International Football (non-USMNT) 2014-2018

[soxfan121]

We had a thread for general international news/games during the last cycle and with the World Cup all but wrapped up, it is time for a new thread to chronicle the spurious, glorious and ridiculous in international football. 
 
First up, the Nigerian Football Federation has been suspended by FIFA from all activity following the arrest of NFF President Aminu Maigari by the Nigerian government. Confused? Read on...
 

As a result of the ban, no team from Nigeria can compete internationally, even at the club level. If the ban is not lifted by July 15, this will prevent Nigeria from competing in the upcoming U-20 Women's World Cup.
 

 

Nigeria removed federation leaders from office and arrested NFF President Aminu Maigari after the team returned from reaching the round of 16 at the World Cup. This followed an embarrassing incident in Brazil where the players refused to train over well-founded concerns that they wouldn't receive their bonuses for reaching the knockout stage.
 

 
Basically, the Nigerian government decided to arrest the NFF president because the team didn't advance at the World Cup. FIFA then suspended the entire country until Maigari is un-arrested. 
 
Welcome to the wild world of International Football, where people are jailed for not being good enough at soccer. 

 

[Titans Bastard]

We had a thread for general international news/games during the last cycle and with the World Cup all but wrapped up, it is time for a new thread to chronicle the spurious, glorious and ridiculous in international football. 
 
First up, the Nigerian Football Federation has been suspended by FIFA from all activity following the arrest of NFF President Aminu Maigari by the Nigerian government. Confused? Read on...
 
 
 
Basically, the Nigerian government decided to arrest the NFF president because the team didn't advance at the World Cup. FIFA then suspended the entire country until Maigari is un-arrested. 
 
Welcome to the wild world of International Football, where people are jailed for not being good enough at soccer. 

 
 
The sad thing is that I bet you could arrest over 50% of national FA presidents for perfectly legitimate reasons.

 

[Spacemans Bong]

Nigeria is one of world soccer's great basketcase nations. There's a lot of countries that could compete with the Mets on the embarrassment stakes and Nigeria's one of 'em. 

 

[SoxFanInCali]

I saw an interesting stat about the Mexican NT. Their friendly tonight in Denver against Bolivia will be their 125th match in the US since 2000.  In that same time period, they have played in Mexico 68 times.

 

[Silverdude2167]

That is a hard way to lose for the Dutch

 

[Titans Bastard]

Canada is leading Jamaica 3-1 late.  If the result holds, it will be Canada's first win since October 12, 2012 when they beat Cuba 3-0 in the semifinal round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.  Four days later, they traveled to Honduras needing a draw to advance lost 8-1 in legendary fashion.  They proceeded to lose to Martinique and Mauritania over the ensuing two years, among other poor results.
 
As much as it's fun to make fun of Canada for sucking at soccer, I'd like to see them get back on track.  Their national team has reached a pathetic state, where they basically can't even scrounge up 11 players who are the caliber of an average MLS starter.

 

[soxfan121]

Mexico with a fairly dominant performance last night against Bolivia, who just didn't have the quality to compete with El Tri. 
 
That said, Mexico was wasteful in front of goal, blowing several easy chances and hitting at least one post. And the Carlos Vela talk got tiresome from the broadcasters.