#scottish womens premier league

[kierantierney3]

Since England lost the final can you please do part 2 of "lovers", thank you in advance :)

Hi thank you for your request!!! I enjoyed making part 1 and was hoping to get to write a part 2.

Disclaimer i’m not english i’m scottish that tells you everything you need to know about who i wanted to win the final.

Masterlist

Face claim: Alessia Russo

Part 1

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yourusername

liked by ødegaard.98, ellatoone and 99,882 others

yourusername Special night 3/3 in the group stage. Now onto round of 16. Thank you everyone for the support. Buzzing to score my first goal hopefully more to come.

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ødegaard.98 So so proud 😍❤️

ødegaard.98 Amazing player

ellatoone ❤️ Mrs Ødegaard

user What a star ⭐️

ødegaard.98

liked by yourusername, declanrice and 291,949 others

ødegaard.98 What a start to the season. Thank you for all the support. See you for the start of the premier league. 🏆

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yourusername So proud of you i love you. What a player. Deserve all of it. ❤️

user Best team

user This team man!!! can’t wait for the premier league to restart.

yourusername

liked by ødegaard,98, keirawalsh and 101,839 others

yourusername What an unbelievable team. We fought hard and got through. Thanks for the support. See you in the next round. 🦁

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ødegaard.98 No surprises here. What a player and what a team. 😍

⤷ I love you 😘

user What a unreal player. Big season coming up ⬆️

user We are going to win it 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

yourusername story

yourusername

liked by ødegaard.98, eddienketiah and 128,939 others

yourusername Through to the semi finals. What a performance from everyone. See you guys for the next game. 🦁🤍

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ødegaard.98 Some player. I miss you but i’m so proud of you. ❤️

user It’s coming home

user Women’s football > men’s football

ødegaard.98

liked by yourusername, bukayosaka87 and 239,920 others

ødegaard.98 Back with 3 points ❤️ Thanks for the support

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yourusername Sorry you only got me 2 points in my premier league team straight out for someone else. ❤️

bukayosaka87 Captain 👏🏿

user Typical Arsenal nerve racking last minutes with a goal advantage.

yourusername

liked by ødegaard.98, leahwilliamson and 183,894 others

yourusername Off to the world cup finals. What an unbelievable support from everyone. See you soon 🦁🦁

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ødegaard.98 Amazing! Bring it home.

user Can’t believe it think i was in shock for a good couple hours.

user Final is going to be the most stressful thing ever.

ødegaard.98

liked by declanrice, benwhite and 318,929 others

ødegaard.98 Big win, big team performance from everyone. Proud of them. ❤️

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user Ref was shocking

user Please please give y/n a massive hug when you finally see her. Deserves so much money, and seemed heartbroken at full time.

user Some player. Can’t believe we got you for £30 million.

yourusername

liked by ødegaard.98, judebellingham and 102,939 others

yourusername Sadly it wasn’t meant to be. We are heartbroken. So proud of everyone we just came up short. Full congratulations to spain they played a good game of football and came out the winners.

Thank you for all the support from everyone around to world. Some amazing 6 weeks that i will never forgot.

Now we rest for the upcoming season ahead. No doubt we will come back stronger again. 🦁🤍

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ødegaard So proud of you and the team you did everyone amazingly. Football is a cruel sport.

user So proud of you and the girl you did us all proud.

judebellingham 🤍 Rest up well.

user See you for the new season. Rest up it’s a big season ahead.

ødegaard.98 story

Hope that is ok. Got a couple more requests still need to be written. I tend to write the ones that come in first.

[tornadotree]

What I think the casualty characters feel about football

Since casualty is not on tonight, here’s what I headcanon the characters feel about football because I have THOUGHTS!!!

Ian

Proper footie fan.

Absolutely loves football.

Feel like he supports Sheffield Wednesday and has a season ticket, even if he can’t go to many games because of work.

Will try and travel to Sheffield to see them at home.

Always makes sure to catch up on results and watch bits of the matches whilst at work.

Loves the England national team.

Absolutely singing Sweet Caroline and Mr Brightside all night long.

Tries to like the women’s teams but just doesn’t have the same passion for it as he does the men’s.

