The 2020 Chinese Super League season was supposed to begin on Feb. 22 but was indefinitely postponed back in January because of the coronavirus outbreak. More recently, there’d been speculation that the new season could start in the coming weeks after locally transmitted cases reached zero, but the country could now face a second wave of the pandemic from people entering China from abroad.

With the new Swedish Allsvenskan season usually kicking off at the end of March, it’s become an annual spring tradition for Stockholm-based club AIK to drop a special edition jersey that harkens back to its founding in 1891.

The last couple years have been blackout kits that’ve been celebrated around the globe, but this time around, AIK and Nike have elected for all white on the night. 

When your team rolls up for its Sunday morning match, are you a ramshackle collection of ratty T-shirts, 2000s Premier League jerseys and some barbarian asking if anyone brought extra socks? Do you even warmup or did no one bother to bring a ball again? 

What if you could solve all that by being outfitted with full team uniforms (jerseys, shorts, socks), training gear, footballs, a manager’s jacket and a carrier bag for it all? Well that’s exactly what Umbro wants to do for you.

MLS is mainstream, what else is there to say? Superstar rapper Aminé recently returned from a year-long music hiatus with his new song “Shimmy” and an accompanying music video featuring everything Portland. Of course Providence Park couldn't be left out of the Aminé "Shimmy" video.

On Thursday, Feb. 27, FC Bayern Munich celebrates its 120th anniversary. It was on that date back in 1900 that photographer Franz John and 11 other men decided to found the club before playing their first competitive match that spring, defeating FC Nordstern 15-0. 

That domestic dominance has continued to this day with a record 29 Bundesliga titles and 19 DFB-Pokal victories to go along with five triumphs in the Champions League.

It used to be a common sight in football, particularly if you had Arsenal on the television and midfield enforcer Patrick Vieira was out there crunching people: a gobshite stain between the nips of players that was actually a hearty application of Vicks VapoRub.

There was a common misconception that the lovely bit of goo was actually mucus, which is a decent enough shout given footballers’ love for blowing delicious snot rockets.

Good morning snot rocket pic.twitter.com/hiIl2hC9Jp

Nike has unveiled its 2020 jerseys for the USA, Nigeria and South Korea, and there’s a lot to like here. We’ll start with the U.S., which includes the implementation of the Nike Futura logo on the jerseys, shorts and socks (it’s the old-school version of the Swoosh with “NIKE” printed above it). We all love the Futura logo.

It’s just over a week (Wednesday, Feb. 5) until MLS reveals its new jerseys for the 2020 season. As part of the league’s historic 25th Season Celebration, the new kits will be unveiled in advance of New York City’s Fashion Week and feature a commemorative design that’s integrated throughout MLS.

On Jan. 21, 2019, Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala passed away after his plane heading for Cardiff went down in the English Channel. 

The 28-year-old was headed to Wales after his former club FC Nantes and Cardiff City agreed to a $20 million transfer for the striker. His body was recovered from the wreckage, but the pilot and only other person on the plane, David Ibbotson, was not found.

There’s no going back. Soccer no longer relies on its history, tradition and tribal lines for meaning. While those aspects are still appreciated, they are now the means to an end defined by business, industry and global reach — and there’s always so much more to be done on that front. That’s the monster of commercialization.