The World Cup: What happens when the crowds go home?

The World Cup is the the world's greatest sporting event.

For an entire month, people from every corner of the globe are riveted by these world class athletes and the magic they perform with their feet, their head and a ball. This is why Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns heads to New York City every summer to play in the city's many soccer leagues and why people everywhere are cramming into bars, clubs, stadiums and pubic squares at insane hours to cheer for their national or adopted favorite team.

Goals are infrequent. They are hard earned, generally by the creative and brilliant work of many. As a result they are more valued than even the home run which has been almost commonplace through a combination of weight training and chemicals

I love the competition, the international camaraderie and the brilliance of athletes like Messi, Park Ji-Sung, Rooney and Howard. But in a country as poor and unequal as South Africa, it is hard to justify the costs of hosting the games. Once they are over and the cheering stops, South Africa will be left with enormous debts in addition to its overwhelming social and economic problems.

This is the first World Cup played on African Soil. But the claims that it is an "African" event ring hollow. In reality it is a sanitized spectacle run by and for multinational corporations and global elites.

Whether the administrators and sponsors like it or not, the games are highlighting the gulf between the haves and the have-nots.

Take, for example, Royal Bafokeng Stadium, where England and the US met on Saturday night. It cost $82 million to build, and its recently refurbished stands are hosting business executives from some of the world's biggest corporations. While they live it up at the World Cup, in the surrounding 29 villages that make up the tiny Bafokeng kingdom within South Africa, most live in abject poverty despite the region's platinum wealth.

South African sociologist Chris Bowman writes in the Harvard Business Review:

Relying on tax subsidies, the South African organizers have built five world-class stadiums, renovated two existing football stadiums and a further three rugby stadiums, and made additional significant infrastructure changes — all at a cost in excess of 30 billion South African rand, double what was predicted in 2006.

This is in a country where poverty is extreme: The Gini coefficient of income inequality, a metric on a zero-to-one scale with higher numbers representing greater disparity, has risen from 0.66 in 1993 to 0.70 in 2008 (the U.S., for comparison, is at 0.45). Racial apartheid has been replaced by class apartheid and unemployment hovers around 40%.

Scarce public resources have been diverted from much-needed public projects to a spectacle that generates significant revenue — but mainly for FIFA, football's governing body, and big corporations. In presenting FIFA with a "risk-free opportunity on African soil," to quote their bid, the South African organizers structured the tournament so as to allow FIFA to generate vast profits through marketing and broadcasting rights.

The result: The 2010 World Cup is already proving lucrative for FIFA — Jerome Valcke, the organization's secretary general, recently announced that income has increased by 50% since the last event.

But the economic benefits for South Africans will be very slim. In fact, many citizens — indeed, many Africans of all nationalities — will be excluded, due to expensive tickets and a complicated ticketing system. Though less than 10% of the South African population has internet access, tickets were initially sold online. Local traders have been barred from selling food, beverages, and soccer merchandise outside the stadiums. Local factories were not even awarded the contract to produce the official mascot, Zakumi — instead, the work went to a factory in Shanghai.

The 2010 World Cup has gotten off to splendid start with large enthusiastic crowds and stirring performances. With favorites like Brazil and the Ivory Coast yet to play and stars like Kaka and Ronaldo working their magic, these games, despite the controversy over the ball and the noise of the vuvuzelas,, are meeting the expectations of football fans everywhere.

The games have also generated enormous enthusiasm among South Africans who are justifiably proud of hosting the event on African soil for the first time. But after the games are over and the money is counted, very little will flow back to the South African communities that need it the most.

The Fugees: soccer, hope,redemption and the immigrant experience

Two years ago, Warren St John of the New York Times, wrote an article about a soccer club composed of refugees from some of the most violent nations in the world and their volunteer coach, a young woman, Luma Mufleh.

It is an inspiring story about how Ms Mufleh, an immigrant herself, used soccer as a vehicle to help her players adapt to their new lives in the United States.

While the experiences of these athletes are unique and in many cases horrifying, generations of immigrants have built soccer clubs in the US and used them as a supportive community to understand and adapt to their new circumstances.

Long before the soccer had established a foothold in Milwaukee's suburbs, immigrants had organized ethnic clubs like Verdi, the Bavarians, the Serbs, the Croatian Eagles, and Polonia. Many of Milwaukee's soccer legends like Bob Gansler and Mario Carini played for these clubs that were firmly rooted in the city's immigrant neighborhoods. One of the largest clubs in Milwaukee today, Club Latino, continues this tradition.