Will absolutely slander someone if they slagged off the women’s game though.

Prefers women’s national football to women’s club football.

Tries to play FIFA but struggles…a lot.

Jan

Supports the men and women’s Welsh national team and that’s it.

Does not care for any other football.

Loves Gareth Bale and owns a Welsh shirt with his name on.

Started crying when Wales made the semi-finals of the Euros in 2016.

She came into work the next day hungover for the first and only time.

Hates Ronaldo.

Teddy

A Manchester United fan.

Cried when Sir Alex Ferguson left.

Football massively affects his mood.

If his team does badly in a match (very common with Man Utd) you will hear about it from him.

He will spend the next day arguing about it with whoever (more like ranting).

Alternatively, if his team does well, he will be on a high all day.

Started watching women’s football when the Manchester United Women’s team was created.

He grew to love them just as much as the men’s team.

He supports the men and women’s Welsh and England national teams but prefers the Welsh teams.

Loves talking about the Wales teams with Jan.

They both sing the Welsh national anthem together whenever Wales are playing in a major tournament.

Prefers the women’s England team over the men’s England team.

Has fantasy premier league. He tried to teach Ian about it but his old ass did not get it.

Plays FIFA and football manager games.

Has a bunch of obscure football games on his phone that he plays when he is bored.

Jacob

Casual football fan.

Supports both men and women’s Chelsea.

Cares less for national football.

Doesn’t get heavily invested, so if his team fumbles something he doesn’t get majorly upset.

Likes to play fantasy premier league after Teddy taught him about it.

Plays FIFA.

Dylan

Does not care for football.

Will drop random obscure football facts casually in conversations when football is being discussed.

Likes to weigh in on VAR decisions.

Probably really good at football manager games.

Hates England fans.

Stevie

Does not care for football.

However, she does make a point to say she supports BOTH the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland because she believes in Irish reunification.

This usually leads onto a long speech about the Irish political landscape.

Will deck someone if they start slagging off the women’s game.

Gets irrationally annoyed when Americans call it ‘soccer.’

Faith

Hates football with a passion.

Loves to absolutely shit on Scottish fans when they get their hopes up and said hopes are inevitably and quickly destroyed.

Is more lenient with the women’s game but still hates it with a passion.

Always, without fail, asks why the women’s shorts are so short whenever women’s football is on or being discussed.

Her kids made her play FIFA once and she ended up scoring five own goals in one match.

Calls football ‘soccer’ to annoy Stevie.

Siobhan

Actually a massive football fan, both men and women’s.

She tries to downplay her interest, but when somebody is watching football with her, it becomes apparent to them that she is not a casual fan.

She’ll scream, cry, shout, chant, throw things, swear etc.

She’s an absolute menace.

Will deny her passion for football if you confront her about it.

Jamie

Does not know or care much for football.

He tries to support England in major tournaments for social sake.

When England lost to Italy in the Euros final he made the mistake of saying to a group of hardcore England fans in the pub that it’s “only a game, lads!” and “There’s always the next one!”

He had to run for his life that day.

Cam

Does not like football.

May engage in Euros and World Cup talk around others for social sake.

Avoids pubs when games are on.

Hates how loud England fans are.

Hates how vulgar some of the chants are.

Jodie

Likes football.

Doesn’t watch much but enjoys it when it’s on.

Doesn’t support a particular club.

Generally watches whatever is relevant e.g. big competitions or title decider matches.

Played FIFA once and was pretty good at it.

Rash

A casual fan.

Supports (women’s and men’s) Arsenal.

Supports the UK national teams in major tournaments, but doesn’t care much for national football.

Doesn’t celebrate loudly when his team scores, he either nods his head or claps.

Tariq

A bigger fan than Rash.

Supports Arsenal too and is a massive England fan.

Like Ian, he is chanting Sweet Caroline all night long.

He loves the social side of football AKA having a pint in the pub and screaming at the TV.

He’ll watch the women’s game but he doesn’t go out of his way to watch it.

Definitely plays Fantasy Premier League and is quite good at it.

Plays FIFA and is awful at it, despite pretending he is not.

