FIFA President Causes International Soccer Controversy
Can you imagine a sports world in which the number of foreigners on a team is limited? Sports like American football would still get on fine because nearly all of its professional players are US citizens but leagues like the NHL and MLB who have many foreign players would be decimated. This is exactly the kind of world that Sepp Blatter, the controversial president of FIFA, soccer’s governing body is trying to create. Blatter is no stranger to controversy; he suggested in 2004 that women’s soccer would get more followers if the women “wore tighter shorts.” Corruption accusations stemming from Blatter’s presidential election have also popped up in recent years.
Blatter has bent the rules in the past, especially when he succeeded in banning international soccer games from being played at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level. This ludicrous ban was protested by many South American countries especially Bolivia who’s capital La Paz is 3600 meters above sea level. The rule was suspended by FIFA in 2008. The altitude ban suspension was seen as a major setback for him personally. With that in mind Blatter then turned his thoughts toward a foreign player restriction. Blatter’s new brainchild is called the “6+5” rule. This rule stipulates that of a team’s 11 starters, only 5 can come from a foreign country. For example, a team in the English Premier League must have 6 English starters for every game. Read more
The Winners and Losers of 2008
By Thomas Wrenn
HOPE - If you listened to CNBC in 2008 you would swear the sky was falling. Yet somehow Americans for the first time in awhile seem honestly excited about the prospect of change and the idea of a bright future. Using something as nebulous as ‘hope’ might seem a bit cheap. But this country is basically split down the middle between the left and right. Half of those people have been subject to far right failed policies for 8 years. The idea of having their voice heard and the country taken in a better direction has managed to shed a small spot of light in a year that would otherwise be best forgotten quickly.
Fox News and Sheriff Arpaio - It’s hard to say between Fox News and Sheriff Arpaio who is more “down”. My vote is for Arpaio. In a community service position that is usually characterized by humility and a desire to be out of the lime light, he has embraced it and probably embellished the character that Fox News created. We can only hope the spotlight and his own vanity will ultimately be his undoing. Read more
Racism Alive and Well in Spanish Football
In February 2009 the English national football team is slated to play Spain in a high-profile exhibition match. The match was originally to be played in Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium home of Real Madrid. However, the last time England and Spain locked horns at the Bernabau stadium in 2005; the black players on England’s team were subjected to racist abuse by sections of the crowd. Because of this incident the governing body for football in England, the FA, is recommending that the game not be held there again.
At that game England’s players warmed up wearing anti-racist t-shirts but that did not stop the racist jeers. Every time a black English player touched the ball, sections of the crowd would boo loudly and some fans directed monkey chants towards them. Read more
Racism Rears Its Ugly Head In British Football
In September of this year, in an English Premier League game between Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell was subjected to racist and homophobic chants by the traveling Tottenham fans. Campbell, one of the best defenders in the league over the past 16 years, has been abused constantly since 2001 when he left Tottenham to play for their arch rivals, Arsenal. Read more
2016: Chicago’s Olympic Dream, Do They Deserve It?
In June of 2008, the International Olympic Committee (ICO) announced that Chicago was one of its 4 finalists to host the 2016 games. The US has not hosted an Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta and many are hoping for a return in 2016.
Chicago’s bid was thought to be behind in the running, trailing Madrid and Tokyo, but Obama’s victory could swing the tide in Chicago’s favor. The big question is does Chicago deserve to host the games? Read more
Lewis Hamilton: Victory in the Face of Racism
In June 2007, Lewis Hamilton made history by becoming the first black driver to win a Formula 1 race. A little more than a year later Hamilton drove his way into the history books again in dramatic style. Hamilton’s last gasp win in the final race of the season in Brazil won him his first Formula 1 Driver’s Championship. Hamilton’s win shocked the F1 world and delighted fans in his home country of England.
But for some fans Hamilton’s victory was not met with joy. Fans in Spain were especially bitter with Hamilton’s victory because of his feud with Spanish driver and former McLaren teammate, Fernando Alonso. Read more
Fueled by Rice (part one)
Last weekend, Chicago hosted an international group of athletes in the Chicago Marathon. Runners from Kenya, Russia, Japan, Ethiopia and other countries all competed in the 30 km race. Meanwhile, half way across the world, a group of “amateur bicyclists” (read: recent college grads) from the United States are starting to end their international journey of over 10,000 miles. The meager group of five, calling themselves Fueled By Rice (FBR), have spent the last year cycling through a significant chunk of the Northern Hemisphere.
Promoting cultural understanding, peace, and sustainability, FBRs seem to spend most of their time familiarizing themselves with native peoples of each of the countries they visit. Thirsting for more than geography lessons and UN statistics, they have managed to paint a global narrative filled with faces and personal interactions, all documented through their blog. Read more
Defections Continue to Hurt Cuban Soccer
This week, 2 Cuban soccer players defected from their national team while on world cup qualifying duty in Washington DC. Cuba has now lost 12 players to defection since 2002. Nearly all of the stories are the same: the players talk to family or friends in the US before they come, flea the team hotel before or after the game, and start looking for a place to play in the States. By law, if a Cuban national steps foot in the United States can claim asylum and after a year can legally claim residency. Cuban TV accused the players of betraying their unity and “giving into the temptations of the empires money.” In recent history we have seen Cuban’s from many different sporting fields (most notably baseball) defecting to the United States in the hopes of making it big. But in the soccer world this is a new and growing situation. Read more
The Grisly Truth Behind Soccer Ball Manufacturing
In a country like India where half of the population lives below the line of poverty, it seems to be pretty easy for big companies to exploit the inhabitants. Each year millions of soccer balls are produced and distributed to nations all over the globe, mostly from third world to first. Although India isn’t anywhere near being the primary exporter of soccer balls, it has still managed to draw a lot of attention to the industry. A recent report on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel exposed the brutal conditions children endure while producing this common sports item.
