Hello everybody. It is Thanksgiving Day, one of those rare days during the year when soccer goes on the backburner and there are no major games to watch.

American soccer fans have plenty to be thankful for, from a growing and strengthening Major League Soccer to a continuously growing number of soccer television viewing options.

By Chris Wright

Germany coach and former 1970s catalogue model Joachim Loew has seen his lucky blue cashmere sweater sold to retail magnates Galeria Kaufhof for a cool €1 million on behalf of a children's charity (the deal actually took place last year) and, in turn, the sweat-stained pull-over has now been donated to the DfB's new German football museum, which is set to open in Dortmund at some point in 2014.

2018 FIFA World Cup 2018 is in the U.S. #Leggo (: - http://twitter.com/Negeena... 18 minutes ago from 2018 - Twitter Search - Comment - Like

By Chris Wright

Never gets old...the photo, that is

Not that it really counts as 'news', but the current furore over the fact that FIFA is rotten to the core and riddled with corruption shows no sign of abating any time soon as the panicking ExCo members now begin to turn in and feed on themselves amidst a veritable crossfire of spurious allegations, attention-deferring besmirchery and reams of claims and counter-claims pertaining to various acts of bribery, glad-handing and greed.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has withdrawn his candidacy from the upcoming FIFA presidential elections.

The elections were due to be held on Wednesday June 1 and Bin Hammam was the prime challenger to current FIFA President Sepp Blatter, but in the wake of the corruption scandal, the AFC supremo has dramatically pulled out of the race to succeed Blatter.

SOURCE: GOAL.COMMay 29, 2011: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has sensationally withdrawn his candidacy from the Fifa presidential elections, which were due to be held on Wednesday June 1.
The AFC supremo was the only challenger to current incumbent Sepp Blatter in the race for the organisation's top job, but with the 62-year-old due to face Fifa's ethics committee on Sunday amid allegations of bribery, he has taken the decision to remove his name from consideration.

SOURCE: GOAL.COMMay 29, 2011: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has sensationally withdrawn his candidacy from the Fifa presidential elections, which were due to be held on Wednesday June 1.
The AFC supremo was the only challenger to current incumbent Sepp Blatter in the race for the organisation's top job, but with the 62-year-old due to face Fifa's ethics committee on Sunday amid allegations of bribery, he has taken the decision to remove his name from consideration.

Russia Herald Russia hosts FIFA World Cup 2018 - http://story.russiaherald.com/index... 8 hours ago from Russia News latest RSS... - Comment - Like

Europe Sun Russia hosts FIFA World Cup 2018 - http://story.europesun.com/index... 6 hours ago from Europe News latest RSS... - Comment - Like

Armata Ultra How it Happened: Inspired Russia ready to host FIFA World Cup 2018 - http://www.soccerinho.com/how-it-... 3 hours ago from Soccerinho - Comment - Like

We haven't had one of these in a while. Let's see if I still remember how...#1 - It will be interesting to see who starts for Hull today and next week, as Vito Mannone has returned to the selection. This local article breaks down the situation facing standout loan replacement Brad Guzan.#2 - Just to recap things of mine you may have missed over the last few days:- The usual Friday forecast of

Kansas City Star Russia to Host FIFA World Cup 2018 Escambray The Russian PM said that to host FIFA World Cup 2018 it will be built roads, railroads, stadiums and will be a development in the communications. ... FIFA & Russia sign World Cup 2018 declaration of appointment Goal.com Russia officially awarded host status for 2018 World Cup insideworldfootball (blog) Russia gets official status as 2018 World Cup host The Voice of Russia Prince Albert Daily Herald - Fifa.

24 de enero de 2011, 00:05 Moscow, Jan 24 (Prensa Latina) Russian PM Vladimir Putin and FIFA President Joseph Blatter signed an official statement in which his country is committed to host FIFA World Cup 2018 in a ceremony in San Petersburg. After signing ...

We are the champions!

Recently we've shared that various soccer luminaries such as Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson has advocated a spring-to-fall schedule change in advance of the 2022 World Cup. Now we find out that UEFA itself is advancing well past the thinking stage.

The British press is reporting that the English Premier League and Bundesliga are gearing up to fight a UEFA (specifically, Michel Plantini) plan to implement a spring-to-fall schedule permanently for UEFA member leagues and alter the qualification calendar for international events.

We've got US camp stuff, as usual, but also quite a bit more. Tomorrow night, you can look for my U.S. Player Ratings after the Chile friendly, which I will be watching at the local 4 a.m. start time with Greg Lalas, in town for the Amsterdam Kicking & Screening Film Festival. And Sunday, I'll have another sitcom video Top 5'er.

In November 2007, after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, The Daily Mail did a quick scout of the country to highlight the players pushing for internation stardom in the future entitled 60 reasons why the future of English football is not as gloomy as you might think...ITS investigates.