No Más

This is one of those moments in a live match that I'll never forget. It's the second half of Barcelona playing away at Real Zaragoza back in 2006, and Barca's Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o has endured a stadium full of Zaragoza fans making racist taunts and chants against him all night. The match is still deadlocked at 0-0 when Barca get a corner. As Eto'o moves into position and closer to the stands, the chants, gestures, and racist abuse get noticeably louder. The corner's about to be taken... when he finally decides he's had enough.



You can clearly see him saying "No Más" as he walks off, at 1:37 in the video. No more of this shit! I'm not performing for you anymore, you bastards! Brilliant.

Still, it's too bad that the clip ends where it does- Eto'o was eventually convinced to continue the game by his coach, went on to score the clinching goal as Barca beat Zaragoza 2-0. Remembering the sight of the striker at the end of the match, standing in the centre circle with his fist raised against the jeers of the losing supporters, still gives me chills.

Subversive soccer

Iran recently hosted its "first" mixed game in more than a decade, without the holy blessing of the Ayatollah, of course. The youth male team beat the women 7 – 0, the club officials were fined about $5,000 dollars, and some of them were suspended for a year. What’s incredible about this event is the willingness of the players and the officials to organize such a game, knowing the consequences. I doubt that this was the first mixed game (the first one to be discovered by the authorities, perhaps), and I doubt this will be the last.


It’s no secret that women aren’t even allowed in football stadiums, unless they’re watching a women-team play. The Ayotallahs argue that their reasons are moral and religious; women just can’t be around those foul-mouthed soccer hooligans, and they live in a country that implements strict gender segregation. Iranian women defied the authorities and forced their way into the Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) stadium, when Iran qualified for the World Cup by defeating Bahrain 1-0 (back in 2005). In 2006, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lifted the ban, claiming that allowing women in the stadiums would “promote chastity.” They must be given a chance to watch all sporting events and must be given the best seats in the house. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, quickly overruled the lift on the ban.

Offside is a good movie to watch about the struggle of female footy fans in Iran. It’s quirky, sweet, and captures the spirit of football better than most movies about this sport. After all, who else would know better the whimsical attraction and poignancy of football, than those who struggle for something as simple as watching a live game.

Paulson's Mini-Bailout for Football Stadium in Portland

Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin recently wrote a not-to-miss piece called, My Own Private Bailout, about US Treasury Secretary (and second division football team owner) Henry Paulson's attempts to use public money to build a new soccer stadium in Portland.

The piece brings up some important themes found in much of Zirin's other writings, about the relationship between local economies and professional sports in their current, corporate form. Though (particularly in the US) the latter is often touted as a means of developing the former, in a microcosm of wider trickle-down economic theory, the article touches upon some recent studies that have clarified things...

Recently, sports economists Dennis Coates of the University of Maryland and Brad Humphreys of the University of Alberta carried out research that asked whether building new stadiums to entice professional sports teams spurred the local economy.

In their study – which spanned nearly 30 years and examined almost 40 attempts to lure teams – they failed to discover a single example of a sports franchise jumpstarting the local economy. In fact, they uncovered the opposite trend: "a reduction in real per capita income over the entire metropolitan area".

They wrote: "Our conclusion, and that of nearly all academic economists studying this issue, is that professional sports generally have little, if any, positive effect on a city's economy."

Anyway, there's a lot in there, so check it out. It's good.

Arshavin Transfer Saga/Betrayal of Mother Russia Drags On...

The English Premier League's January transfer window is creaking shut this week. With the coffers of Premiership clubs and their billionaire sugar daddies having been affected by the latest global economic crisis, January has been much less of the event the media have tried to make of it. Indeed, the biggest story of this transfer window has to do with a move that didn't go through.

Man City reportedly offered $100m for this pie

One of the pastries that's been sitting in the transfer window long enough to have gone more than a little cold is Andrei Arshavin. Ever since his commanding performances at Euro 2008, where he made Sweden look their age and booted the much-fancied Dutch squad out of the party, there's been endless talk about Arshavin moving from Zenit St. Petersburg to one of the bigger European clubs, the most recent club in the picture being Arsenal.

The latest news about the saga revolves around Arshavin's "personal demands" which, depending on who you listen to, are either putting the entire transfer in jeopardy, or simply represent a minor quibble in an already done deal.

Groan.

Truth be told, Arshavin is a great footballer, but it was really the partnership between him and Roman Pavlyuchencko that lit up the Euros... a simple but elegant relationship of good service and clinical finishing. Now it seems that half of that pairing is headed to the Gunners, with the other half plying his trade at arch-rivals Spurs. Oh the irony of it all.

Of course, Arshavin was at one point last year supposed to be destined for Spurs himself, a rumor that apparently prompted much consternation in Russia and a stern rebuke from the Communists of the Leningrad/St Petersburg region:

"The behavior of Arshavin causes all communists and patriots to feel shame and disgust," the group's statement said, accusing the forward of "displaying for sale his body for many months in front of covetous Western clubs

"You have not yet lost all your morals, but you are half a step away. [If you join] Tottenham, or any other side, you will lose your spiritual connection with Mother Russia, and the Russian people will never forgive you. Zenit will survive without you, but can you survive without Leningrad, without your homeland?"

You really can't beat those Stalinists when it comes to ultra-nationalist hyperbole. Incidentally, had that deal gone through, it would have meant that Spurs had brought in Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko, Modric, and Corluka in quick succession... someone at that club was obviously watching the Euro 2008 highlights!

In any case, as a Leicester City supporter, I'm still teary-eyed at the sight of Martin O'Neill and Emile Heskey being reunited, even if it is at Aston Villa. Premiership transfers are indeed of particular interest to Leicester fans this season, with last year's big mover-shaker Robinho looking set to square off against the Foxes in the Championship come August.

Kickoff time!

And they're off!

As far as introductions go, this is more like your Sunday afternoon pub league than the World Cup. There's no national anthems, no processions out the tunnel with little kids decked in replica kits, no animated team sheets and no highlights reel... it's straight to the centre circle to talk about everything that matters, on and off the pitch.

Why politics?

Because nothing, especially not football, exists in a vacuum.

Why football?

Because it's not a matter of life and death, it's "much more important than that."

Because "in today’s world many people find football the only area of identity in which they recognize themselves and in which they really believe. Whatever the reasons may be, collective dignity has a lot to do with the passage of a ball flying through the air."

And because the world isn't flat, it's round!

So we're gonna keep our eyes on that big, round ball we call Planet Earth, and update this site as much as we can, filling it with whatever interesting articles, pictures, stories, and dodgy Youtube replays of goals we can either find, or create ourselves... keep checking in with us to see what's going on!