Post Tagged with: "Football"

Breaking Europe’s Hold on Football

Breaking Europe’s Hold on Football

Initiatives from Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to put pressure on Europe’s traditional stranglehold over FIFA. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar brought together nations from around the world, and 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the final. But while soccer is a source of local pride, passion, and personal and community identity globally, its official[Read More…]

by 15/09/2023 Comments are Disabled World
The Saudi Football Seizure

The Saudi Football Seizure

Sports stars are making a heated rush for it, cresting on the money wave, and finding sanctuary in Mammon’s big breasted glory.  And that wave is coming, oddly enough, from a desert country, alien to such matters till recent decades, when oil came with blessings and political power. After colonising international golf with a throat crushing ruthlessness, the Kingdom of[Read More…]

by 30/06/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Commercialisation of football in India is not the solution

Commercialisation of football in India is not the solution

The discussion on football in India was so evasive about real issues at the Tata literature festival last Sunday in the context of the world cup football beginning this Sunday in Qatar. The whole focus was on commercialisation of the game, not democratisation, it was all about how to exploit the game for money and profits. There is a great[Read More…]

by 15/11/2022 Comments are Disabled India
Greed and the European Super League

Greed and the European Super League

Suffocating the grassroots.  Mocking the working class origins of the game.  World football, and primarily European club football, has long done away with loyalties in favour of cash and contract.  The professionalization of the game has seen a difficult relationship between fan, spectator and sporting management, none better exemplified than the price of tickets, the role of branding and sponsorship.[Read More…]

by 20/04/2021 Comments are Disabled World
Debunking the ‘Opium of the People’ Maxim: Football is about Politics and Class Struggle 

Debunking the ‘Opium of the People’ Maxim: Football is about Politics and Class Struggle 

Noam Chomsky is right when he says that, in the US, sports creates the necessary “fantasy world” required to shield people from understanding, organizing, and attempting to “influence the real world”. Referring to sports commentary and phone-in shows, Chomsky, in an interview with AlterNet, marveled at the intellectual and analytical skills of people engaged in the sports culture. Ultimately, however,[Read More…]

by 07/12/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Once There Was A Sad King, Maradona By Name

Once There Was A Sad King, Maradona By Name

Diego Armando Maradona turns 60 on October 30.   “God is the only being who, in order to reign, doesn’t even need to exist.” – Charles Baudelaire. It is with these words that the renowned filmmaker Emir Kusturica’s ninety-minute documentary on the one and only Maradona begins. Kusturica’s film, structured like a ‘musical’, does more than what a hundred newspaper[Read More…]

by 13/10/2020 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The Anti-Racist Football

The Anti-Racist Football

“I can’t breathe.” The end line of helpless George Floyd is burning the mighty America inside out. Mr. President is hiding in a Bunker and darkness is looming over the White House. Just like the many brutal dictators before him, the rage of the people is shattering the throne and slowly the protesters are triumphing over Trump. During this time[Read More…]

by 07/06/2020 Comments are Disabled World
Euro Cup Final: A Neutral Point Of Happiness.

Euro Cup Final: A Neutral Point Of Happiness.

 ” I go about the world, hand out-stretched, and in the stadium I plead : ‘ A pretty move, for the love of God.’ And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”  –  Eduardo Galeano. Watching as a neutral spectator, this is exactly what I[Read More…]

by 13/07/2016 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Iceland’s Football Story: The Glory Of Public Football

Iceland’s Football Story: The Glory Of Public Football

“These guys now with us in the [Iceland] national team were brought up on artificial pitches. Many would have had youth coaching in an indoor dome. They could go out if the weather was good, but they always had good facilities to train.” Heimer Hallgrímsson, joint Iceland football coach, BBC Sport, Nov 15, 2015 This has been a competition of[Read More…]

by 28/06/2016 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
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