Golaço Stories

Local and regional rivalries are at the heart of the passion amongst fan bases, nothing intensifies a soccer match more than the cultural aspects that surround it.  With this in mind the Royal League was formed in 2004, a club tournament for Scandinavia. The idea doesn't seem bad, in reality it seems like it was something that should've had a lot of popularity, but the execution is what killed it. Denmark, Sweden and Norway each sent four participants, they were divided into 3 groups and then a knock-out stage would follow, the whole tournament had home and away matches. Furthermore, the Royal League...

It might sound odd, but when you think about it you'll find many clubs who play outside of their country. Canadian clubs in the MLS, AS Monaco in France, Wrexham AFC in England are all well known examples, but there's one club that goes a step further. In 2006 Australia moved from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation due to the enormous disparity in quality it had with the other OFC members. A 31-0 win over American Samoa made this abundantly obvious. Just one year later, Wellington Phoenix, New Zealand's only fully professional club, made it's debut...

There are 195 sovereign states on this planet that are recognized by the United Nations and only 8 of them are not affiliated to FIFA. Here's what you need to know about them. Vatican City Contrary to popular belief the Vatican isn't just the pope and other high members of the Catholic Church. In fact there's enough people within the Vatican that it has it's own amateur league. Each club within the league represents a section of the city state, so we have the team of the hospital, the team of the museum workers, a team of the guards, etc. ...

Even the most casual soccer fan knows that national teams get 1 star for every FIFA World Cup title, it is probably most peoples first introduction to the concept. However, even soccer's most simple championship star rule isn't without controversy. Uruguay, who won the World Cup in 1930 and 1950, has 4 stars over it's crest, and here's why. Prior to the inaugural World Cup in 1930, the biggest international soccer tournament on the planet was the Olympics. Just before that first World Cup, Uruguay was gold medalist in the 1924 Paris Olympics and 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Two obvious concerns immediately...

On December of 2020 the MLS announced a new system for it's franchises to follow regarding championship stars over their crests. Simply put, clubs get a silver star for a championship win and a gold star at their 5th win. I imagine most readers at this point are thinking this is the end of this post, but the trust is that the MLS doesn't seem to be very clear on exactly what it wants and isn't too tough on enforcing it either. For example, it is unclear whether the golden star substitutes the previous 4 silver stars or is added...