Page 4 - General Sports Stories

4th April 2016.
Whether you want to train your kids to play like the best footballers from Barcelona FC or Bayern Munich, or are joining a hobbyist soccer league for yourself, one of the first things you'll need to buy is a high-quality football. When you first start playing football, you can make do without the right boots/cleats/shoes or the ideal shorts or jerseys. Without a proper soccer ball, though, you can't start playing the game or learning the basics. Luckily, this guide is here to answer all of the questions you might have about purchasing the right ball for the job.

The Basics

Casual soccer fans, or even some die-hard supporters who have never played the game themselves, may think that all footballs are more or less the same. This belief isn't true, of course. Different soccer balls can vary drastically in size, material, design, price, and brand-to name just a few factors that can influence your purchase. Knowing the basics of these attributes and what you need in each department

2nd April 2016.
Luis Suarez has enjoyed nothing but success since making the move from Liverpool to Barcelona ahead of the 2014/15 season. In his first campaign with Barca, Suarez won the treble and was a finalist for UEFA's Best Player in Europe Award. He also got to play alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar in what many have called one of the best front threes in football history. This season, meanwhile, the Uruguayan striker is duking it out with Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to be the La Liga's top scorer-all while hoping for a second treble in a row for Barcelona.

With all of this success, it would be easy for Suarez to call his time in the Spanish La Liga the highlight of his career. Yet, in a recent interview with The Daily Mail, the 29-year-old soccer star had wistful things to say about his days in the Premier League. Though Luis has previously gone on record saying he "couldn't be happier" with his current career situation, he does seem to miss certain aspects of Premier League

27th March 2016. By Edward Stratmann.
After impressing for Tunisian club CS Sfaxien, who were managed by former legend of the iconic 1970s Dutch Total Football side, Ruud Krol, when he first joined in 2012, it didn't take long before Didier Ndong had a number of Ligue 1 clubs chasing his signature.

Come the January transfer window of 2015, courtesy of his excellent midfield displays, Bastia and Saint Etienne expressed their interest, but it would be Lorient who won the race for the Gabonese international. Les Merlus had a clear advantage from the outset, however, for Gabon teammate and former Lorient captain, Bruno Ecuele Manga, had encouraged his countryman to join. As it proved, this was vital in stacking the deck in their favour, with Ndong officially sealing his move on January 3, 2015.

Even though he initially struggled to adapt to life in Brittany and needed time to familiarise himself with Lorient's preferred 4-4-2 formation, he's now become a mainstay of this exciting, technically

By Greg Lea.
In an ideal world, the vote for the PFA Player of the Year would not take place until after the denouement of the season, when the full fixture list has been fulfilled and the team honours handed out. The current arrangement means ballots have probably already been completed, however: in recent years, players have had to submit their votes by mid-March, when there is usually around a quarter of the campaign remaining.

Given that the voting is likely to have already taken place, then, here are the likely contenders for the 2015/16 PFA Player of the Year crown:

Riyad Mahrez, Leicester City

With 16 strikes and 11 assists to his name, Mahrez has been directly involved in more goals than anyone else in the Premier League. The Algeria international is Leicester's primary creative force, with his direct dribbling, fine footwork and much-improved end product causing problems for almost every defender he has come up against.

Jamie Vardy, Leicester City

Vardy turned in some good performances

By Greg Lea.

With the two teams in contention for the Premier League title, last weekend's meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal was billed by many as the most important north London derby of all-time. For the first time in the fixture's history, the biggest winners were Leicester City.

Both Mauricio Pochettino and Arsene Wenger expressed regret that their team were unable to claim all three points from the clash at White Hart Lane, which ended with Spurs and Arsenal each taking a share of the spoils after an entertaining 2-2 draw. The fact that their two closest rivals both dropped points was fantastic news for table-topping Leicester, who duly took full advantage with a 1-0 victory over Watford at Vicarage Road that moved them five points clear at the summit of the standings a few hours later. It was a showing that gave the best indication yet that Claudio Ranieri's side have what it takes to pull off what would be the most extraordinary title triumph in the history of the English

By Edward Stratmann.