Shouts “suiii” sporadically in random everyday situations.

Rida

Loves football.

Feel like she supports West Ham and all the UK national teams.

Gets really passionate about both club and national football.

Loves chanting random shite and heatedly debating.

Will say things like “______ washed,” “Pessi,” “Penaldo,” “oil club” etc.

Gossips about football player drama like it’s a soap, especially with Jodie and Rash.

Prefers the women’s game to the men’s.

Always gets into arguments with Tariq over football.

Bullied him mercilessly when Arsenal bottled the title two years in a row.

Plays FIFA and is amazing at it. Always destroys Tariq on it.

Nicole

Die-hard Newcastle United fan.

Has a season ticket even if she can’t attend a lot of the matches because of work.

Usually games she does attend are when NUFC are away in the south because they’re easier to get to.

Tries to watch all their matches.

Is loud as fuck when watching football.

Loves chanting complete bollocks.

Prefers the men’s team to the women’s team, but only because the reason she is so passionate about NUFC is because of her upbringing.

She still loves the women’s team.

Argues the politics of football often, talking about money’s influence in the game.

Hates Manchester City with a burning passion, even more so than Manchester United.

When she met Ngozi, she started getting an increased interest in local football like her.

Watches major (men and women’s) national tournaments, but does not care much for the England team.

Ngozi

Loves football, with an emphasis on the unity it can bring.

Prefers local level football over big club football because she believes it’s more authentic (believes money ruins football).

Watches the (men and women’s) Nigerian leagues and England leagues.

Doesn’t really support one team.

She likes the Premier League, but she prefers the lower leagues like the National League, Sky Bet League Two etc.

Watches all the playoff games.

Feel like she likes obscure, smaller leagues in different countries as well.

Loves Afcon.

Supports men and women’s Nigerian team, but she loves Afcon more as a whole.

When she moved to the UK, she got more into the Euros.

Heavily dislikes the men’s England national team fanbase.

Loves watching the devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland.

Hates France.

She started supporting Newcastle United more because of Nicole.

Both like going to the men and women’s matches together when they can.

Is a bit disturbed when Nicole starts joining in bizarre chanting and often has to ask what half the words mean.

Watching Nigeria teams makes her a little sad now because she misses it, but she loves talking about the teams and Afcon as a whole with people, especially Nicole.

[forrcst]

name: forrest mcleod age: thirty-five pronouns: he/him birthday: july 24th zodiac: leo sun, aires rising, taurus moon sexuality: homosexual hometown: aviemore, scotland previous occupation: right winger for arsenal fc in the premier league current occupation: personal trainer for the haus time at haus: one week

+ traits: passionate, determined, strong-willed, charismatic, charming - traits: brash, unintelligent, clumsy, gullible, impulsive likes: football, summer nights, the smell of the ocean, war films, grime and hiphop, sleeping in, ryan reynolds. dislikes: classical music, early mornings, scruffy beards, autumn weather, cats, exotic food, tottenham hotspurs.

kinks: power play, romantic, pain play anti-kinks: bathroom play, infantilism, daddy kink position: versatile

as a kid, all he ever wanted was to be a footballer. growing up in a small town in the scottish highlands, there wasn't much else to do except kick around a ball and forrest was forever glued to the television screen to watch the latest games. though he knew he should support a scottish team, it was a north london squad - arsenal - that captured his heart. the premier league was exactly where he wanted to be; the life of a footballer seemed so glamourous with the money, the cars, the abundance of free shit. and of course, the game itself. 

he was part of a local football team as a kid, working his way through the ranks until he was scouted by his dream club's academy. suddenly, the small town scottish boy was thrown in amongst some of the world's best up and coming players. initially he believed himself to be a defender, but the academy saw his potential in midfield as a right winger and by twenty-five years old he was one of arsenal's starting eleven.

forrest quickly grew in both fame and fortune, though the club had its struggles, he was grateful to be part of a family that adored each other and he saw his teammates as his brothers above anything else. he held a secret close to his chest, however. in the premier league, it's known for there being no openly gay players - forrest was certain he wasn't the only one, it was impossible statistically, but the risk of losing his career by outing himself just simply wasn't worth it. so, he lived in secret. he got into relationships with women to diminish any possibility of rumours and for a while, he convinced himself he could be happy with this lifestyle.

