Scarsdale, New York | A Westchester County supplement of the New York Times reports on a growing reality as playing space for soccer becomes scarce: communities having to police their fields to restrict access to “outsiders.” The case discussed by Marek Fuchs in his column (“ ’Go Out and Play’ Has Gotten Complicated,” Nov 20) involves the [...]
New York | Acting on intrigue developed from watching brothers, fathers and husbands play football to their exclusion, women from Honduras and Mexico have overcome initial resistance and formed a local Latina league that now includes more than 200 players with roots from across Latin America, reports Elena Cabral for National Public Radio. The suggestion is [...]
Washington | D.C. Council member and former mayor Marion Barry has reversed position on a proposed new stadium for D.C. United to be located in Poplar Point, in the district Barry represents in Anacostia. Realizing that the stadium could represent a $1 billion investment windfall for the primarily low-income area and provide much-needed low-wage housing, Barry [...]
Paris | Despite sports newspaper L’í‰quipe‘s ballyhooed investigations into Lance Armstrong‘s alleged doping, its bread and butter remains Les Bleus. When its reporting that Armstrong had submitted positive urine samples during the 1999 Tour de France appeared in August, circulation could not top the front-page announcement that Zinedine Zidane would return from international retirement. Nearly 83 [...]
Berlin | Presiding judge Gerti Kramer has ignored prosecutors’ requests for a suspended sentence and given match-fixing referee Robert Hoyzer a 29-month jail term. Hoyzer will remain free on appeal and plans to write a book. Hoyzer “violated his important duty of neutrality,” said Kramer on handing down the sentence. Prosecutors have appealed an 18-month suspended [...]
London | Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby (see 23 Apr 05) seems less exercised these days over the erratic form of Arsenal Football Club. Although the team still occupies a portion of his waking thoughts, “a bad game never ruins an evening,” and he is unsympathetic to criticism of top players, such as Thierry Henry. “I [...]
Belfast, Northern Ireland | A survey concludes that Northern Ireland supporters prefer a national sports stadium in central Belfast rather than at the proposed Maze prison site outside town. An alphabet soup of government bodies, however, has cited police concerns about locating an £85 million venue within Belfast, where it could attract swarms of Gaelic Games [...]
Cape Town, South Africa | According to the Cape Argus, Stuart Baxter‘s resignation as manager of Bafana Bafana points to deep structural flaws in the domestic game. Baxter last week became the 13th coach of the national team to resign since the nation was readmitted to FIFA in 1992. “It doesn’t matter if Sir Alex Ferguson [...]
New York | Among a gaggle of short essays in which Sports Illustrated writers tout candidates for the magazine’s annual Sportsman of the Year award, two support soccer players. Grant Wahl writes to recommend Israel’s and Bnei Sakhnin’s Abas Suan (see 15 Apr 05), who has used “his newfound stature in Israel’s Arab and Jewish communities [...]
Madrid | Ronaldinho‘s magical weaves through the Real Madrid defenders had home supporters at the Santiago Bernabéu applauding in appreciation Saturday. He scored twice, and the Catalans dominated 3–0. This was the 30th anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco, but the admiration shown Ronaldinho—albeit a Brazilian on a field of well-compensated professionals, with uncertain connections [...]
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago | Leave it to Trinis to tie their first trip to the World Cup finals to musical expression. The lead story in the Express on Nov 17 invoked relevant lyrics from Lord Kitchener (née Aldwyn Roberts), who in “Mas in Germany” (1973) sang I am heading to the North Guess where? Up in [...]
Wigan, England | Just in time for a critical Premiership showdown with Arsenal on Nov 19, the Lancashire side Wigan Athletic appear to have gained cinema stars Wallace and Gromit as potential supporters. Zealous researchers have determined that the duo’s 62 West Wallaby Street homestead in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a Wigan address. Questions [...]
Sydney | Qantas Airlines had a backstage role in Australia’s ultimate victory over Uruguay, in penalty kicks, at Telstra Stadium in the Wednesday World Cup qualifier. A charter with amenities such as massage and “relaxing videos” allowed the Socceroos to travel from Montevideo in relative comfort. Uruguay, lacking Football Federation Australia’s resources, had to take a [...]
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | WBUR of Boston’s Only a Game lingers with Grassroot Soccer as it employs sport to educate children on sugar-cane plantations in the country’s southwest about HIV/AIDS. Although baseball dominates the domestic sporting scene, reporter Michael Cavanaugh points out that more than 1 million Haitians live in the country and predominate in the [...]
Istanbul | Having scaled heights in the esteem of world football, Turkey perhaps made a serious misstep Wednesday given post-game violence directed against the native country of the FIFA president. Sepp Blatter promised an inquiry into the mêlée that hospitalized Swiss defender Stéphane Grichting following a wild 4–2 Turkish victory that nevertheless delivered a World Cup [...]
Manama, Bahrain | “Reggae has been to the World Cup, samba has been to the World Cup—now it’s soca time.” So says an announcer on Trinidadian radio, as reported by blogger Nicholas Laughlin. Six-foot-seven defender Dennis Lawrence could take credit for both of Trinidad & Tobago’s goals in the World Cup–qualifying tie with Bahrain. His second-half header [...]
Sydney | Australia’s 30 (plus one) years of hurt? Their sentence has been served, with a pulsating triumph over Uruguay in penalty kicks early this morning ending a long absence from the World Cup. In the Olympic Stadium in Homebush Bay—where aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman thrilled crowds in the 2000 Olympics—the “Wizards of Oz” brought Australian [...]
Toronto | Blessings on the Toronto Star, which reminds us of Guy Caballero‘s rants on the Second City Television series of the 1970s and early ’80s.
Johannesburg | The Sunday Times delves into the drinking culture surrounding clubs in the Premier Soccer League and the national team, Bafana Bafana. “For every emerging star,” writes Luke Alfred, “there is another has-been propping up a shebeen counter in Mamelodi.” As a cautionary tale, Alfred focuses on Mbulelo “Old John” Mabizela, among five players who [...]
Glasgow, Scotland | Lawrie Reilly, the only surviving member of a Scotland side that in 1952 was the last to play the United States in Hampden Park, recalls the event as “a walk in the park really.” Scotland, behind a Reilly hat trick, won 6–0 over a team similar to the one that had beaten England [...]
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