Held at the African Union headquarters on 19 and 20 May, this is the latest in a series of such seminars as FIFA works to implement a global licensing system, [...] “Through these seminars, we are seeking to extend our club licensing initiatives by sharing best practices with the goal of improving the standards of professional football and developing the game on the African continent. These efforts are at the heart of FIFA’s mission.”

Soccer could provide a vehicle to improve China’s soft power and succeed where previous attempts have struggled. [...] There are two standout advantages soccer has over other mediums of soft power for China. One is football’s global resonance and accessibility. [...]  Another plus is that relative to the arts or education, there is less opportunity for the product to be diminished due to interference from the state as soccer does not actively communicate a message beyond the realm of sport. 

China's economic growth has begun to flatten out, so it has sought to evolve from manufacturing to service. And professional soccer [...] is a service. In a country newly rich and besotted by Western luxury goods, the sport has become a paradigm of sorts for embracing and importing foreign commodities. Only in this case, those commodities aren't yachts or Ivy League educations, but rather soccer players.

The wave of huge spending is China's latest step in its bid to become a global soccer power. With the backing of President Xi Jinping, an avowed soccer fan, and no shortage of investment money, the country has the political will and naked ambition to propel soccer into a starring role on the world stage.

The North Korean women’s soccer team arrived in Japan on Thursday for Olympic qualifying matches in what Tokyo called “an exception” to its entry ban imposed over Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear weapons test and a rocket launch.

The Ethiopian Football Federation and representatives of one of America's leading professional women's soccer teams, the Seattle Reign, met today in Addis Adaba and took the first steps in forging a strategic partnership aimed at forging international linkages and strengthening Ethiopian women's soccer. 

Following a dizzying sequence of events, including the Saudi execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr together with 46 others, the storming of the Saudi Embassy and the breakdown of diplomatic relations, Saudi Arabia and Iran have expanded their fight to the soccer pitch. Several Saudi clubs […] issued statements [...] demanding that they play Asian championship matches against Iranian squads at neutral venues.

In the small, isolated town of Timbiquí, located on the banks of one of the many winding rivers in Colombia’s Pacific region, there isn’t much for kids to do. [...] To try to counter this, USAID’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program (ACIP), in partnership with Fundación Tiempo de Juego, is implementing a powerful tool: the soccer ball.