unfortunately, at the age of thirty, forrest suffered an injury during a match against club rivals, tottenham. a poorly executed slide tackle displaced his knee and he was quickly rushed into surgery and extensive physiotherapy. for two years, he tried his hardest to get back out on the pitch. it was already a risk, his age meant that he was struggling to keep up with the teenagers up and coming on the scene, but he was also slower to recover from the injury. there were games where he didn't even make it to the bench and though it broke his heart, by thirty-two it was time to retire and say goodbye to the thing he loved most.

left without any clue of where to go next (becoming a manager or pundit just didn't feel right), forrest quickly spiralled into blowing his enormous pay-out on drink, drugs, and eventually fell into the world of gambling. within a year he'd gone from earning thousands every week to owing millions of pounds in debt. forrest realised he'd gone too far too late, thus when a friend of a friend recommend the haus of perses and a chance to earn a decent wage whilst also exploring his sexuality, he simply jumped at the chance. forrest kept himself clean to ensure he would be accepted, and soon found himself packing his bags to start a new life as a personal trainer within the haus.

[memotrends]

Chelsea coach comments on possible WSL expansion

Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor has spoken out about the possibility of the Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) being expanded to include Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers. According to new reports from The timesThe Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) are looking at ways to expand the women’s game and have explored the possibility of adding the two Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL)…

[lessi-lover]

here's my thoughts on the whole rangers/celtic situation

negatives:

travel from scotland to england for fixtures would be expensive and time-consuming.

the extra travel costs could put financial pressure on clubs, particularly if they struggle to generate revenue from their women's teams.

the leaving of celtic and rangers could weaken the scottish women's premier league which could reduce its competitiveness and fan engagement.

integrating teams from scotland could create an uneven playing field if the swpl teams are not yet on par with the top wsl teams in terms of squads and resources.

adding more teams could lead to an even more congested fixture schedule, reducing the ability of player quality due to a higher amount of games. (already an issue in women's football because of multiple competitions).

if celtic or rangers were to get relegated to the championship league, these teams would have to spend money they could use to increase their fan base or squad on travel expenses.

positives

the addition of celtic and rangers would raise the level of competition in the wsl, leading to exciting clashes and a more engaging league.

these clubs have large fanbases that could bring more attention and a wider fanbase to the wsl.

both clubs have shown a commitment to investing in their women’s teams, which could lead to better infrastructure and facilities.

the inclusion of two of scotland’s biggest clubs could strengthen the english standing in women’s football on the international stage.

with a larger geographical coverage, the wsl could attract more sponsorship or media coverage.

[cryptoto]

Chelsea coach mulls possible WSL expansion

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has given her thoughts on the possibility of the Barclays Women's Super League (WSL) expanding to include Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers. According to reports from The TimesThe Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) is looking at ways to expand the women's game and has explored the prospect of welcoming two Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) teams to…

[hamsdd]

Chelsea coach mulls possible WSL expansion

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has given her thoughts on the possibility of the Barclays Women's Super League (WSL) expanding to include Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers. According to reports from The TimesThe Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) is looking at ways to expand the women's game and has explored the prospect of welcoming two Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) teams to…

[qubixo1]

Chelsea coach weighs in on potential WSL expansion

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has given her thoughts on the possibility of the Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) expanding to include Scottish clubs Celtic and Rangers. As per emerging reports from The Timesis the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) are looking for ways to expand the women’s game, and have explored the prospect of welcoming the two Scottish Women’s Premier League…

[euginemicah]

Manager ins and outs - January 2025

BBC Sport tracks all the manager ins and outs in the Premier League, Scottish Premiership, Women’s Super League, English Football League and National League. <#Manager #ins #outs #January

[xtruss]

It’s Time To Sideline “The Terrorist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator, Zionist 🐖 And The Illegal Regime of Israel” from International Sports

A Boycott of Isra-helli Soccer Could Accomplish What Other BDS Efforts Have Failed to Do: Dent the Country’s Own Sense of Legitimacy.

