What I’m Reading: March 17, 2007

The always excellent Global Game blog this week covered the topic of smoking in soccer. Apparently, the British government has passed a law to ban smoking in stadiums. Having attended games at Ajax’s Amsterdam Arena, I can say that the amount of smoke in the stadium was appalling (it didn’t help that the retractable roof was closed). Hopefully, other countries will follow Britain’s lead.

I recently finished reading the book A Long Way Gone by former child soldier Ishamel Beah. His story is tragic: Beah joined the government army in Sierra Leone after his parents were killed by rebels, yet inspiring in that it shows the amazing degree of resilience humans are blessed with. Like Beah himself, Sierra Leone has walked a slow path to recovery. A photo gallery this week on FIFA’s website showed that one of the most normal childhood activities, playing soccer, is alive and well in the west African country.

Soccer games in the Freetown townships of Kroobay and George Brook (Courtesy FIFA)

A couple of stories in which soccer shows up in seemingly unrelated contexts:

Javier Zanetti has done a fair amount of humanitarian work with his PUPI Foundation (see this International Herald Tribune article for more information). One area in which he has focused his work is on the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. In 2004, he donated money to people fighting for the rights of people in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which led their leader, Subcomandante Marcos, to hold up an Inter jersey at a press conference. The article in Spain’s El Mundo quotes Marcos saying, “Brothers and sisters of the Italian team, I wish you the greatest success in the season” (translation my own).

Subcomandante Marcos showing love for Javier Zanetti

From the blog Nerevta River comes the story of Croatian restaurants in Japan. I love random stories like this (Croatian restaurants in Japan? Really?), and I love it even more because it has a soccer angle. Apparently, these restaurants were begun during the 2002 World Cup in the city of Tokamachi, according to the LA Times. The restaurants begun in 2002 have survived until today, as has the connection between the city and Croatia.

Tokamachi also has a lovely glass trophy donated by the Croatian Football Federation for which local youth teams compete, and a soccer field named for a Balkan country. The field is maintained by 100 or so volunteers of the Crotia supporters club run by [local resident Yutaka] Wakayama. “The Croatian team is like a family to us,” he said. Such are the unexpected footprints a World Cup can leave behind.

Speaking of Japan (by way of Du Nord), an article in that country’s English-language newspaper, the Japan Times, quoted MLS officials saying they would like to bring in J-League players. Said MLS’s Takehito Nakamura, “I deal heavily with teams, agents and the Japan Football Association and, through conversations and being introduced to different players, cases of players coming over can happen.” Nakamura also talks about the mutual lack of respect the Japanese and American league have for each other as an impediment to bringing Japanese across the pond. He also suggests what I believe to be the most important reason: “If a player craves fame, then maybe it is not the place for them.”

Having lived in Japan for four months, I witnessed the adulation of fans in that country for their players. Leaving that atmosphere has been hard for many players and former national team coach Phillipe Troussier lamented this in 2001, saying “We only have two players based in Europe. Technically and tactically, the Japanese can’t get much better, but they won’t get experience playing in the J-League.”

I wonder whether any strategy to draw Japanese players to MLS can be successful. Europe has the draw of high salaries and the highest standard of play. What can MLS offer to draw players from their Japanese fans? The chance to share hairstyling tips with David Beckham, perhaps?

Yuji “Bomber Head” Nakazawa, owner of best hair on the Japanese national team

The Guardian had a piece by Steven Wells about soccer leagues made up of communists and anarchists in the US. Wells writes of the rise and recent decline of this particular brand of soccer:

American anarcho-commie soccer is alive and well. It’s just been hibernating. Now it’s spring they’ll start once again changing America - one democratically refereed game (with rolling substitutions) at a time.

I’m glad to see Wells (a Brit) writing about soccer in this country using more than the typical cliche that Americans don’t like the sport. It’s great that he’s highlighting a particular niche of American soccer culture, but I have to question the relevance of the anarchist and communist soccer leagues he discusses. I once knew someone who later showed up in a newspaper article as the founder of the Dayton (Ohio) Anarchist Soccer League. She never struck me as much of a soccer fan nor much of an anarchist. If she is representative of the anarcho-commies Wells writes about, I don’t think they are likely to impact American soccer or world politics.

A few quick hits to finish off:

• Courtesy of my brother, an amusing look at tactical plans from around the world.
• Tottenham’s brilliant Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov eulogized in haiku at Who Ate All the Pies.
• Also from Who Ate All the Pies, Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini proves that bigotry is multifaceted. He said that Fiorentian’s “[Adrian] Mutu, like a good gypsy, has tried to be slick. Then again, all Romanians are slick, they have it on their DNA.”
• Barcelona owns a house called La Masia, where many of their youth prospects live. It was profiled at the blog La Galaxia de Estrellas.
• The New York Times did a piece on the top ten video games of all time. The list includes Sensible World of Soccer, a game which I have never played, but am now tempted to find.

Sensible World of Soccer

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