Will the spending madness by which Chinese teams are swallowing up talented players one day spread to referees? One of the top FIFA referees, Mark Clattenburg, apparently thinks so. Or maybe he's bargaining for a blockbuster move, as unlikely as it seems, since there is no longer a retirement age for FIFA referees.

With the industrialization of soccer, the Laws of the Game (LOTG) started to change to answer the demands of industrialized soccer. The first major change came with "the specialized linesman" in the early 1990s. Until then, there was no distinction between the referee and the linesman. It was thought that one could do both functions equally well.

At the club that leads the world in home attendance with 81,300 fans per game, a 17-year-old American made his pro debut in January. By year's end, Christian Pulisic played in 21 Bundesliga games, made nine European competition appearances, and became the youngest American to play in World Cup qualifying. What can we expect from the Pennsylvanian in 2017?

All you ever want is a chance to play in the bigs. Whatever happens in the rest of his career, Bob Bradley will feel good that he achieved his goal of managing in the EPL. No, it didn't work. After only 85 days in charge, Bradley was unceremoniously fired with the Swansea City manager. He arrived with the Swans in 17th place and he departed with them in 19th place, only above Hull City thanks to their better goal difference.

There will not be a Christmas party for Swansea City players to celebrate the holiday season. Whether they will be in a partying mood to welcome the New Year hinges on results of their next two games, both of which are at home.

Banished American FIFA official Chuck Blazer's most famous line came in connection with Qatar's bid to host the 2022 World Cup. When it became clear Qatar was a serious threat to the USA's chances and proposed to air-condition its stadiums to deal with the searing summer heat, Blazer responded, "I don't see how you can air-condition an entire country."

As negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement between U.S. Soccer and the women's national team drag towards a looming expiration date, star forward Alex Morgan has finally taken advantage of an offer from French club Lyon.

Social media is ubiquitous with the fan experience at sporting events. Not all are in favor with the introduction of Wifi into stadiums. Smaller clubs fear the pervasive nature of social media has hurt attendance. French club Reims, for one, took matters into its own hands.

2017 will mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Dallas Tornado, the Lamar Hunt-owned NASL club that prepared for its first season with a seven-month world tour that spanned five continents. The wonderfully illustrated book, "The Amazing World Tour of the Dallas Tornado," is written by Fons Stoffels, a Dutch forward who, at age 22, scored 22 goals in the 48 games in 25 countries, including in South Vietnam during the war.

The pending sale of Brazilian midfielder Oscar to Chinese club Shanghai SIPG for a reported 60 million pounds ($80 million) is part of what Chelsea manager Antonio Conte sees as a grave threat to Europe's biggest clubs.

To the surprise of no one, European clubs oppose FIFA president Gianni Infantino's plan to expand the World Cup to 48 teams in 2026. FIFA looks at an expanded tournament as that many more games off of which it can make money. European clubs (which employed 76 percent of the players in the 2014 World Cup) look at all those extra teams as that many more players who'll be away for a month or two.

I know who I'll be rooting for when the English FA Cup moves into the third round in January. Stourbridge Football Club, the pride of the Evo-Stik League, representing England's seventh tier, is the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup and has a decent shot of advancing in its first trip to the Big Dance in 141 years.

I witnessed the blooming of soccer in this country during my stay in the USA 30 years ago (1978-1987). The emergence of women's soccer fueled by Title IX was phenomena and youth development generally was very promising. Unfortunately, what I see today in terms of development is behind what I would have expected to see after 30 years.

What a weekend for American soccer! The Seattle Sounders won MLS Cup without a shot on goal. Stanford prevailed in the college final four without scoring a goal. But this isn't just an American problem, such goal-barren finals.

Police officials in England say 83 suspects have been identified and 98 clubs through all levels of the English game implicated as child-abuse cases are being investigated. When a sexual abuse hotline was set up with the support of the FA, it received 860 calls within its first three days.