— Foreign Policy | Tuesday July 16, 2024 | By Daniel Levy & Tony Karon

Demonstrators call for FIFA to expel “The Terrorist, War Criminal, Apartheid , Liar, Conspirator, Zionist 🐖 and The Illegal Regime of Israel” on May 28, 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Via Getty Images

FIFA, Global Soccer’s Governing Body, is facing growing calls to ban Israel’s teams from international competitions. The Palestinian Football Association has formally demanded action in response to the dire humanitarian situation created by Israel’s nine-month assault on Gaza, the ongoing disruption of Palestinian soccer imposed by Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, and the fact that teams from Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements play in its domestic leagues in violation of FIFA rules. The international body has long evaded efforts within its councils to sanction Israel, but the pressure of disruptive protest action in and around the world’s football stadiums could force a change.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino had artfully played for time by insisting his organization needed legal advice, despite the federation’s precedent of barring Russia within weeks of its invasion of Ukraine. FIFA has promised to convene its council to consider the issue by July 20, but it was put on notice on a breezy evening in Glasgow as Scotland’s women prepared to face Israel’s on May 31.

Scottish protesters harassed the Israeli squad from the moment it landed in Glasgow, posting social media videos of the players in IDF uniforms during their military service, demonstrating outside the team’s hotel, and preventing them training in the stadium. The Israeli players could hear the shouts of the protesters from outside the ground in the silent stadium.

“We had to scream the national anthem because the Scots didn’t play it on the stadium loudspeaker,” one Israeli player told Haaretz.

The Glasgow Euro 2025 qualifier match demonstrated that continuing to defer action on Israel could pose a growing risk of disruption for global soccer—and showed that fans possess a form of leverage that may be more effective than formal pleas to the FIFA council. Fear of disruption had prompted the authorities to stage the match behind closed doors, barring entry to fans. (Even then, hundreds of raucous protesters showed up outside the city’s iconic Hampden Park stadium, and one managed to delay the kickoff by sneaking inside and chaining himself to a goal post.)

Soccer in an empty stadium, as the COVID lockdown era reminded us, is a pale shadow of the spectacle that makes it the world’s premier (and most lucrative) TV viewing.

A sports boycott is no silver bullet to end Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza or its long-term denial of Palestinian rights. But a conditional ban on competing internationally in a sport with broad social popularity can destabilize the offending regime’s own sense of legitimacy by highlighting for ordinary citizens the abnormality of their reality in the eyes of the world.

The Risk Of Disruption Is Clear in Israel’s scheduled matches against Mali, Paraguay, and Japan during the Paris Olympics and European Nations League fixtures that see the Israelis play in Belgium, Italy, and France in the fall.

The Scottish players’ refusal to shake hands with Israel’s also signals that many players are beginning to break the silence imposed by federations, leagues, and owners on making statements deemed political.

Dissident player expressions of support for the Palestinians aren’t new. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Moroccan players celebrated their Cinderella run to the semifinals by brandishing Palestinian flags in a powerful symbolic rebuke to normalization of ties with Israel by their own and other Arab governments.

The Gaza offensive saw many more players step forward to express solidarity, some at great cost such as Dutch-Moroccan forward Anwar El Ghazi, whose contract was terminated by the German club Mainz (a move even the German courts have now deemed illegal) after he resisted pressure to back down from tweets supporting Palestinian freedom.

But the tide seems to be turning. The recent “All Eyes on Rafah” viral phenomenon was reposted by a number of the game’s biggest names, including Arsenal’s William Saliba, Barcelona’s João Cancelo, Paris St. Germain’s Ousmane Dembélé, Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson, Atalanta’s Gianluca Scamacca, AC Milan’s Rafael Leão, Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram, 2023 women’s Ballon D’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí, BBC broadcaster and England icon Gary Lineker, and many more.

With growing numbers of players uncomfortable or outraged at maintaining normal sporting relations with a country committing daily war crimes, sports federations are likely to face a growing headache.

