Soccer Games returning to Iraq?

With all the safety issues that exist in a war stricken nation like Iraq, FIFA made a bold move and banned the nation from holding home qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup and 2012 Olympics. Now, according to a report from the associated press, the Iraqi Football Association will plead its case to FIFA that the nation will be able to handle any and all security issues that should arise. Another reason that forced the ban on games being played in Iraq was due to an unexpected power outage that suspended play in a game between Iraq and Jordan back in september. In the report by the associated press this "power outage" was highlighted as the main reason that games were banned from Iraq. I find that a little fishy and contribute more to the fact that FIFA is worried about protecting its fans and the integrity of the sport. Especially with all the riots and unneccessary acts of violence that have occurred at international soccer events of the past year like the Egyptian soccer riot that killed 73. I feel in light of acts of this nature occurring in other nations, FIFA should use some regression when deciding to ban soccer games from any particular country. Especially, since soccer in Arabic nations is a important part of those nations culture and causes unrest amongst the people that could in turn cause acts of violence. Also using the power outage of the Jordan game as an underlier to a much bigger issue like security was very poor judgement by FIFA. The fact that they would even consider doing something of this nature makes me question the integrity of this committee. It is my hopes that FIFA will become wiser in light of this situation and allow soccer games to once again be played in Iraq.

~Max Householder

IFA emblem. (photo from Google pics)

                                                                       

Aussie Rules legend dies at 45

    By: Max Householder
    Although they are not soccer, both Aussie Rules and Rugby are two of the most well known international sports of our time. That is why when a legend from either of these two sports dies, there is no doubt that it will be front page news. And that is exactly what happened on Tuesday when one of Aussie Rules greatest players Jim Stynes passed away. Jim Stynes was a brave soul who had been battling cancer for a number of years and endured months of agonizing treatment and surgeries to remove tumors in his brain. Stynes was an Irish born fellow, Dublin to be exact, who according to the chinapost.com was recruited by the Australian Football League (AFL) of Melbourne Australia in the mid 1980's. He was without a doubt a living legend in the sport who while playing for the Melbourne Demons was able to win the sport's highest honor; that being the Brownlow medal in 1991. Also according to the chinapost.com he still holds the AFL record for consecutive games played (244) over an 11 year span; that making him the Brett Favre of Aussie Rules.

    I thought it was surprising to read on the many worldwide news websites that covered his death just how much of a spokesman he was for Aussie Rules even in Ireland his country of birth. In fact in 2008 when he took over as the Melbourne Chairman he helped one of the oldest AFL clubs in the Melbourne Demons(his former team) from going bankrupt and helped them regain financial stability. This just goes to show how truly loyal he was to the team and sport that made him ever so popular. It also makes me think that although we have iconic sports figures here in America, none do as much to help the game as players like Jim Stynes do for international sports. I feel that maybe if we were more open to making popular American Sports like football bigger internationally than it would allow us to not only enhance the game but to help us gain a better reputation worldwide.

Aussie Rules legend Jim Stynes passed away Tuesday from  his long fight with cancer.
Photo taken from an article on the AFL's website

     

Stereotypes in Soccer?

When people think about international soccer or soccer in general, the primary ethnicity that they assess with the sport is hispanic. Whether we like it or not their is still racial profiling or stacking  that occurs, a lot of the times in sport. We see it in many popular American sports where African Americans are the dominant ethnicity. This, however does not influence the idea that minorities such as African Americans and latinos deserve any more respect it is a way to sell tickets. I recently read an article on fox news that said how Major League Soccer(MLS) had a desire to have hispanics be the cornerstones of the league. In fact of the 19 teams in the league, their are 78 players total who come from some type of hispanic ethnicity. One quote I thought was interesting in the article was by Alfonso Mondelo who is director of player development for the MLS who said that the reason behind this move to more Latin based players is the fact that those players are the most skillful. I think in a way he is being stereotypical in that he feels that all Latino players are more skill focused than being physical and that everyone else is just the opposite. Its the same argument that is made in pro football about how black players are only good athletes but when it comes to playing positions that require a large amount of thinking they fail. Again these are not my opinions but they are those of people involved in such sports like the director of player development for the MLS and I feel it hinders the game. Yes while it is a good PR move and it is obvious that the fans of soccer are more likely to watch a game in which the players with the best skill are playing--Who wouldn't? My point is that like American football having racial stereotypes on players will only lead to negative press in the future. And that instead of moving in one way to sell tickets, league executives should do its best to protect the integrity of the game.

