Thailand, Political Unrest, and Soccer

As you may have heard, things aren’t going so well in Thailand these days. What’s notable is that the man at the center of the upheaval, exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, has strong ties to soccer.
After Thanksin was deposed in a 2006 coup, he regrouped and purchased the Manchester City football club–after previously trying to [...]

Obama and the World Cup

President Obama, who’s set to aid and abet Mayor Daley’s latest, costliest vanity project, is also now throwing his weight behind the U.S.’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup:
“Soccer is truly the world’s sport, and the World Cup promotes camaraderie and friendly competition across the globe,” Obama added in the letter, a [...]

Ahmadinejad’s Soccer Power Play

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, like Mike Krzyzewski and Jeff Samardzija, has a surname I will never fail to copy and paste, was hoping a recent World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia would help him curry favor with voters. However, Iran squandered a late lead and lost the home match, 2-1. Ahmadinejad then quickly moved [...]

Israel Soccer’s Raw Deal

After a crushing loss to Greece, it’s almost certain that Israel will once again fail to qualify for the World Cup. Israel is by no means a soccer power, but their qualifying road is harder than it should be.
For years, Israel competed within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) because doing so made perfect geographic sense. [...]

Kissinger and the World Cup

Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is now throwing his considerable powers behind the effort to bring the World Cup back to the U.S.:
In a news conference Monday, Kissinger stressed how the World Cup drew record crowds in the United States. But there is [...]

Soccer Diplomacy – Brazil

As Brazil angles for a seat on the UN Security Council, the nation’s footballers are being drawn into the fray. Brazil recently played a friendly in downtrodden Haiti, a gesture to curry favor with UN decision-makers. However, a number of notable Brazilian soccer stars weren’t able to attend because AC Milan and Bayern Munich refused [...]

Ivory Coast Fallout

Following the deaths of 19 soccer fans at an Ivory Coast stadium (originally reported as 22 dead), people are asking: what happened? What’s known is that there was a stampede to get inside the stadium before the start of a World Cup qualifying match against Malawi. What’s less certain is who’s to blame.
Some say spectators [...]

This Week in Soccer Violence

With World Cup qualifiers going on around the globe, the hooligans are out in full force. Some dispatches …
Ivory Coast vs. Malawi:
A stampede at a soccer match in the Ivory Coast killed at least 22 people and wounded 132 yesterday, authorities said. Fans at the Felix Houphouet-Boig-ny arena pushed against each other shortly before the [...]

Berlusconi and Football

Goal.com profiles Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi and the role soccer played in his rise to political power. Berlusconi purchased AC Milan in the mid 1980s, when the club was hemorrhaging money and not winning many matches. Berlusconi pumped money into the franchise, shifted to an aggressive, attacking style, and signed a number of foreign stars. [...]

South Africa’s Bad Week

As mentioned below and elsewhere in Spolitical, South Africa’s snubbing of the Dalai Lama has opened up the 2010 World Cup hosts to much criticism. Now, mere days after denying an entry visa to the (generally) beloved Tibetan spiritual leader, South Africa has decided to bestow a lofty state honor–one previously given to MLK and [...]