St John has now written a book, "Outcasts United," about the Fugees soccer club which is shorthand for Refugees. It's a great read. To learn more about the Fugees and how soccer serves as an effective vehicle for self expression and acculturation read the book or watch attached video.

The Fugees: soccer, hope and redemption in Georgia

The Fugees, think refugees without the re, are a soccer team and so much more.

Sports Illustrated's article reports on this remarkable team that reveals the redemptive power of sports.

Soccer, footwork and basketball

Over the past decade there has been a big increase in the number of foreign-born players in the NBA.

The three stars on the NBA's reigning champion, the San Antonio Spurs, are Tim Duncan (Virgin Islands), Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginóbili (Argentina). Their rivals in this years Western playoffs are the LA Lakers who have six players who were raised overseas including the NBA's MVP, Kobe Bryant.

The New York Times', Billy Witz, writes that this is no accident. All of these athletes and others like Steve Nash (Canada) and Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), are former soccer players who benefited from international football's emphasis on footwork, angles, spacing, and movement without the ball.

The article is linked here.

Iraq soccer star calls for US withdrawal!

Sport, at its best, captures the publics’ imagination, unleashes its passions and can be a force for progressive change.

When Joe Lewis knocked out Max Schmeling millions of Black Americans erupted with vindicated joy!

When the young African American, Jesse Owens, won four gold medals while setting three world records at the 1936 Berlin, “Nazi” Olympics he challenged Hitler’s claims of Aryan supremacy and inspired freedom loving people everywhere.

France’s 1998 World Cup victory undermined the growing influence of the anti-immigrant, xenophobic National Front that had criticized the team for not being white enough. Led by Zinédine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, who scored two goals in the 3-0 championship victory over Brazil, the multiracial squad included several players such as Thierry Henry whose families had immigrated from former French colonies.

Like Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson. Roberto Clemente, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Tommy Smith, John Carlos, Martina Navratilova, and Muhammad Ali before them, the victorious French team used the spotlight to promote human and civil rights.

Led by Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly, the entire team appealed to the public to reject the presidential candidacy of the National Front’s Jean-Marie Le Pen. They endorsed the re-election of President Jacques Chirac who won in a landslide.

Iraq’s national soccer team stunning 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup last month continues the rich tradition that links competition and political resistance.

It was Iraq’s first championship ever. The victory brought all Iraqis, Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis, together in raucous celebrations across their war torn country.

The winning goal came on a corner kick by Hawar Mohammed, a Kurd, headed into the net by the team’s captain, Mahmoud, a Sunni Turkoman from Kirkuk. It was an inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides. But the athletes’ elation was tempered by the reality of the on-going US occupation of their homeland.

Immediately after the game, Mahmoud, the team’s captain and final winning star, called for the United States to withdraw its troops from his nation. “I want America to go out,” he said. “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.

Goalkeeper Noor Sabri Abbas, a Shiite, played a central role in the Iraqi team’s progress through the tournament. He posted four consecutive shutouts, including the semi-final victory over South Korea where he blocked two shots in the final shootout after a regulation 0-0 tie, resulting in a 4-3 victory for the Iraqi team. During the tournament, Sabri’s brother-in-law was killed in a bombing. Two other team members also lost relatives during the tournament.

Coach Jorvan Vieira and Mahmoud wore black armbands during the post game news conference to commemorate the dozens of fans killed in Iraq during celebrations following their semifinal victory. “It’s very clear, from our arms, our respect to the people who died when we put Korea out of the competition,” Vieira said. “This victory we offer to the families of those people.”

Mahmoud, captain, star and opponent of the US invasion, said he would not return to Iraq. “I don’t want the Iraqi people to be angry with me,” he said. But “if I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me.” He added, “One of my closest friends, they came to arrest him, and for one year neither me nor his family knew where he is.”

Other incidents in the month-long tournament reflected the terrible conditions in the war-torn country. Mahmoud was detained at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand for 12 hours and nearly missed the opening game. The entire team wore black armbands for the final against Saudi Arabia to honor the memory of the dozens of fans killed by two car bombs during celebrations of the semi-final victory.

Iraq, whose only World Cup appearance was in 1986, dominated the Saudis, three-time Asian Cup champions. Now Iraq joins the United States, Brazil, Italy and host South Africa at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup along with the champions of Europe, Africa and Oceania.

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