
Soccer’s Financial Crisis Could Transform Leagues Forever
Private equity’s power may eliminate promotion and relegation.

Women Athletes Subjected to ‘Sex Testing’ are Faced With Impossible Choices
The cases of Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand shed light on the invasive medical procedures endured by intersex athletes around the world.

Tokyo Wants the Olympics to Happen Even if the Public Doesn’t
The Japanese government is locked into what critics call a misguided project.

Red Card for Emirati Royal’s Soccer Diplomacy?
A peculiar deal that symbolized the entente between Israel and the UAE could get nixed.

Maradona, Soccer’s Brilliant, Troubled Superstar, Dead at 60
The Argentine legend is remembered both for his on-field prowess and his off-field political activism, especially in Latin America.

Culture Shock
Eight voices on the future of entertainment, culture, and sports.

America Has a National Guard. France Has National Riot Police.
The United States can use either community police or the military to oversee protests and quell riots—but does it need something in between?

The Last Great Race
Climate change has altered Alaska’s landscape, and the experiences of Arctic mushers are the canary in the coal mine.

Japan Hopes for a Post-Coronavirus Olympics
The cancellation is another blow to a battered economy as virus numbers creep up.

Mourning the Olympics and All the Celebrations We’re Losing to the Pandemic
Especially in times like these, it's OK to feel for everyone whose milestone events have been canceled or postponed.

Kobe Bryant Was the United States’ Best Ambassador in China
The basketball legend’s death was bigger than virus news in a country that loved him.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Has Met His Match
Turkey’s soccer-obsessed president is engaging in a last-ditch effort to help his party hold on to power in Istanbul. Can Ekrem Imamoglu beat him at his own game?

Transnistria Isn’t the Smuggler’s Paradise It Used to Be
The separatist territory sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine has long thrived on porous frontiers and Russian backing, but Kiev has changed its tune and might be dragging it back toward the West.

Scott Morrison Won Australia’s Election Against All Odds. It Shouldn’t Have Come as a Surprise.
The Australian Labor Party made the same mistakes that have led to failure for center-left leaders across the globe—and the right is reaping the benefits.

Don’t Blame Soccer’s ‘Jewish’ Teams for Anti-Semitism
Hateful chants were notably absent when Tottenham played Ajax—but opponents of the two self-proclaimed Jewish teams routinely pelt them with neo-Nazi slogans.

Beijing’s Olympics Paved the Way for Xinjiang’s Camps
The 2008 games were supposed to help liberalize China. Instead the party learned it could get away with anything.

FIFA Cares About Cash, Not Players
By allowing a refugee soccer player to remain stranded in Thailand, soccer’s governing body is scoring another own goal.

Mission Impossible: Inside the Dramatic Cave Rescue of a Thai Soccer Team
Two U.S. special operations airmen recall the ordeal.