Despite Crystal Palace ultimately being unable to hold on for their first victory in 10 EPL matches - succumbing to a late Fabio Borini strike to draw 2-2 with Sunderland - positives could once again be drawn from Yannick Bolasie's so far encouraging return to action.

In just his third game back from a hip injury, he followed on nicely from his strong body of work against West Bromwich Albion on the weekend, as the stage appeared set for him and the Eagles to finally notch up their first win since December 19, 2015. After all, in last season's fixture away at Sunderland, Bolasie was magnificent, scoring a breathtaking hat-trick, in a match where he ran riot against the hapless Black Cats defence.

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Moreover, the last win Alan Pardew's men enjoyed, a 2-1 triumph against Stoke City, came on the day Bolasie got injured, and in the last game he started. So with the Congolese international returning to the starting line-up for the first time since,

Last summer, the headlines were everywhere: the German Bundesliga was falling behind other European soccer leagues in terms of finances. The English Premier League had recently sold domestic television rights for £5.136 billion for a three-season deal. In July, Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge finally vocalized what many people in the German football world had to be feeling: unless the Bundesliga acts soon, the league will fall permanently behind the English top-flight and other European leagues.

A Look at the Premier League's New Broadcasting Deal

Certainly, the numbers favored Rummenigge's prediction. Starting with the 2016/17 season, all 20 teams in the English Premier League will get a cut of the £5+ billion TV deal. According to Goal.com, the new TV contract is a 71% boost over the last television deal the Premier League signed in 2012. Each football club in the Premier League will bag a reported £81 million from the deal, and foreign broadcast deals could push the revenue to

FIFA has been the subject of much controversy, with allegations of bribes and investigations of high-ranking officials tarnishing the integrity of the entire sport of football. Unsurprisingly, the global soccer organization is considering what has been dubbed "a very comprehensive reform package." What is surprising is that this "reform package" wouldn't just be bent on stopping corruption, but would also change the makeup of one of what is perhaps the world's biggest sporting event: the FIFA World Cup. Proposals for a 40 team World Cup have been discussed, but what would this mean?

A 40 Team World Cup?

According to a recent report from The Guardian, FIFA officials discussed a wide range of topics at their executive committee meeting on Thursday, December 3^rd, including the possibility of expanding the competing fields for future World Cup events to 40 teams. Currently, the final World Cup tournament includes 32 teams-a field decided by a very competitive qualifying process.


For football

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have both had their ups and downs so far in the 2015 2016 season, with the former replacing their coach and the latter going through an early dry spell that saw star striker Harry Kane playing at a lower-than-expected level. However, after week five both teams have secured spots in the Europa League 201516 knockout phase, marking a turn in the fortunes of both clubs.

The Reds and the Spurs are two of the 15 teams in this year's Europa League that, with just one game day remaining in the group stage, have officially earned advancement into the knockouts. That statistic leaves nine slots up for grabs, with the remaining eight to be filled by third-place squads from the Champions League.

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A Solid Premier League Showing

Liverpool secured their round of 32 spot thanks to a pair of first-half goals from James Milner and Christian Benteke, respectively. They went on to win the game-against Bordeaux-2-1. The win is only the second the Reds have managed

With the qualifiers done and the playoffs decided, the table is set for the 2016 UEFA European Championship. The tournament won't commence until June 10^th, which means we're still more than half a year away. However, at Soccer Box, we are ready to help football fans all around Europe to prepare for the big continental competition. We've begun stocking Euro 2016 jerseys for a range of different international football squads, from Germany and Spain to Belgium and Sweden. These are the official kits that your favorite international teams are going to be wearing at Euro next summer, and thanks to Soccer Box, you can get yours today!

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A Tournament Preview: Who Will Win and Who Might Surprise?



Now that the playoffs are over (with Ukraine, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, and Hungary earning the final four spots), we can officially look at the lineup for Euro 2016 and make some predictions. Of the 24 teams involved, five of them (Iceland, Northern Ireland, Albania, Wales, and Slovakia)