soccer

This week, the Costa Rican women's national football team, also known as "La Sele," earned its first-ever point in a FIFA World Cup, during a 1-1 tie with Spain. As far as we know, officially it is also the first sighting of Ms. Sloth Kong, pictured here. In their next match, Las Ticas take on South Korea tomorrow at 5 p.m., Costa Rica time. ¡Vamos, Sele!

Ahead of the first World Cup in 1991, 45 teams sought the 11 available slots alongside host China. This year's tournament attracted 128 countries chasing 23 places with Canada, and eight qualified for the first time.

SANTIAGO, Chile – As South America's football heroes jet into Chile for the Copa América, a dark cloud is hanging over two host cities where air pollution alerts are worrying organizers and fans.

"If evidence exists that Qatar and Russia received the [World Cup] awards only thanks to bribes, then the awards could be annulled," head of FIFA's auditing and compliance committee Domenico Scala told the Sonntagszeitung weekly.

Danny Williams scored the equalizer in the 88th minute and Bobby Wood broke the deadline in the 90th as the U.S. overcame a 3-1 deficit in the last 20-plus minutes to produce one of the greatest away victories in the program's recent history.

Read about the man who set the investigation in motion, with a book in 2006, "FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals," followed by an exposé aired on the BBC's "Panorama" program that same year, and then another book in 2014, called "Omerta: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family."

ZURICH, Switzerland – Sepp Blatter on Tuesday resigned as president of FIFA as a mounting corruption scandal engulfed world football's governing body. Read his statement here.

FIFA on Tuesday admitted that it had processed a $10 million payment from South Africa to a disgraced football official but denied the world body's secretary general Jerome Valcke was involved. FIFA released a statement after The New York Times reported that Valcke, right hand man to FIFA leader Sepp Blatter, had signed off on the payment.

"If I have been in FIFA for 30 years and I have been thiefing all the money, who give me the money?" Jack Warner asked his supporters gathered in Trinidad. After one blurted out, "Blatter!" Warner asked, "And why it is he ain't charged?"

"From an economic point of view, the cost of building a new stadium is not best described by the amount of money needed to build the facility but rather the value to society from the same amount of capital spent on the next best public project. Nigeria's government recently spent $330 million on a new national soccer stadium, more than the annual national government expenditures on health or education."