Goalkeeper Dino Zoff, at age 40, helped Italy win the World Cup in 1982. Egypt's Essam El Hadary, at age 44, has shut out every foe so far in Gabon and is aiming to win his fifth Africa Cup of Nations.

In the early 2000s, Senes Erzik, then the chairman of the FIFA Referee Committee and my ex-boss, had asked me to write an informal report about the future of soccer refereeing. As a FIFA Referee Instructor and trying to play the role of "Nostradamus of soccer" refereeing and the Laws of the Game (LOTG), I compiled a short report on what I foresee as some of the changes in the near future.

A sideline shoving match with a fourth official has prompted a four-game ban for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who will be absent from the sideline while the ban is in effect.

The news has not been good for Sky, the British media company that's facing a multibillion-dollar takeover bid by 21st Century Fox. It reported lower half-year earnings with profits down 11 percent in the six months of the fiscal year that will end on June 30.

Ben Lederman is only 16 years old, but we seem to have known him for years. In 2012, Soccer America first reported about the selection of a 12-year-old American from Barcelona's youth academy to a U.S. under-14 national team camp held by Hugo Perez at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

When FIFA technical director Marco van Basten reeled off a list of possible rule changes most, like getting rid of offside, could be easily dismissed. But his solution to prevent the mobbing of referees should be seriously considered.

Concacaf released its long-awaited revision of its premier club championship -- the Concacaf Champions League -- and it doesn't do anything to allay MLS's concerns that the knockout stage of the tournament falls just as its clubs are about to begin their seasons or have just begun them.

Liverpool icon Liverpool Steven Gerrard has returned to the club he represented 710 times to assist academy director in grooming players for the first team.

Of the major European leagues, Germany's Bundesliga has the longest winter break -- a little more than four weeks -- but it isn't what it used to be. Thirty years ago, the Bundesliga took 11 weeks off.

Until now, new FIFA technical director Marco van Basten has kept a rather low profile, but he has come out in favor of experimentation that could revolutionize soccer. An American-style shootout, used by the old NASL and MLS, in its early years, to break ties is one of the tamer measures.

If VfL Osnabruck keeps up its fine form, chances are good that it will win promotion to the German second division. Its head coach is American Joe Enochs, who left California 22 years ago to pursue a pro playing career after college ball at Sacramento State.

Just how hard has it been to beat Real Madrid? Its unbeaten streak in all competitions ended at 40 games on Sunday when it lost, 2-1, at Sevilla but it took an own goal by Sergio Ramos in the 85th minute and a stoppage-time goal by Stevan Jovetic to end the streak that extended back nine months to April 2016 when it lost to Wolfsburg in the UEFA Champions League.

After I wrote my article about the obstacles to the development of the fifth pillar - namely technical development, some very interesting developments in the US soccer scene surfaced out. I am using the verb "surfaced" because all of those developments, I believe are the manifestations of long overdue unattended problems in the soccer structure of our country.

Shaka Hislop tweeted that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry about the state of Trinidad & Tobago, then added, "I've had hangovers that lasted longer than Saintfiet." That would have been a pretty long hangover, but Hislop, the former T&T goalkeeper who now works as an ESPN analyst, makes his point about Belgian Tom Saintfiet, who lasted all of five weeks as T&T head coach.

That expanding the World Cup by 16 teams to 48 is a financially driven, politically motivated move by the FIFA bosses raises our hackles. But the problem isn't about allowing "lesser" teams to the party.