I came across a post about a Frenchman who suffered extreme injuries while traveling to Serbia to watch Toulouse take on Partizan Belgrade. Its from a blog that I check out daily called www.theoffside.com. The blog brings up an interesting point that offenses like this cannot go unpunished, but its difficult to punish a club… Read More »
In 2010, the World Cup tournament will finally take place in a (cold) South Africa. As the tournament begins, however, there will be thirteen European teams in the tournament, and only six African teams, with one of them — South Africa — automatically qualified as the host. Of course, it could be worse: at the… Read More »
We read about football being used for conflict resolution so often in this course. What we see, however, are epic matches in the EPL which rarely serve such a purpose besides entertainment and victory. I thought it was fascinating that Puma and Adidas used football to create modern day peace between their two companies. By… Read More »
The most recent issue of Granta Magazine begins with a wonderful essay with this title by Bosnian writer Aleksander Hemon about how, as an exile in Chicago in the 1990s, he found a community in football. Here is an excerpt: “. . . this, gentlemen, is what this little narrative is about: the moment of… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was at the ’78 World Cup.… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was 1979. At Wembley Stadium, Arsenal… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was at the ’78 World Cup.… Read More »
Eduardo Galeano, in Soccer and Sun and Shadow (London: Verso, 2003), provides beautiful descriptions of famous goals from footballing history. Here is one of his descriptions, and a video of the goal. What do you think of the description? Can you find clips of other goals he describes? “It was at the ’70 World Cup.… Read More »
We’ve talked briefly in class discussions about what some have called the “slave trade” in young players from the developing world to the power clubs in Europe. There have been two stories in the past week that have brought to light the related issue of European youths who sign binding contracts. The big story was… Read More »
In the past, the World Cup meant everything to national football teams; it was an opportunity to prove their team’s success to the world. I recently came across an article that made me realize just how crucial the World Cup still is to a team’s success, and in turn, to the amount of funding they receive. In… Read More »
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