Set piece

The 'center pole' of Haitian sport
Sights, sounds and interviews from the official opening of the Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon Soccer Park in Little Haiti, Miami. The park - a FIFA-regulation, grass facility funded by Miami taxpayers - opened after 10 years of planning and negotiation with a community festival and three matches, including a side from L'Athletique d'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. (Flash video, 6:55)
POSTED IN Caribbean | Stadia & supporters

The run of play

Big day for little Haitians
Haiti past, present and future came together in early May on an urban oasis in La Petite Haiti. The all too rare inner-city, publicly funded, full-size soccer pitch opened on one-time industrial ground north of downtown. "This is what we do for a living," said Miami immigration attorney Andre Pierre. With multimedia and podcast.
Permalink | Comment

Assorted linkage
FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, in his battle for "the soul of soccer," on May 30 gained backing of the FIFA Congress for a quota system to limit the number of foreign players eligible to start in a club match. The plan "appears to be unworkable in the modern world," says Mike Collett of Reuters. ... Campaigners hoping to highlight, during Euro 08, the horrors of human trafficking charge censorship in Swiss host cities Basel and Geneva. ... Sectarianism appears to be behind the Iraqi government's recent disbanding of the national football association. Have Shia ministers miscalculated in an effort to rid Iraqi sport of Sunni influence? "People are tired of politics and war," says Ashraq Al-Awsat political editor Fayad Maad. "But the people are never tired of football." ... David Goldlbatt, writing in the June issue of Prospect Magazine, hangs with the far-right supporters of Beitar Jerusalem. "We must show them that we are Jewish," says La Familia leader Guy Israeli.

Heard on the terraces

"In my 39 years of existence I don't know anything in Haitian culture or in Haiti that connects people together more than soccer. Soccer brings the Lavalas and the Convergence, the pro-Duvalier, against Duvalier, the poor, the rich. It brings everyone together. When they get together all they're doing is soccer. They don't talk about politics, we don't talk about how bad this person is, don't talk about how bad the country is. What they have done here ... bringing the park here, this is an amazing achievement for the Haitian community" (Andre Pierre, Miami immigration attorney, 3 May 08).

Available at the interval

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