Golaço Stories

Russia's extensive territory is very well known, but just how big it actually is and how it affects the countries soccer scene is not often discussed. This is party due to the fact that most of important cities and wealth in Russia is concentrated in the European side of the country, which then causes most of the top clubs to be from that region. However, a lot of Russian clubs are located well passed the Ural Mountains and deep into the Asian continent. FC Luch Vladivostok is the most extreme example of just how far an away match in Russia...

It is impossible to separate geopolitics and soccer, especially in international competitions. For the 1958 World Cup, in order explain how Wales qualified we first need to talk about what happened in the Africa/Asia region. This was a time where Africa and Asia held joint World Cup Qualifiers due to the low number of teams, combined there were just 9 participants. One of these participants was Israel, and aside from China who got eliminated early by Indonesia, everyone else was a country of Arab majority. Political and religious tensions were high in the region at the time, and as a result...

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. ...