N.B.: Not all sites listed below
are football-related. But we count on the imagination of our readers
to make the necessary connections. Also, be sure to examine our interactive
"blogosphere," in a pop-up window.
AMERICAN
SOCCER HISTORY ARCHIVES
Dave Litterer's sublime collection
of essays, statistics
and minutiae encompasses women's soccer as well as the alphabet soup of
soccer's governing bodies in the early days. Regional histories of the
game from Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and New York are on offer.
BBC
VIDEO NATION | FOOTBALL
Video diaries about football and life, including inebriated
Portsmouth supporter John
Westwood, Norman
Bowman's footballing dog, and Nghaire
Collins's account of life as a female football fan (links open
Real Media Player).
BBC
WORLD FOOTBALL
Despite the grandiloquence of presenter Alan
Green, the weekly program is well worth a listen, with the vast
resources of the BBC
World Service at its disposal. Shows are available for one week
after the Saturday broadcast.
CULTUROSITY™
Founded by Kate Berardo, the site functions
as a "cultural information portal" in order to promote global
awareness. For example, Culturosity includes free PDF guides to world cinema
and photography: "Even when zoomed in on intricate details with their
cameras, CPs [cultural photographers] demonstrate a global mindset."
DAVEBRETT.COM:
SOCCER AND SPORTS VIDEOTAPES
The site lists a stunning variety of football tapes from Dave
Wasser, who also organized the 2005 North American Soccer
League players' reunion (). Many recordings result from a near-obsessive search
for archival footage, some only available from the players themselves.
(We would like to see a picture of Wasser's shelving to gauge the sag.)
Tapes available for trade or for a nominal fee.
DFB
KULTURSTIFTUNG ANSTOSS
As of April 2006, four issues of Anstoss, the
magazine associated with the 2006
FIFA World Cup cultural program, had
been published. Articles are available in English and German,
with essays including Thomas Hürlimann's "Ball
and Universe: He Who Plays Football Raises His Soul" (issue 1)
and
Erik Eggers's "Why
Eleven of All Numbers? Football between Carnival and Freemasonry" (issue 2).
The third issue serves as a catalog for the "Rundlederwelten" (Round
leather worlds) exhibit at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.
ESPN
SOCCERNET
They were the first. Twelve-year-old Tom Hadfield
on 14 August 1995 "flicked a switch" from his home in Australia
to put what is believed to be the first football website, Soccernet.com,
online (Macalister Bryan, "On
the Ball and Online for 10 Years," The Guardian, 13 August
2005). Hadfield banked more than £1 million when ESPN acquired the
site, which now offers original writing by Phil
Ball (Spain), Uli
Hesse-Lichtenberger (Germany), Roberto
Gotta (Italy), Ernst
Bouwes (Netherlands) and others.
FLICKR™
FOOTBALL POOL
An ad hoc gathering of photo-sharers who pool pictures
of grassroots football, as well as snaps of galácticos.
You can find some of our pictures here.
FOOTBALL
CULTURE (remnants)
Portions of the site previously maintained by the British
Council are available at the website of the British Council Japan. For
several years the site treated football in relation to themes such as home,
gender, faith, money, globalization, and so on.
FOOTBALL
UNITES, RACISM DIVIDES
Sheffield, England–based organization that advocates
the end to racial abuse and increased participation among ethnic minorities
and women. Pay special attention to the online
resource library, with sources alphabetized and also grouped by topic.
See also the 2 Sept 2004 gleanings entry,
with details of the arson that nearly scorched said library.
FUTEBOL:
THE BRAZILIAN WAY OF LIFE
Site to promote Alex Bellos's book of
similar title, with updated material. Bellos says, "Football is how
the world sees Brazilians and how Brazilians see themselves."
HERE ON EARTH WITH JEAN FERACA
A search on "soccer" yields zilch. Nevertheless,
the weekend show on Wisconsin Public Radio (Saturday and Sunday, 1400–1600
CST), hosted by Jean Feraca, pursues an admirable aim: "We
search out the gems . . .
international movements, world citizens, cross-cultural conversions, democracy-building
initiatives,
and the best world literature, movies, arts, food, and culture." Occasionally
the show features an on-air
book club or poetry
circle.
METROPOLITAN ATLANTA CASUAL SOCCER LEAGUE
This is the group with which we play on alternate Saturdays.
So, check the site calendar if
you anticipate being in the Atlanta area, and please join us. While it
is hot much of the year (we kick off around noon), we have yet to see anyone
perspire
in the
hue
of a popular thirst-quencher.
NATIONAL
SOCCER HALL OF FAME
The relatively new museum complex in Oneonta, New York,
opened in 1999. Be sure to take the "virtual"
museum tour, including the suddenly poignant picture of the WUSA
display. Sigh.