Fans have power, also—they’re an essential part of the chemistry that makes soccer the premier global TV spectacle, and inside a stadium, they can’t easily be silenced or pacified. When the rapper Macklemore spoke out for Palestinian rights at a concert in Mönchengladbach, Germany, he was breaking the bizarre German taboo on plain speaking about Israel. “To atone for our past is by today standing up against apartheid, against occupation, against genocide—for free Palestine,” he declared, to rapturous applause from 19,000 people.

There’s a precedent of course: the global anti-apartheid sports boycott that had a significant psychological impact on the morale of the white social base of the South African regime.

In 1981, A Mass Protest Campaign Successfully Disrupted the 1981 Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand, which led to South Africa’s banning from all international competition. Rugby had been the apartheid regime’s game of choice, in which its international prowess was an immense source of pride.

The conservative International Rugby Board—dominated by the federations of Britain and its former settler colonies—had resisted mounting pressure to exclude South Africa. But in 1981, the Halt All Racist Tours movement rallied tens of thousands of citizens to protest and disrupt matches, even physically forcing the cancellation of one of the early games.

For South Africans fighting apartheid it was an inspiring symbol of international solidarity—Nelson Mandela once recalled feeling it as a moment of “the sun coming out” when news reached him in prison on Robben Island of a Springbok match canceled because of protests in New Zealand. And for young people in white homes, it was the first inkling that the social system most white South Africans treated as normal was, in fact, intolerable to those they might deem peers elsewhere.

Referencing an earlier boycott campaign against a rugby tour of the U.K., South African writer Donald McRae wrote: “I was an eight-year-old boy living near Johannesburg when that tour ended and it was the first time I realised the outside world hated South Africa … it needed the sports protests and eventual boycotts to force boys like me to wonder what was wrong with our country.”

The New Zealand disruptions finally forced the IRB to act, banning South Africa from international competition later that year—a ban that remained in place until the apartheid regime had capitulated and set South Africa on the road to democracy, with the restoration of its place in international rugby also being deployed as a powerful incentive to the old regime’s base to embrace the transition to majority rule.

Attempts at disruption are likely to increase the headache facing soccer administrators scheduling matches involving Israel. South Africa showed that an effective sports boycott can take years of grassroots activism to muster, and years more to focus the minds of the targeted population on the need to change course. International sports federations had to be forced by the disruptive pressure of grassroots civil society activism to take action; their default was to ignore what they see as an unwelcome intrusion of “politics” into their business.

Although soccer may not be the source of national pride that rugby was for South Africa (Israel’s national teams and clubs simply aren’t top-tier competitors), involvement in European competitions has become key part of the normalcy experienced by millions of Israelis even as their state keeps their Palestinian neighbors shackled in a brutal apartheid regime.

As their country continues to conduct daily mass civilian killings in Gaza and deploy starvation as a weapon of war, Israeli fans can look forward to their national and club teams joining international competitions in the fall. Ordinary Israelis may be able to convince themselves that the protests on the streets and campuses of Western capitals represent a Hamas-aligned radical fringe, but if such pillars of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “civilized world” as FIFA and UEFA were to kick it out, the blow would penetrate the iron-dome of imagined legitimacy that sanctifies Israel’s brutality.

Legitimacy in Western eyes has always been a singular Israeli obsession. It is that eternal quest for reassurance that its status and actions are deemed legitimate among the community of Western nations of which it imagines itself part that makes Israel especially vulnerable, as apartheid South Africa was because of similar settler-colonial origins, to the withholding of that legitimacy.

This vulnerability may be even more pronounced in the soccer sphere, because of Israel’s accession to the European federation, UEFA, in 1994. Before that, Israel had played under the auspices of the Asian confederation—though it hadn’t actually played very much, because of a decades-long boycott by Arab and Muslim countries. Acceptance as part of UEFA allowed it to qualify for the World Cup and regional tournaments against European opponents, it also meant Israeli club teams competing in the Champions League and other UEFA competitions. Israel had finally been welcomed into the sport’s “civilized world.”

The impact of the more successful current BDS efforts—boycotts of Israeli consumer products or divestment by college endowments—hardly penetrate the consciousness of most ordinary Israelis. The bans and sanctions announced by the U.S. and European governments targeting a handful of the more militant leaders of Israel’s vast state-sponsored system of illegal settlements in the West Bank barely even register as the equivalent of a parking ticket. While a growing number of musicians are refusing to perform in Israel, enough still show up to avoid Israelis feeling a more pervasive sense of missing out.

