News came earlier this week that Georges Freche, a politican in France’s socialist party, was forced to resign after saying that,

“It would be normal if there were three or four [black players], that would be a reflection of society. But if there are so many, it’s because whites are no good. I’m ashamed for this country.”

This is not the first time that the race of France’s soccer players has become an issue in French politics. Many have taken note of the diversity of Les Bleus, and used it to promote their agendas. These agendas are varied, ranging from xenophobic and racist to celebrating multiculturalism.

Like Mr. Freche, infamous right-wing politician Jean Marie Le Pen, has on many occassions used the French national team to promote his hateful ideology. In the lead-up to the 2006 World Cup, Le Pen said that “perhaps the coach went overboard on the proportion of colored players.” His racist statements originally came to prominence in the 1900s when he said,

I find it artificial to have foreign players come and play in France and call them the French team. Most French players don’t even know, or don’t want to sing, the Marseillaise.

But the 1998 French team that won the World Cup was also celebrated by those who wanted to promote the image of France as a welcoming and tolerant place. Many attempted to make political gains in promoting that team for being “black, blanc, beur,” (black, white, North African) — a play on the red-white-and-blue of the French flag.”

Jacques Chirac celebrated the team’s diversity as he awarded players the Legion of Honor.

But using the idea of the national team as a model for the benefits or drawbacks of diversity in the country as a whole flies in the face of France’s official government policy of not collecting any kind of racial statistics. The official rationale is that doing so would be in direct conflict with the French motto of liberté, égalité, fraternité. When all have liberty, equality, and fraternity, as the motto states, there is no need to view others differently based on race. But anyone who saw last summer’s rioting in the suburbs of Paris knows that race plays a factor in French society.

The fallout from these riots has led to several changes in France. One group of blacks in France is trying to gain more clout by organizing along racial lines. In doing so, they are seeing firsthand the conflict between the official policy of colorblindness (perhaps this is where Stephen Colbert gets inspiration for his similar view) and the fact that people do, in fact, see race.

Mr. Le Pen and Mr. Chirac may vary on their ideas about the relative merits of a diverse national team, but in speaking about its diversity, they both show the importance of race in French soccer and society as a whole.

Growing up, my local newspaper (the Dayton Daily News) barely acknowledged the existence of soccer. It seemed the only thing that could get the sport into the newspaper was a riot in a foreign country, preferably involving deaths. I know that the Dayton Daily News is not the only paper to take such an approach to soccer coverage. With this emphasis on a few negative incidents, it is perhaps little surprise that many non-soccer fans in the US come to see the sport as “violent.”

This impression stands in marked contrast to the incredible number of soccer games which go off each day without violence. Given the number of games played on any given day and the relative number of violent incidents, I suspect that soccer may be, statistically speaking, one of the least violent sports in the world.

OK, maybe tennis has soccer beat.

Or so I thought until news came from the just completed Australian Open of violence between ethnic Serbian and Croatian fans there. A small number of fans from these two communities who clashed during the 1990s in the Balkans recently rekindled their fight in Melbourne.

Reading the reports of violence surrounding the Australian Open, I caught myself wondering, “What’s the matter with those tennis fans?” But I quickly realized that I had fallen into the same trap set by the Dayton Daily News for its readers. Just as the Dayton Daily News only covered soccer when there were riots surrounding games, leading its readers to assume that soccer was a violent game, so too can such reports from the Australian Open lead readers, like me, to jump to conclusions about the nature of tennis.

The real issue that lead to this recent violence is, of course, anything but tennis. Rackets and fuzzy green balls were only peripheral to the events that led up to the violence. Anyone with even a minimal knowledge of recent history knows the degree of animosity that the 1990s Balkan wars created in people on all sides of the conflict. The fighting at the Australian Open occurred as a result of the unresolved anger that came from the war that led to Croatia’s ultimate independence from then-Yugoslavia (later to become Serbia). It may have occurred at a tennis match, but the fighting was not about tennis; it was about a history of hatred between two ethnic groups that flared up years after and thousands of miles from its genesis.

