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The story of two Greek immigrants in Colombia serves as a lesson of what the nation can achieve when united. Petros Gkrilis and George Sitaras come from Thessaloniki. They are fanatic supporters of the city’s eternal rivals PAOK and Aris respectively. They proudly wear their club’s jerseys in Colombia, speak with passion about their love for their idols back in Greece and they both claim their team is the jewel in Thessaloniki’s sports crown. Yet they have managed to show to the entire world that football rivalries are nothing compared to all the other things in life which unite people...

Hey, folks. God here. I'm writing in response to recent comments from Megan Rapinoe, a human female best known for playing the so-called sport of soccer, or "Satan's Folly" as we call it up here. Rapinoe invoked my name on Saturday after injuring her Achilles tendon in the opening minutes of the National Women's Soccer League Championship. It was the final game of her professional career. "I'm not a religious person or anything and if there was a God, like, this is proof that there isn't," Rapinoe told the demonic cretins you call journalists during the post-game press conference. "This...

Drew Gilpin Faust Office of the President Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Dear Dr. Faust: This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition. The purpose is to inform you and the public of the activities of Qatar. Harvard University is assisting the Qatar Foundation to establish a law school in Doha, in order to “revitalize legal education in the Middle East, and represent Islamic and Arabic legal traditions in the global dialogue on legal and governance issues.” These traditions include Sharia law. Harvard University is arguably the greatest institution of...

In a surreal scene, USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter and team captain Tyler Adams were quizzed on government relations Monday by Iranian journalists ahead of the US’ must-win match against Iran in the World Cup on Tuesday. Berhalter was pressed as to “why he hasn’t asked US gov’t to remove a Naval ship from around Iran,” according to USA Today Sports’ Nancy Armour. Berhalter was also asked about U.S. immigration policies, to which the 49-year-old head coach responded, “I don’t know enough about politics, I’m a soccer coach.”

Israeli journalists and fans are being boycotted and yelled at by fans, locals, and officials at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.Multiple Israelis have claimed to have been met by an atmosphere of hostility and hatred at the World Cup in Qatar, with fans refusing to speak to Israeli journalists, waving Palestinian flags in the background of their videos and yelling at them. Moav Vardy, KAN’s foreign affairs reporter, was yelled at by a Saudi fan who told him that “You are not welcome here. This is Qatar. This is our country. There is only Palestine; no Israel.” Other videos...

When the singer Rod Stewart was offered more than $1 million to perform in Qatar, he said, he turned it down. “It’s not right to go,” Mr. Stewart told the The Sunday Times of London recently, joining a string of public figures to declare boycotts or express condemnation of Qatar as the Gulf nation hosts the soccer World Cup. In the prelude to the tournament, which started this past weekend, Qatar has faced an increasing barrage of criticism over its human rights record, including the authoritarian monarchy’s criminalization of homosexuality and the well-documented abuse of migrant workers.

The Big Apple’s jet-setting chief executive, Mayor Eric Adams, is heading to Athens, Greece for a conference on anti-Semitism and Doha, Qatar, to “learn more” about co-hosting the World Cup. According to a copy of Adams’ public schedule released Friday, Hizzoner will head to Athens on Nov. 30 to attend the 2022 Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism. The trip comes soon after the NYPD and federal law enforcement prevented an attempted attack on city synagogues by would-be terrorists Matthew Mahrer and Christopher Brown. Adams will then head to Doha, Qatar on Dec. 1 and stay until Dec. 4 — to “learn...

Iran considered carrying out a terror attack at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in an attempt to disrupt the event, military intelligence chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, according to The Jerusalem Post. Speaking at an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Major General Aharon Haliva said that the "only thing" stopping Iran from an act of terror was concern over how host country Qatar might respond, the report said. The FIFA World Cup 2022 kicked off on Sunday and is set to last through December 18. Iran's national team is one of...

In Iran, Israel and the protesters are blamed for the team's defeat in the World Cup The loss to England was overshadowed by the rare protest by the Iranian national team players, who did not sing the national anthem as a sign of solidarity with the "hijab protest". Thousands of Iranians in the stands protested against the regime during the match. The conservative media associated with the Ayatollah regime reported that protesters celebrated the defeat in the streets of Tehran. She blames them, and the enemy countries, for the loss: "Iran lost 6:2 to England, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the...