That’s what happened to apartheid South Africa’s ruling community, in their game of choice, world rugby. Like so many of today’s Jewish Israelis, most white South Africans had precious little idea of how abnormal their system was in the eyes of global civil society.

The withdrawal of legitimacy symbolized by a boycott is most powerful when it happens suddenly, kicking away a prop of a regime’s self-image. FIFA seemed aware of this in 2014 when, in response to Russia annexing Crimea, it warned Moscow that including teams from occupied territory in its domestic league program—a direct violation of FIFA statutes—would result in Russia losing hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup. A move which temporarily slowed Russian incorporation of Crimean-based teams. And the 2022 invasion of Ukraine earned Russia a swift red card despite the disruptions caused to that year’s World Cup program.

Israel, of course, violates the same statute as Russia would have if it had allowed Crimean teams into its domestic league. According to FIFA’s own regulations, this should be an open and shut case. FIFA recognizes and has Palestine compete in its competitions; the Israeli Football Association includes teams from illegal settlements in the area recognized by FIFA as under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian FA (including Beitar Ma’ale Adumim, Hapoel Bik’at HaYarden and Beitar Ironi Ariel), but no action has been taken.

Lobbying FIFA from the top, of course, requires persuading institutions that are not exactly transparent or accountable, making it easier for Israel and its allies to leverage political and economic power in their favor to avoid sanction.

As the South African example shows, institutions won’t act until the consequences of not acting become too costly to absorb. Fan pressure forcing the Glasgow match to be played behind closed doors demonstrated the power to make clear to authorities that inviting Israel invites disruption, and the potential “chaos” FIFA cited as its reason for banning Russia.

The South African sports boycott was based on the principle that there could be no normal sport in (or with) an abnormal society. The impact of cutting Israel off from international competition will be to show millions of ordinary Israelis that the world does not accept the behavior of their state as normal or acceptable.

— Daniel Levy is President of the U.S./Middle East Project and served as an Israeli peace negotiator at the Oslo-B talks under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Taba negotiations under Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

— Tony Karon is the editorial lead of AJ+, the Al Jazeera social media brand. Born and raised in South Africa, where he was active in the anti-apartheid movement, he also teaches at the New School in New York City.

[scottishdreams]

SWPL: Champions Celtic host Dundee United in season opener - BBC Sport

Dundee ^ | The Celtic will begin their defence of the Scottish Women's Premier League title at home to Dundee United as the 2024/25 fixtures are confirmed. http://dlvr.it/T8sb5j

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.11 (before 1970)

491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. 1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. 1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferrarese forces led by Gaston de Foix and Alfonso I d'Este win the Battle of Ravenna against the Papal-Spanish forces. 1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: A French army defeats Habsburg forces at the Battle of Ceresole, but fails to exploit its victory. 1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Great Britain on the same day that the Scottish Parliament concurs with the English decision of 12 February. 1713 – France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Utrecht, bringing an end to the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War). Britain accepts Philip V as King of Spain, while Philip renounces any claim to the French throne. 1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony (now Germany). 1809 – Battle of the Basque Roads: Admiral Lord Gambier fails to support Captain Lord Cochrane, leading to an incomplete British victory over the French fleet. 1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time. 1856 – Second Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaría burns down the hostel where William Walker's filibusters are holed up. 1868 – Former shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. 1876 – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized. 1881 – Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women. 1908 – SMS Blücher, the last armored cruiser to be built by the Imperial German Navy, is launched. 1909 – The city of Tel Aviv is founded. 1921 – Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan. 1935 – Stresa Front: opening of the conference between the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, the Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and the French Minister for Foreign Affairs Pierre Laval to condemn the German violations of the Treaty of Versailles. 1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp. 1951 – Korean War: President Truman relieves Douglas MacArthur of the command of American forces in Korea and Japan. 1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey. 1952 – Bolivian National Revolution: Rebels take over Palacio Quemado. 1952 – Pan Am Flight 526A ditches near San Juan-Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after experiencing an engine failure, killing 52 people. 1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang. 1957 – United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule. 1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem. 1963 – Pope John XXIII issues Pacem in terris, the first encyclical addressed to all Christians instead of only Catholics, and which described the conditions for world peace in human terms. 1964 – Brazilian Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco is elected president by the National Congress. 1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-five tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states of the United States, killing 266 people. 1968 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. 1968 – A failed assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, leader of the German student movement, leaves Dutschke suffering from brain damage.