Soccer was, sadly, sucked into the “tennis riots” as well. Reports indicate that the rioters were wearing soccer jerseys. And the reports also say that riots between ethnic Serbs and Croats in Australia have occurred in the past at soccer matches.

It is sad when violence becomes intertwined with sports. But given the popularity of sports, it is perhaps not surprising that violence often finds a way to rear its ugly face near games. However, jumping to the conclusion (as I did) that tennis, that most patrician of sports, is inherently violent shows just how silly a similar characterization of soccer would be. Yet coverage of violence that surrounds sports often ignores this larger context.

Violence occurs far too often around sports and it deserves to be condemned. However, it behooves us all to remember that sports are not the reason for the violence, but instead merely the innocent bystander who happens to be close by when violence occurs.

What do frozen chicken and soccer have in common? More than you might suspect. The poultry processing plants which have sprung up across the south during the last twenty years have brought an influx of immigrants. These newcomers arrive from big cities and the US like Chicago, New York, and L.A. and from south of the border. The arrival of Mexicans, Salvadorans, Hondurans, and others to fill jobs in poultry plants has led to an economic resurgence in many rural towns. But the arrival of Latinos has been hard for many towns to accept. Many such rural communities of which have reached only an uneasy understanding between the majority white population and the black minority. Throwing a third group of people into the mix has been further complicated by the fact that the newest arrivals don’t play “American” sports but instead soccer.

Paul Cuadros’s book A Home on the Field documents the economic and sporting tensions seen since the beginning of what he calls the “Great Latino Migration” to rural areas. Cuadros went to North Carolina intending to study the impact of the growing Latino population on life in the southern United States. While there, his focus shifted as he became involved with the high school soccer team in rural Siler City. But even as his interest in soccer increased, he never lost his original focus. In the end, Cuadros performs a masterful feat by drawing the reader in with an engaging story of soccer success while at the same time showing them the complex lives of Latinos living in the rural south.

One of the first experiences Cuadros has upon arriving in Siler City, North Carolina is a KKK rally, complete with a David Duke speech. Many in the rural town are clearly not pleased with the recent influx of Latinos. This rally shows the degree of resentment many in the area have toward the new arrivals, and these negative feelings come through time and time again throughout the book. When Cuadros later attempts to organize a soccer team at the local high school, he is met with much resistance, undoubtedly fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment. Administrators in the school system offer him excuses that show both unwillingness to help their Latino students (they refuse to share the fields used for other sports) and their open mistrust of them (they claim that not enough students will have the grades to make them academically eligible). It is a miracle that the team gets off the ground at all.

The initial hostility to the team’s formation in Siler City is nothing, though, when compared with that shown by some opposing fans. At away games, the players are often showered with insults that leave little doubt the fans’ views on outsiders. Cuadros’s players often struggle to hold back tears and fists while being pelted with cries of “wetback.”

Over the next three years Cuadros’s team steadily improves, though not without growing pains, many of which are unique to the lives of the Latino students. The beginning of the second season is almost ruined when the team’s goalkeeper must return to Mexico to see his ailing grandmother. Not having legal residence in the US, he must return with the help of a coyote. He arrives just before the beginning of the season, having hiked through the desert for a week with only meager supplies of food and water. Clearly, these are not the concerns of most high school athletes.

When the team eventually wins the North Carolina state championship, it is nothing short of a miracle. Formed from scratch only three years earlier, the boys have become the best in the state despite incredible obstacles. The final whistle at the final game will be moving to any reader.

The sporting triumphs in A Home on the Field are reminiscent of the movie Hoosiers: a small-town team with an incredibly dedicated coach overcomes numerous obstacles to win a state title. The book does, in fact, read like a movie at times. Cuadros describes the games his team plays in with an incredible level of detail, making you feel like you’re sitting on the bench next to him. This is both a positive and negative. While the descriptions of the games will surely draw in readers brought to his book by the soccer angle, but I found them a bit long and drawn out. The games, while important in story development, distract from what the book is really about: the lives of Latinos in the rural south. Soccer is an important aspect of this, of course, but I would have preferred shorter descriptions of the team’s triumphs and more analysis of the larger issues which underlie Cuadros’s team.

