stewart included — have criticized Israel for the lopsided…
Jose Pekerman chats with Colombia player as the team prepares to face Brazil in the World Cup. / Getty Images There’s a joke being told in the bars of Rio about how different national teams tried to curry support. Italy put out a press release that if they won they would give free pizza to…
Luis Suarez, right, has been banned from the World Cup for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini/Getty Images In the most dramatic turn of events at the World Cup in Brazil so far, Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez — one of the most talented players of his generation — has been banned from “all football-related activities” for four…
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