PITCHCARE
Subtitled The Interactive Online Magazine for Groundsmen
and Greenkeepers, Pitchcare offers esoteric coverage of the soil and
turf so vital to enjoyment of the game. A recent feature ("Irrigation
Problems at Tividale," 18 July 2005; registration required) chronicles
how non-League side Tividale FC dealt with drought problems. Groundsman
Chris
Charles "had
all [of] his end-of-season renovation, seeding and fertilising to undertake
with only a simple impact sprinkler situated on a sledge to irrigate." Job
openings and equipment sales also are advertised.
PLAY
THE GAME:
THE INTERNATIONAL SPORTS MEDIA CONFERENCE AND KNOWLEDGE BANK
Content-rich website of a Denmark-based affiliation of
sports journalists, billing itself as a "home for the homeless questions
in sport." The group has held conferences in 1997, 2000 and 2002,
with the most recent 6–10 November 2005. Search the knowledge base
for wide-ranging perspective on world football, women's issues and culture.
POETRY
INTERNATIONAL WEB
A trove of poetry in translation, with selections available
from Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America. Football-related poems from
Germany,
the
Netherlands, Slovenia
and Colombia.
REC.SPORTS.SOCCER
STATISTICS FOUNDATION
This site is no-frills, but extremely useful. The aims
are simple: worldwide compilation of statistics and standings. If you need
more-or-less current standings from Mozambique's first division (as we did
once), try this site.
SHE
GOT GAME
Tandaleya Wilder (left) hosts a radio
program on women's sports, produced at WSHU-FM
in Fairfield, Connecticut, and syndicated to public-radio stations in the
United States. The show, as of late 2004, is in hiatus, in search of funding,
but a rich archive
exists at the site, including programs with Tiffeny
Milbrett and a feature on the "original soccer mom,"
Joy Fawcett
(links open Real Media Player).
SOCCER
AUDIO
Invaluable site with prodigious listings of games aired
live on the Internet. Also includes a selection of football talk shows from
around the globe.
SOCCER
FOR PEACE
Based in New York, Soccer for Peace numbers among
a small gaggle of groups using football to create affinity between Jewish
and Arab children in the Middle East. Other groups
include Football 4
Peace in the U.K. and the Peres
Center for Peace. A recent project, in August 2005,
was a four-day soccer camp for Jewish and Arab youth called "Camp
Coexistence," another
means of expressing "the universality
of soccer and its power to break down all barriers that
separate one person from another."
SOCCER
MOMS FOR PEACE
Sale of "Soccer Moms for Peace"™ paraphernalia
goes to peace organizations. The brains behind the Colorado-based operation,
Kristi Holmes Espiñeira and Andrés
Espiñeira, write that "with conflicts all over the
world, it is more crucial than ever to let our leaders know that most mainstream
Americans, regardless of political affiliation, prefer peaceable solutions
to world conflicts."
STREET
FOOTBALL WORLD
A website and organization, based in Berlin, celebrating
grassroots football art, culture and community betterment. Includes news
from grassroots football programs around the world. For the 2006 World
Cup finals, the group has assumed an integral part in the tournament's
cultural program, organizing the streetfootballworld
festival ()
and helping schools across Germany share their knowledge about the 205
FIFA
nations ().
STREET
SOCCER
Organizers of the Homeless
World Cup. You can download the official
program for the 2004 event (PDF
file 
,
10.8MB), as well as the Homeless
World Cup video (Windows media).
UNICEF:
FOOTBALL, THE RIGHT TO PLAY
The UN program advocates for children—for their
education and quality of life—by establishing football programs in
the Balkans, Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras, Kenya, Liberia
and Sudan.
The site includes features from all these places.
WORDS
WITHOUT BORDERS
An online journal of international literature featuring,
in past issues, works in translation from China,
Poland,
the
Balkans, Russia
and Iraq.
WORLD
CUP 2002: THE DIGITAL COLLECTION
"The web has no memory—unless it is created." Norbert
Specker of Interactive Publishing of Switzerland invoked this
motto following 11 September 2001 as motivation for creating a digital
memory bank of the momentous events. The concept expanded to the
2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan. In this section of the
site are stored more than 5,000 screen captures of websites covering every
game in 15 languages. What did Denmark daily Berlingske Tidende say after
Senegal's shock defeat of France in the opener? "Senegal
skaber VM-sensation."
We leave the translation to you.
WORLD
PRESS REVIEW
Presents translations of newspaper and magazine articles
from around the world. A project of the Stanley
Foundation.
WORLD
TALK RADIO INSIDE SOCCER
Weekly four-hour broadcast (Saturdays, 1700–2100 EDT) from San Diego including
regular segments on women's
soccer hosted by Melodie Turori.