That is not to say that the books lacks analysis of larger issues at play with regard to Latinos in the rural south. Cuadros has clearly done a wealth of research, which enables him to put the narratives of his team’s success into context. His ability to use soccer to bring out larger issues surrounding this newest Latino migration is the high point of his book.

In an era in which many try to demonize “illegal immigrants” under such demeaning monikers, Cuadros provides the stories of the Latino residents from their own perspectives. There is the mother who has brought her children from Chicago to Siler City to keep them away from gangs, the families who work hard to get by on meager salaries in the poultry processing plants, and their children who struggle to feel connected to the United States as well as their homelands. Cuadros does an excellent job of reminding us that immigrants are people, and have stories that ought to be heard.

Cuadros also points out the larger economic issues at play. The Latino migration to the rural south has been fueled primarily by economic factors. Most of the Latino residents of Siler City work in the town poultry processing plant. This is difficult, dirty, and low-paying work. Cuadros’s book dispels xenophobic claims that immigrants are taking American jobs: non-Latinos who have tried working in the plants have not lasted long. What’s more, the rise of poultry plants has led to an economic resurgence in a part of the North Carolina that had seen little hope since its textile factories realized they could not compete with products coming in from abroad. Some in Siler City may resent the arrival of Latinos, but their coming has boosted the lives of everyone in the town.

Even those outside of rural North Carolina are playing a part in the Latino migration there. Cuadros demonstrates the link between consumers who increasingly rely on the convenience of pre-processed chicken and the need for workers to do this work. If you cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts tonight, there is a good chance that a Latino immigrant processed it for you.

Paul Cuadros’s book A Home on the Field is a wonderful account of the lives of Latinos in the rural south. It focuses on a soccer team, but that is only the jumping-off point to discuss the many issues which surround this demographic shift in our country. Cuadros’s detailed research, insightful reporting, and clear writing make his book a must-read for soccer fans as well as those interested in immigration.

Further Information

• Excerpt from the book
• Official page from publisher HarperCollins
• Purchase on Amazon

Other Reviews

• Only a Game
• Matchnight
• Triangle Soccer Fanatics (also check out this podcast interview with Paul Caudros)
• News & Observer

Russian football has seen a renaissance in the past few years. Fueled in no small part by the booming Russian economy and a few wealthy oligarchs, the Russian league has gone from a minor league in a freezing cold country to a somewhat less minor league in a freezing cold country with some half decent players. Just take a look at some of the players who have made their rubles in the Russian Premier League in the past few years:

• Fernando Cavenaghi, Clemente Rodriguez (Argentina)
• Daniel Carvalho, Wagner Love, Jo, Dudu Cearense, Derlei, Francisco Lima
• Maniche, Costinha (Portugal)
• Garry O’Connor (Scotland)
• Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)

Ok, maybe not world-beaters but decent nonetheless. Clearly, these players are not attracted to Russia for the climate or the food; money is the real draw to the former Soviet country. How quickly Russia has transitioned from its days of communism. Long before its clubs were buying players from around the world, they were the pride and joy of local workgroups. Whereas most clubs are owned now by wealthy individuals or companies, most were founded as the club of the police, army, etc. and their players came from these ranks.

Take a look at the history of several of the most well-known clubs:

CSKA Moscow was founded by the Russian Army. Their nickname, “The Horses,” comes from the fact that their players were assigned to calvary units.

Dynamo Moscow was originally founded by Englishman Clement Charnock, but soon after became the team of the Russian police. It later became affiliated with the Interior Ministry and the Cheka (the secret police organization which proceded the KGB).

