What I’m Reading: May 27, 2007
I would not be so presumptuous as to assume that major news outlets get their ideas from reading my website, but it sure was a coincidence that so many things I have written about popped in stories this week.
The Irish Independent, for example, ran a story on Brazilian maestro Kaká revealing his “I Belong to Jesus” t-shirt after AC Milan won the Champions League. As I have previously written, Kaká is perhaps the most high profile evangelical Christian soccer player. Given his incredible skill, Kaká is often given a platform to share his religious views and he never fails to do so. Hopefully, though, this doesn’t mean that God approves of the cynical catenaccio that Milan used to win the final (Spanish newspaper AS had a headline the day after the match reading Campeón sin Fútbol, roughly meaning “Champion Without Playing.”)
One hilarious response to Kaká’s I belong to Jesus shirt came via an email in the Guardian’s The Fiver tea-time email. Ross Williams wrote, “So Kaka belongs to Jesus, does he (Kaka’s T-shirt, yesterday’s Big Cup final)? I wonder what Dave Whelan [the Wigan chairman who raised a stink over the still-murky details of Carlos Tevez's loan deal with West Ham] thinks about that particular third party loan arrangement?”
I wrote last week about the growing number of ethnic Turkish players in Germany. Most are children of Turks who came as guest workers, but ended up settling permanently. I could have just as well written about Moroccans in Holland, many of whom came in similar circumstances. Just as the assimilation of Turks into German life has not been entirely smooth, Moroccans in Holland have struggled to find their place. The often-simmering animosity that exists between native Dutch and Moroccans boiled over this past week at a U-21 match between the two countries. A state of emergency was declared in the city of Tilburg, which hosted the match, as Moroccan fans stormed the field and clashed with stewards. 26 people were arrested. The head of the Dutch FA has said he will not schedule friendlies between the two teams for the next five years. Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders used the incident to promote his anti-immigrant views in suggesting that Dutch-Moroccans be banned from attending Morocco games played in Holland for the next five years. Wilders’s words make it less likely that relations between the Moroccan community and the native Dutch population will improve during that time.
Violent scenes at the Willem II Stadium in Tilburg
A small minority of fans in Holland may be violent, but in Qatar there are enough supporters to start a riot, let alone support the national team. So, what is the wealthy Arab nation planning to do? Why, hire them of course! What better way to get support than by paying fans? Qatar tried this ploy in attempting to pay players to turn out for its national team, but FIFA wouldn’t allow the move. Will FIFA step in the way of the latest potential mercenaries? And will it make a difference to the Qatari national team, which has never done anything in world football except to pay for the retirements of aging stars?
Gabriel Batistuta and Frank Lebeouf get their fat paycheck on
Nike put out a press release this week saying that it had found a new subcontractor to produce its soccer balls. The sportswear giant had suspended its contract with its chief supplier, Saga Sports, due to allegations of child labor and other mistreatment of workers. Many worried, however, that ceasing all production would throw the impoverished Kashmir region of Pakistan into even deeper poverty. It was, as I wrote at the time, a difficult dilemma for Nike.
Nike’s new contract, with subcontractor Silver Star Group, will return many jobs to the country. And Nike says it has put into place structures that will prevent the type of labor practices which forced it to pull out in the first place. We can only hope that the subcontractor and Nike itself follow through on their promises.
Seeing oneself from someone else’s perspective is always interesting. So, I’m continually fascinated to read Tom Dunmore’s musings on American soccer at his blog If This is Football. This week, he discussed lower league, indoor, and women’s soccer, all of which have long histories in this country. The first “professional game” I ever attended, in fact, involved the Dayton Dynamo of the old NPSL (an indoor league).
Another outsider’s perspective came from Chuck Culpepper, who wrote in the LA Times about the crazy singing ways of Liverpool fans at the Champions League final. Culpepper was particularly fascinated by the way that old American songs were given new life as fan anthems. What would Rodgers and Hammerstein think if they heard “You’ll Never Walk Alone” belted out by the Kop?
The Kop in full voice (I assume)
Chris Oakley does an excellent job at his blog Some People are on the Pitch. I particularly recommend his post this week looking at the number of foreign players playing in the top leagues in Europe. Some interesting tidbits: 1) the Premier League has players from 70 different countries, 2) the Premier League has the smallest percentage of native-born players (i.e. Englishmen) in its ranks of any of the top leagues in Europe, and 3) Serie A has the highest percentage of native-born players in its ranks and Italy also won the last World Cup. Coinedence? Methinks not.
A few quick hits to finish off:
- Note to self #1: When in Lichinga, Mozambique, don’t celebrate too loudly after the away team scores a goal. One fan did this past week and was stoned to death. Yikes.
- Note to self #2: If I ever need a kidney transplant, first become coach of the Vietnamese national team. Alred Riedl, boss of the Asian nation’s team, received a kidney from a fan. That’s support.
- And finally, for a bizarre sport, how about bicycle soccer? The Offside reports on the game taking one Tokyo school by storm.
May 28th, 2007 21:12
not to state the obvious, but what would be so bad about Nike paying, you know, living wages to their employees? i’m not overly interested in the ‘but they are subcontractors’ argument. it’s up to us as soccer fans, and buyers of Nike junk, whether we want to endorse their labor practices or not - and that includes taking a dim view of when they threaten the livelihoods of children by their requirements to get more profits to rich old dudes. they could easily start paying decent wages and then promote that concept.
May 28th, 2007 21:54
Peter - Didn’t Reebok make a big pledge to not use child labor just after the first allegations about Nike doing so? I seem to remember that and it seemed to be a bid to differentiate themselves from Nike. I wonder what’s happened to that, if it’s stuck around long-term or lived out its usefulness as a marketing strategy (which would, of course, be a sad thing). I agree with you that consumers are the only ones who can ultimately make a difference in companies’ behavior.