What I’m Reading: August 5, 2007

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend Iraqis of all stripes were out in the streets celebrating their national team’s unexpected victory in the Asian Cup. But the team’s return to their war-wracked country has proven anything but happy.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki welcomes back Hayder Abdul Amir (photo: AP/Hadi Mizban)

First, whoever was in charge of the sound system at the ceremony to welcome home the victorious team played the Saddam-era national anthem, angering some in the delegation (it was a similar to what happened last year when Chinese president Hu Jintao visited the White House and the announcer there asked everyone to stand for the anthem of the “Republic of China,” which in fact refers to Taiwan). Several players walked out of the Iraqi ceremony in protest over what they apparently did not see as an accident.

Those players, though, had at least returned to Iraq. National team captain Younis Mahmoud didn’t even make the trip, saying he feared for his safety if he did set foot in his homeland. He spoke of several friends who had been killed in explaining why he wouldn’t be returning home before calling on the Americans to leave his country. Mahmoud, who is Sunni, said, “I want America to go out. Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn’t invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon.”

President Bush attempted to use the Iraqi Olympic team’s success in 2004 for his own propaganda, angering several Iraqi players. Now, it seems, at least one is using his own well-earned fame to make his own political points.

Younis Mahmoud (photo: AP/Achmad Ibrahim)

Haiti is a country that has, in recent years, experienced many of the same conditions as Iraq is facing today: violence, uncertainty, and despair. So, it comes as a pleasant surprise that the island nation, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is making small steps toward relative prosperity. One of the largest reasons for this success, as NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reported this week, is the Brazilian peace-keeping force. Garcia-Navarro says that many Haitians trust them because “they are Brazilian: Haiti is a soccer-mad country, and Brazil is their favorite team.” Perhaps they should consider sending some Brazilian troops to Darfur.

Haitian boys in Port-au-Prince play with a soccer ball while a Brazilian peacekeeper stands behind them (photo: Jean-Cyril Pressoir for NPR)

News came (hat tip to The Offside) this week that the women’s national team of Afghanistan is playing its first game abroad since the fall of the Taliban. It is quite a turnaround in fortunes for the players, who during the years of Taliban rule were not permitted outside the home unaccompanied. Today,

Afghanistan’s female football players wear tracksuits to cover their legs and some wear baseball caps covering their hair. Training sessions are held in Kabul’s sports stadium, where the Taliban used to publicly execute murderers, amputate the limbs of thieves and lash adulterers.

And speaking of soccer in places you don’t expect to find it, the Navajo Times reported this week on the Navajo team preparing for the upcoming Indigenous Soccer Cup. The tournament, which will take place in New Mexico later this month, will feature teams representing many different American Indian tribes.

Malcom Bitsie (R) and Dylan Moriarty, members of Team Navajo, practice for the upcoming Indigenous Soccer Cup (photo: Navajo Times/Donovan Quintero)

A neighbor of mine, who has been a soccer been for decades, told me the other day that he’s almost given up on the sport. “Too much money,” he said. He mentioned Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich as a prime example of the increasing influence of money on the game. I don’t think he read David Conn’s World Soccer profile of Abramovich, which is probably a good thing, given how negatively he was portrayed.

Conn provides some details of how Abramovich made his money (essentially, he bought a state-owned oil interest at an incredibly low price in exchange for favors for former president Boris Yeltsin, then sold the interest back to the Russian government under Vladimir Putin at an incredible profit). The way in which former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s earned the money he used to buy Manchester City doesn’t appear much more murky than Abramovich’s path to wealth and Chelsea. Just as many in Thailand claim Thaksin is stealing their money to buy a team, so too do many Russians hold Abramovich in low regard, along with the other oligarchs who earned their money in similar ways.

“The vast majority of Russians believe the oligarchs stole those assets,” explains Vyacheslav Nikonov, of the Polity Foundation think-tank in Moscow. “There is huge resentment of them and the unequal society we now have as a result.”

Chelsea fans, on the other hand, seem simply happy to have a sugar daddy and the unprecedented success his rubles are bringing.

Some quick hits to finish off:

• Thaksin Shinawatra’s money may be slightly dirty, but at least he’s bringing some “culture” to his new club. Fans at last night’s friendly against Valencia were to be treated to a concert from “20-year-old Thai R&B singer Saranrat Wisutthithada, who goes under the stage name Lydia.” And the post-match meal for the Man City board and players was to include a spread of Thai dishes. “They will have first-hand experience of the delicious taste of Thai food,” spokesman Noppadon Pattama said.

Thai pop star Lydia (photo: asianfanatics.net)

• Snoop Dogg and Thierry Henry are apparently buddies. Well, at least, Henry attended a recent Snoop concert in which the rapper wore a Barcelona shirt with the Frenchman’s name on the back. On the front, of course, is a UNICEF logo, a charity to which I’m sure Snoop has donated much money.
• Boston United has a great strategy: sign prison inmates. Note to Glen Johnson: nick as many toilet seats as you want, Chelsea can always get you out of prison on game day.
• And in case you aren’t a supporter of Dartford FC and know about this already, I recommend you check out the post on Some People are on the Pitch about their new “green” stadium.

An architect’s rendering of Dartford’s Prince’s Park (photo: Some People are on the Pitch)

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