Lokomotiv Moscow was founded and supported by the national railroad company. Unlike most teams, which have been sold to newly rich oligarchs and corporations that have risen since the fall of communism, Lokomotiv has remained a part of its communist-era patron, the Russian Railway Compnay. When the team opened a new stadium in 2002, the company showed largesse reminiscent of command economy times as it paid for thousands of railroad workers to attend the opening match.

Quoting from Wikipedia: “The origins of Zenit Saint Petersburg date back to 1925, when a team was formed consisting of workers from a Leningrad metallurgical factory.”

FC Moscow (formerly Torpedo Moscow) was founded as the club of the ZIL automobile manufacturer. This car company, which made limos in Russia, sold the rights to a metallgurgical company in 2003. The club was sold again to the Moscow city government, to whom it currently belongs.

It would seem on first blush that the connection between The White Stripes and Roma of Italy’s Serie A would be tenuous at best. But a piece on the public radio show The World last year showed that there is a link between the two.

No, Meg White is not having Francesco Totti’s baby (a scary thought indeed); instead, the connection is purely musical. For it seems that Roma’s fan club Roma Boys Ultras has taken the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” as a battle cry. The idea to use this song as their own came after being taunted with it during an away game in Belgium. The Roma Boys Ultras thought, like many before them, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And that’s how it is that the bass line in a song written by a band from Detroit came to be heard in the Stadio Olimpico.

Click here for the full story.

MLS announced at the end last year that in the 2007 we would see advertisements on the fronts of team uniforms. This is common practice among most European teams, though surprisingly has never been tried in uber-capitalist America. While only Real Salt Lake has announced a deal on shirt advertising (the “mangosteen” beverage company Xango), speculation has been rife about which teams would follow.

One of the most interesting, or at least funniest, pieces of such speculation is that Chivas USA would soon be sponsored by Bimbo, the Mexican bread consortium. Some on Big Soccer even went so far as to post what such a jersey would look like:

I can’t decide whether I think the idea of putting Bimbo on the Chivas uniforms is a potentially genius move or as ridiculous as it seems on first impression. I mean, the name of the company is Bimbo, for God’s sake. Does the company really think it can break into the American market with that name? It made me think of what I had always heard about the failed attempts by Chevrolet to take its car, the Nova, to Mexico (“no va” means “it doesn’t go in Spanish). So, in doing a bit of research, it quickly became apparent that this story is, in fact, an urban legend. According to the urban legend busting website Snopes, it just ain’t true. The car was sold in Mexico successfully for several years (perhaps until people there realized it was a crappy car, regardless of its name).

So, given this, can Bimbo succeed as the name of a bread company in the US of A? Perhaps. Not only because, if the brand is successful enough to establish itself in the mainstream, people will come to associate the word Bimbo more with the bread than with, say, Kelly Bundy, to use an example provided on Wikipedia. But one major factor playing in Bimbo’s favor is that there is such a large Hispanic population already in this country. Mexicans in this country know Bimbo as bread. Putting it on Chivas USA jerseys is not a risky move because most fans of the team are Mexicans or Mexican-Americans. The Bimbo company may be aiming more for these customers than gringos.

In fact, it turns out Bimbo already has some footing in this country. Just yesterday, I saw a Bimbo truck doing deliveries to stores in my almost exclusively Hispanic neighborhood. There’s a new bread company in town, and its placement on Chivas USA jerseys may just redefine what you think of when you hear the word Bimbo.

Then again, if Chivas USA decides to incorporate the Bimbo sponsorship deal into the uniforms for its Chivas Girls (across the chest, perhaps?), all attempts to redefine the word may be for naught.

P.S. According to the same Wikipedia article on bimbos mentioned above (I love the fact that Wikipedia even has an article on the word bimbo), bimbo is a “derogatory term for a person with african [sic] roots.” So perhaps not the ideal sponsor for Bayern Munich, then.

P.P.S. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term bimbo originally came from the Italian “bambino” or baby and only took on the connotation of “loose woman.” So any potential transformation of the word bimbo by placing it on soccer uniforms would be its second such change.