Soccer ball manufacturing generally starts at the contractor’s factory where the pieces of leather are printed and cut into small segments. Most of the time those materials are then assembled at the same factory, packaged, and sent to the retailer. However, in some cases the raw materials are packed and handed to middlemen who distribute them to local families, and this is when this situation becomes troublesome. Read more
Another Chapter to the Eternal Struggle
Last night, the Chicago Cubs added another interesting chapter to their year and their long struggle against the powers that be. Painted all year long as the team that was capable of going all the way to the World Series, the Cubs showed their true colors last night.
With their illustrious ace Carlos Zambrano taking the mound, the Cubs felt a little less pressure than perhaps they should have going into Game 2. Zambrano cruised through the first inning but hit a brick wall in the second as the infield of the Cubs completely folded. As a result, the Dodgers scored five runs in the inning catapulting them to a commanding lead in the game and the series. Read more
The ‘Proximity Effected’ Fan
Many people like rooting for a sports team because of the proximity effect; they live in or near a city and therefore feel the need to root for that team. This, I believe, is possibly one of the stupidest reasons to root for a team.
I must preface this article by saying that I live in a major metropolitan city with two professional teams on the verge of heading to the playoffs and I hate one and feel indifferent to the other. I am a fan of one of these team’s rivals which often results in me getting perturbed looks and jabs. Aside from maybe rooting for a team because they have cute or likable players (i.e. many Yankees “fans” rooting for the team because of how nice Derek Jeter is or how hot A-Rod looks in his uniform), the proximity effect is just about the laziest reason to root for a particular team. Read more
SPORTS: United through Disaster
The world of sports has found itself between a rock and a hard place. With the landfall of Hurricane Ike, expected to be this weekend, numerous high school, college, and professional sports teams have been forced to postpone, cancel or relocate their games.
At least five college football games have been forced to make adjustments to their plans. Three high school football games have been affected by the hurricane, with one read more
Olympic Coverage Marred by Media Bias
A few days ago an Associated Press article caught my attention. It told the inspiring story of Henry Cejudo and his road to Olympic Gold. It’s a powerful story - determined young man rises from poverty, fights the odds, and becomes the best. Unfortunately the read more
MLB baseball is a-changing
This week Major League Baseball approved the use of instant replay. Some may see this decision as a way of updating a sport that has defied the use of current technology for years. When the NFL began using instant replays in 1999 it was questioned by many. But today it seems to be widely accepted and praised. The same may be true for baseball, once the initial steps of implementing the system are through.
Old baseball players, analysts, and nostalgic “purists” may believe that the use of instant replay will be terrible for the read more
Anti-Latino Bias Reaches American Professional Sports
However you’d like to refer to the game, be it soccer, football, or fútbol there’s only one thing you need to know. I love everything about it. I treasure those moments when new acquaintances question me about my love for soccer so that I can quote legendary English soccer coach Bill Shankly who said of the game “Some people believe read more
The Olympics: Purebreds and Nationalism
I was recently at a bar and looked up to find the Olympics on the television hanging on the wall. I don’t remember ever going into a bar before and seeing the Olympic games, not only on the television, but actually being watched by a good amount of people. Perhaps I’ve just not been in the types of bars that were watching previous Olympics, but I certainly thought it was an interesting sight.
A CBS sports columnist, Gregg Doyel, recently went off on a huge rant about how players read more
SPORTS: US and Them
Many people have argued that globalization is a negative thing for the job market. One such argument against globalization is that the increase in competition of labor allows for citizens of other nations to be hired by a company instead of hiring a citizen within that company’s native country. Another argument that people have is that it is not right for someone to come from a poorer nation to go to a richer nation and earn a higher wage only to send it back to their native land.
This is an interesting argument when you think about it in the world of sports. A fellow blogger of mine (Jill G) wrote read more
When it’s More than Just a Game
Cubs fans are on a rampage, literally. This week featured two stories of fans taking a baseball game a little too seriously. On June 19, a Chicago White Sox fan was beaten by three Chicago Cubs fans, resulting in the Sox fan losing his right eye. Then on June 30 three Chicago Cubs fans were accused of beating up a Milwaukee Brewers fan. While the circumstances for each case should be looked into, I’d rather like to look into the nature of rivalries themselves. But instead of looking at all rivalries, I would like to focus on one city: New read more
Dominating the World one Gold Medal at a time
The obsession that some people have over the Olympics confuses me. I am not anti-American, but sometimes I wonder if people are rooting for the American team for the right reasons.
Allow me to digress.
Occasionally I run into people that I read more
Chicago’s Hometown Heroes
I was born and raised in the Chicago-area. I grew up going to Cubs games with my dad, and playing catch in the backyard. I spent most of my childhood in a suburb where one enjoyed the best of the city and ignored the worst.
The worst was the segregation, poverty, and police brutality. I heard about it, but I never saw it. It wasn’t until I was read more
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