~Max Householder

It has been a long year for Libya since the situation of the ousting of former president Muammar Gaddafi. But it is finally time that the conflict has somewhat settled and they can begin hosting international soccer events. That is exactly what happened yesterday when the country welcomed 31 time Bulgarian champion CSKA Sofia to play Al Ahli Tripoli, a Libyan national team. This was a great sign of things changing over there as they felt comfortable enough to welcome another country's soccer team in town and felt that they would be competing in a safe enough environment. They were successful in doing this as firstpost.com explains, they welcomed in roughly 1,000 fans to watch the match and instead of fighting there were only cheers of national pride and independence from the dictatorial reign of Gaddafi. Another positive to take from this was that Al Ahli Tripoli was able to beat the Bulgarian champions by a score of 1-0 which shows that they have not lost anything in their first home game in over a year. Bulgaria also played Al Nasar Benghazi and defeated them; then after that the two Libyan teams took on each other with Benghazi getting the win 1-0. Everyone felt more comfortable at yesterday's games including spectators like Saad Mohammed al-Breghathy who said "we feel more comfortable now. We watched football matches without interest during the revolution but it is different now and it feels great." I feel that this was a great sign for any country in the midst of a revolution that things can get better. This is not just about sports, it's about a country with the strength to overcome probably its darkest period ever and be able to carry on.

                                           

Libyan fans gathering outside Benina Martyrs stadium for the return of international soccer.
Compliments of Al Arabiya news.

Egyptian military stands Idlely by while spectators are killed

 

photo from new york times.

It was the greatest killing at a soccer game in 15 years according to the New York Times. The above picture, also from that same New York Times article illustrates just one of the 73 bodies killed in the riot at the Egyptian soccer stadium. In every article I read it seems as if the author is writing the story under the angle that the police were in the wrong in the situation. Both the article in the New York Times and one I found in Sports Illustrated said that the military was just lashing out at the protesters of the Al-Ahly who vowed vengeance against the police. Not only did the police not do anything but they went as far as locking the gates of the stadium so that the "Ultras" as the Al-Ahly were referred too could not escape the attacks of the Al-Masry. It feel like the two medias are taking the right angle in this instance because I feel that the Egyptian military and police are being stubborn. As it says in the article the reason for the actions of the police was because they had been highly questioned by the Al-Ahly about failing to prevent real change after the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak.With the police acting the way that they did and not letting fans escape or protecting them in general further proves the authors point of the military reacting cowardly. I also think that from what the authors of both articles have said about the military, they are in no way fit to protect a nation especially due to the fact that they do not care about the people in general. It is clear to me that this is a nation going through an unwanted transition by certain members of the military and that they are putting innocent civilians at risk. There was a quote in an article on cnn that said how awful the newly elected parliament felt about the tragedy and that Egypt will be a peaceful nation from this point forward. But I feel that if they truly meant that they would have prevented this tragedy from ever taking place by making sure they had credible security for the soccer game. What it says to me is that Egypt is a nation that will have a hard time protecting the country as a whole if they cannot protect their people from fighting each other.
~Max Householder


                                            video from cbs news

                                                                                 




                                                                                                                                 



                                                                                                                                       

Media coverage Manchester City beating Manchester United

Soccer is one of the most played sports internationally and the most followed. If one looks every four years at the world cup they will see that. In particular, soccer is one of the most interesting because it is one of the few sports that has an international league. Back to the world cup as an example, this tournament in my mind puts the world series to shame because the world series is in know way a "world" tournament and even though baseball is played around the world this particular tournament does not portray the best players internationally. But to get back on point in this story by Emily Benammar it is interesting to see the different international medias and their take on Manchester United's defeat at the hands of Manchester City back on October 24 of 2011. Being that both of those teams are located out of Great Britain it is not surprising to see the amount of coverage  that this game got in that country. Not just one newspaper covered it but as you would expect their were multiple as opposed to countries like Argentina and Australia who may have had more coverage but the content was vague when compared to the British newspapers. At least in this short collaboration of articles, the author paraphrased those countries as giving a generalization of what happened. Spain and Italy with there heavy involvement with soccer were more descriptive like Britain. I also thought in this case there was a lack of bias I felt because countries with players in the game from their country they did not go out of their way to promote them. But other countries gave cudos to such players by indicating where players came from like in Australia's Herald Sun when they said this "The 21-year-old Italian fired City ahead in the 22nd minute and added a second on the hour mark before Argentine striker Sergio Aguero netted a third in the 69th minute." In general I think that this article is a good example of how one can obtain information about soccer any which way they want and that there are no international barriers.

~Max Householder