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What if people are falling out of love with soccer?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Around 15 years ago a British soccer journalist called Will Buckley published ...
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Urgent reforms for European soccer in a post-viral world
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, March 22, 2020
The wholesale suspension of soccer activity across Europe has opened us up ...
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Please spare us from games behind closed doors
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, March 10, 2020
If the government ordered that a Taylor Swift concert was shut to ...
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The problematic timing of the Bayern-Hoffenheim player protest
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, March 2, 2020
The sudden outbreak of collective political action under the players is not ...
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Going to Barcelona just to ignore Lionel Messi
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Last week I was sitting at home watching Rangers FC of Glasgow ...
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Manchester City ban and quitter Klinsmann highlight Champions League stranglehold
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Last week Manchester City was banned from the Champions League for two ...
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Reiterating the obvious point -- winning's not important in youth soccer
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, February 10, 2020
The Bundesliga's Eintracht Frankfurt has taken the club's U10-U13 age groups out ...
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The goalkeeper's insufficient fear of the penalty
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, February 3, 2020
A culture of lenience toward goalkeepers has been developed over several dec ...
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Arsenal and Man United fans experiencing The Thrill of the Unexpected
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Within living memory, Arsenal and Manchester United were a more or less ...
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Can you market 'authenticity'?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, January 13, 2020
The major soccer event may have passed you by, but last week ...
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Avoiding Qatar proves not so difficult after all
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, January 6, 2020
No matter how old and cynical I become, I'm still naive enough ...
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Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 5: a dream betrayed
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Sunday, December 22, 2019
The first 10 years of Andy Woodward's life were just as they ...
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Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 4: Pictorial Pleasures
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Friday, December 20, 2019
For soccer fans of a certain age, the past is a place ...
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Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 3: Women Tackling Power
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, December 17, 2019
There's a heart-breaking passage early on in the autobiography of the Nigerian-born ...
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Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 2: How to be a Better Referee
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Within their own social circle, referees are nerds. We love to discuss ...
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Soccer Books of the Year, 2019, Part 1: Goldblatt vs Wilson
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, December 3, 2019
On the latest books by Britain's most prolific and widely read soccer ...
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HBO's 'Diego Maradona' movie -- a measured masterpiece
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 18, 2019
The documentary draws on mostly unseen archive footage from Diego Maradona's Napoli ...
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A tied game -- the perfect result for a youth coach?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 11, 2019
"Next goal wins!" is the standard coach's shout a couple of minutes ...
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From Dijon to Valencia to Frankfurt -- a different measure of success
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, November 4, 2019
It's a well-worn complaint that top-heavy wealth means Europe's biggest leagues have ...
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Why is 'clear and obvious' not clear and obvious?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, October 28, 2019
When I took my first officiating course a decade ago in Maryland ...
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Rugby can show soccer the way on 'emotional' dissent
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, October 21, 2019
As a soccer referee, it's been instructive to watch the game officials ...
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When sports collide with human rights violations
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, October 14, 2019
Players who express political views tend to divide sports fans in much ...
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No goals, no skill -- it must have been awful, right?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 30, 2019
I dread coming home after watching a 0-0 tie. I know the ...
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'Good job!' The universal message of soccer's social media
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 23, 2019
Professional sports teams are obliged to see failure as unacceptable. This was ...
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Soccer must show zero tolerance for intolerance
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 16, 2019
Racism and bigotry in soccer probably never went away. They've just been ...
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Coaching young players to respect the ref
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 9, 2019
On Saturday I refereed a boys' U-19 league game. As usual, I ...
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'Identification players' defined by character, not where they come from
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, September 2, 2019
The Celtic FC team that won the European Cup in 1967 with ...
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Youth soccer would be better off without the parents
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Tuesday, August 27, 2019
"Referee! What on earth do you think you're doing!?" A fair enough ...
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Can you be half a fan?
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, August 19, 2019
One of the strangest experiences I ever had as a soccer spectator ...
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Carding the coach will be a rule for the greater good
Soccer America Confidential, Ian Plenderleith - Monday, August 5, 2019
Coaches don't like the fact that referees can now show them yellow ...
