So long overdue…best news out of Old Trafford in weeks!

Nice piece from Samantha Lewis on football in DPR Korea ahead of their Olympic qualifier against Japan next week:

Deer musk glands, fake fans, and forbidden friends — inside the North Korean women's national team

abc.net.au/news/2024-02-1…

Fascinating details in this The Asian Game piece from Behnam Jafarzadeh about the relationship between Iran and Japan. Insightful stuff.

And that is the 1,000th goal in AFC Asian Cup history - quite apt that it was scored by Hong Kong, China, who also scored the first ever goal in tournament history on 1 September 1956 through Au Chi Yin! Full circle. #AsianCup2023

🏅 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 has nominated for the #ASCMediaAwards in the category of '𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩' for our coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

📱💻🎧📽️ Across social, editorial, audio and video - what a three weeks it was!

COMMENT: What #SaudiArabia can learn from #China in its quest to become a football super power

#SaudiProLeague

Michael Church

thenationalnews.com/sport/football…

So Larne Football Club this happened a little earlier…

Argentina celebrations in the mixed zone

Vince Rugari doesn't see much hope for the #ALeague ..
'The outcome of the past week is that the #ALeague is completely broken, and all trust in the #APL is gone. The repair job is now certainly beyond them.'

smh.com.au/sport/soccer/o…

Wishing the only two teams to beat us at the #FIFAWorldCup all the best in the Final 😉

#Socceroos #Qatar2022

Podcast out now! Michael Church from The Asian Game joins the show to review Asia's Group Stage success.

Then simonhill1894 and John Kosmina look ahead to the Subway Socceroos vs Argentina.

From 9pm AEDT on SEN!

Live - bit.ly/3mLqwhu

PODCAST - apple.co/3MPydhK

🌏🏆 #KOR have kicked off their final group stage match against #POR . Can they also seal a spot in the Round of 16?

📽️ Paul Williams & Michael Church are at Education City Stadium for all the action.

🇮🇷 🆚 🇺🇸

It's one of the most anticipated matches of this FIFA World Cup, but 2⃣4⃣ years ago it was something else altogether.

Michael Church was there and recounts that memorable night in Lyon.

theasiangame.net/you-have-to-wi…

I take it back.

John Barnes is one of the realist.

If football isn't really the point of this World Cup, what is? For this week's Sunday Times, I looked at the power politics and lavish status olympics taking place behind the scenes in Doha.

It involved combining hummus with caviar.

thetimes.co.uk/article/9a8a51…

Some people still refusing to see this, so decided to track it. Within a minute, there was this: close-up shots of Canadian and Croatian fans on BBC/international feed, replaced by a solo shot of Canadian coach John Herdman on CCTV.

At Belgium-Morocco as at all games I’ve been at, the fans ignore the truly appalling stadium announcers’ attempts to create “atmosphere”. FIFA can’t see that the fans are the atmosphere. Announcers also seem to target people with mental age of six

Thank you for supporting us today, we want a full Lusail Stadium on Wednesday! We’re not finished yet! 🇸🇦

📺 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇

📽️ 𝑫𝒐𝒉𝒂 𝑫𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒚 is back again with Scott McIntyre, Michael Church & Paul Williams!

🌆 From Doha's Corniche, we talk about 🇯🇵 サッカー日本代表 🇯🇵's stunning win and look ahead to 🇰🇷 theKFA's opening game against Uruguay.

youtu.be/AZDxAmw0Q34