Football will save the worldFollow

International law is a complex subject, but there's one thing we can all agree on: To be a proper and recognised international state, you need an international football team. Up until now, the Palestinians had a football team, but no home ground. A fitting parallel for a country that had a people, but no territory.

Until yesterday, that is, when Palestine played an international football game on home soil for the first time in its history.



Some people might think that is a joke, but it's not. International football is serious buisness.

I remember the '98 World Cup when Iran and the US played each other and exchanged flowers, a first sign of diplomatic communication. Even more momentous was Armenia's recent game against Turkey, in Armenia, which Turkey's President attended. Which, if you know anything about the history between those two countries, is a gigantic step forward. You'll know Kosovo is a proper state when it's competing in the Euro Qualifying Group. You'll know there's peace in the ME when Israel starts playing in the Asian Qualifying Group, instead of the European one, as it currently is.

Next step is a friendly match between Israel and Palestine, which might just happen if Netanyahu doesn't win the Israeli elections in February. I'll keep you posted.

yeah there's been one riot in the last 10 years and it's "the order of the day"...

Welcome to the 1990's.

And there are how many tennis/baseball games compared to football worldwide?

Seriously, every single country in the world plays football. There's abound to be a few idiots amongst the lot. Saying riots are the "order of the day" in football is like saying terrorism is the "order of the day" in the Muslim religion. It's simply ridiculous.

[quote=RedPhoenixxx]

And there are how many tennis/baseball games compared to football worldwide?

Seriously, every single country in the world plays football. There's abound to be a few idiots amongst the lot. Saying riots are the "order of the day" in football is like saying terrorism is the "order of the day" in the Muslim religion. It's simply ridiculous.
[/quote

Oh, excuse my hyperbole. Perhaps its the countries and people involved that are actually the problem. I can't recall a single riot at an NFL game, nor anyone crushed to death by the press of the crowd. Maybe its just a European thing.

Wow. Where did these Pallys get the money for all the uniforms, paddings, helmets, goalposts, referees, chain markers, and cheerleaders? It pretty cool that they are embracing that wonderful American sport of football though. It certainly beats that really gay soccer "sport" --if you can call a bunch of floppers playing a game that entails lots of standing around waiting for a 1-1 tie to finally end.

RACK those Muzzies for finally getting with the program.

Totem

I can't tell if you're being serious or if you're just trolling. If it's the latter, forget the rest of this post.

If it's the former, what the fuck crawled up your *** this morning?

Let's be clear: I don't really think football will "save the world". I don't think anything will "save the world". In fact, I don't even think the world needs saving. Better management, perhaps, but not "saving". It follows therefore that the OP was slightly tongue-in-cheek.

Don't get me wrong, I do think football is a force for good in the world. I think it brings people and communities together, and that it allows angry young men to channel their aggression into something peaceful and relatively harmless. The history of football is an incredible one: football was used a political propaganda tool, as a resistant movement to political oppression, as an expression of religious belief, it has brought contries to the brink of wars, and helped achieve peace in others. Football is nothing per se, but it's an incredible catalyst, as well as a very powerful conveyor of human expressions, emotions and identity. These can be religious, class-based, ethnic, nationalist, you name it.

There's a brilliant book called "Football againt the ennemy", I suggest you read it if you think football can be defined by a single incident in the mid-80s. That's what the OP reffered to, football as an expression of nationalist aspiration. It's all part of the narrative of the history of football.

To answer your post, the reason why there are no riots at NFL games might just be because the NFL is a multi-million dollar industry that is incredibly tightly regulated. Or maybe because there are *32* NFL teams compared to tens of thousands of football clubs around the world? Or maybe because people simply don't care enough about the NFL to give it more than a shrug when things go wrong. I don't know, you tell me.

I'm not especially interested in having a spectacularly informative debate about which is better football or the NFL. It's a bit like asking what's better, celeri or courgettes? Hmmm. Courgette definetely, I mean they're all green and purple, that's so much more awesome than celeri.

I can't tell if you're serious either (actually I can, I'm just not being serious now).

My only point was to illustrate what a ridiculous notion it was that a game with so much violence and death so closely associated with it was going to "save the world".

As for what crawled up my *** this morning.... the class I'm in right now is both incredibly boring and frustrating. I can't say how my reaction to that my have affected my posting this morning.

In relative terms, football doesn't have much violence and death associated with it, especially today.

I think you're missing the big picture. Hundreds of thousands of football games are played, every week, every year, around the world, and no one dies. I don't think you understand the scale at which this game is played, nor the places it's being played in.

The articles you linked are both from Africa, where the facilities are *horrendous*. Getting tens of thousand of people into decrepit stadiums with 19th Century facilities is bound to cause some problems, sometimes. But it's not football that's at fault, it's the congregation of individuals into tight and unsafe places.

The articles I linked showing stampedes in religious festivals highlights this. It's not "football", it's facilities, and it's stupid people.

Amen brother, amen.

But no worries, football will save them!

Soccer is for pu55ies and little kids.

Totem

There's a tend in there somewhere?

Oh wait it could because it's the fUcking third world.

Are you seriously compairing Zimbabwian football with Detroit? Please tell you are not that fUcking stupid.

try and find a death in an English football match related to anything other than natural causes in the last 15 years and maybe just maybe i'll treat youwith something other than utter comtempt.

Cnut.

Not really last time I checked Glasgow Rangers wheren't English and the Rioting took place 10 miles away from the game and had exactly zero to do with the football and everything to do with the main screen in the area set aside for the guys who wanted to drink themselves into oblivion watching the game broke 5 minutes into the game.

Can you imagine what would happen in times square with 20000 drunk Americans watching the Giants in the superbowl in a specially set up area only for the screen to stop working 5 minutes into the game and never coming back on.

Really?