[joeyvimsantepoet]

Cross Border Football Cups

How about Saudi Arabia fund a cross border club trophy with teams from Saudi Arabia, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, North America, Africa and other Euripean nations? Saudi Arabia has wealth, but Scotland has intense passionate supporters. Clubs like Glasgow Celtic, Aberdeen, Glasgow Rangers, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee, and Dundee United could bring passionate games and lore to Saudi soccer.How about cross border cups for Scottish football. I say a good way for Scottish football to improve is to have cross border trophies on top of domestic and European football.There are an entire host of ideas that could happen. Bring back the Anglo Scottish Cup.Change the Scottish Premiership to a 16 team 30 game league. Then have extra cross border cups.Ideas could include a North Atlantic League Cup. With the top four to 8 SPFL clubs playing a group stage trophy with teams from Europe, Asia, or Africa, or North America, or Saudi Arabia.

The Scottish allow Welsh and Northern Ireland club sides in the Scottish Challenge Cup.The Scottish and Welsh Rugby clubs travel to places like South Africa, and Italy. And UEFA soccer has seen Scottish sides travel to Central Asia. So football clubs could travel 5 or 8 times a year to the USA, or Africa.In UEFA trophies Scottish and Welsh sides have been to Central Asia.

Other ideas could include having all Scottish Premiership sides not in Europe, plus selected Welsh Cymru Premier club sides, and perhaps North West French sides in the Football League Trophy.

There could easily be 16 teams added to the EFL Trophy with a little reorganisation of the trophy to add the new sides.Perhaps all Scots Championsip sides, Welsh Cymru Premier sides, and some North Western French sides in the non-league FA Trophy.Or Celtic Nations Club Cup of Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Ulster, Cornish, Cumbria, Brittany, Isle of Man and Yorkshire club sides.

Perhaps leading Scottish, Irish, Swiss, Polish, Danish, Swedish, French, Dutch, Belgian or German sides invited as guests into the English FA Cup, or English League Cup, this could also be done in the English Football women's domestic cups.

I do not support merging the British leagues, as people would wrongly think Scotland was part of England. And all the Scottish trophies in history would be relegated to the status of lower tier trophies. While all the English trophies would be seen as forerunners of the British trophies. So Scottish clubs would be seen to be reset as having won ZERO trophies. Also 30 trips into England a year might be too much but 4 to 8 times a year would keep it a novelty and highlight of the season.We need Pan-Great Britain Cups on top of domestic and European football.If we had a British League a club like Dundee could make 20 trips year of up to 700 miles. That would be too tough. It has to be at a manageable number of games.

Joey Vimsante, North Wales, Great Britain.

[news-locus]

Celtic's Caitlin Hayes named Scottish Women's Premier League player of the month for December | Football News | Sky Sports

[neyatimes]

Rachel Rowe: Wales international joins Rangers after Reading exit

Rachel Rowe scored in successive games for Wales in April Wales international Rachel Rowe has joined Scottish Women’s Premier League side Rangers. Rowe, 30, announced her departure from Reading last month following their relegation from the Women’s Super League. The versatile Rowe has scored five times in 57 Wales appearances, including in successive games in April. “It feels amazing, it is a…

[youblogzz]

Hibernian vs Hearts: Behind the scenes at the Jambos ahead of the SWPL Edinburgh derby | Video | Watch TV Show

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player We go behind the scenes at Hearts training ahead of the Edinburgh derby at Hibs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, live on Sky Sports. #Hibernian #Hearts #scenes #Jambos #ahead #SWPL #Edinburgh #derby #Video #Watch #Show