Argentina's shellshocked fans have reacted with disbelief after Lionel Messi and his superstar teammates suffered one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history with a shock defeat to international minnows Saudi Arabia.

This is the report on the controversies around Qatar being host of the World Cup that just played on @BBCOne as @GaryLineker begins @BBCSport's coverage of the tournament. Report ... [5 mins]

Authorities in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar are prohibiting Jewish visitors from purchasing cooked kosher food or organizing prayer groups during their stay in the country for the World Cup, leading Jewish groups to accuse Doha of reneging on its promise to protect the religious rights of sports fans during the World Cup. Qatar has no diplomatic relations with Israel, but as a condition of its hosting the World Cup, FIFA mandated that Qatar not bar fans based on their nationality. With thousands of Israelis expected to travel to Doha for the games, Qatar agreed to permit Israel to...

Doha — Qatar has invited the radical preacher Dr. Zakir Naik, infamous for his endorsing views on suicide bombings, to teach the FIFA fans about Islam. The famous ScreenMix entertainment magazine tweeted on Saturday, “Qatar invited the famous Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Naik to deliver religious lectures during the 2022 World Cup

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has launched a stinging attack on the West on the eve of the World Cup for criticizing Qatar for its poor human rights record. In an hour-long speech, the Swiss-Italian 52-year-old said European critics were misrepresenting the host nation and that everyone is welcome. “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker,” he said. “Of course I am not Qatari, Arab, gay or disabled. But I was the son of a migrant worker, saw their conditions. Not in...

In a recent article, the Pakistan-based Urdu-language pro-Taliban daily Roznama Ummat examined the Qatari government's preparations for da'wa ("preaching," "invitation to Islam") at the FIFA World Cup beginning on November 20, 2022. Da'wa is an important part of Islam whereby Muslims are expected to invite non-Muslims to embrace the religion. The article, titled "FIFA World Cup And Da'wa Of The Religion," and written by Islamic religious scholar Zia Chitrali, explains various media activities and events planned to explain Islam to non-Muslim spectators and to try to persuade them to convert. As part of these events planned by Qatari officials, thousands...

Fans flying to the FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar can expect the fan village to be a £185-a-night unfinished shambles where local officials threaten to smash video cameras of unhappy supporters and stop journalists from filming. With less than 24 hours until the World Cup kicks off with the opening ceremony and clash between the host nation and Ecuador in Doha at the Al Bayt Stadium, the fan villages resemble construction sites. Footage and images show piles of rubble and sand, ripped up turf and industrial machinery still on-site at the Rawdat Al Jahhaniya fan village, which will be...

DOHA, QATAR — In a move that quickly received international backlash, the World Cup host country of Qatar has banned the sale of beer in or near arenas where matches will be played. With beer sales outlawed, the World Cup's estimated 1 million attendees will be forced to just sit there and watch soccer. FIFA organizers responded to Qatar's alcohol ban by flopping onto the ground and screaming as if gravely injured. "What's the point of watching soccer if you can't get plastered enough to not have to watch soccer?" Asked FIFA president Gianni Infantino who, moments earlier had been...

The FIFA World Cup is right around the corner. The 32-team quadrennial event is all set to kick off this Sunday at Qatar’s Al Bayt stadium. But even as hosts Qatar ready themselves to showcase their world-class football stadiums, human rights groups are increasingly calling for a boycott of the tournament. Over the last decade, as Qatar prepared itself to host the first-ever FIFA World Cup in the Arab peninsula, Humans Rights groups pointed out the several violations the Gulf state was committing. The monarchical state was accused of employing slave labor from South Asia to build the infrastructure required...

You see Qatar's refusal to sell alcohol in stadiums as a disgrace, I see this refusal as another illustration of the clash of civilizations that pokes a finger in the eye of Western culture. This time it happens on the biggest stage of all.

The United States men's national team's 26-man roster for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is officially out after coach Gregg Berhalter released the team in an event in New York. With Wales, England and Iran on the schedule, the pressure is on for the national team to erase the lows of the eight-year wait to return to the tournament and build off of the highs we've seen with domestic success over Mexico. ... Let's get to know the 26 players one by one that will board on the plane to Qatar for this month's tournament: