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DEL.ICIO.USDisgrace for the ‘Old Lady?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was going to start this entry with some various World Cup news, but Thursday’s shock resignation of the entire Juventus board with the club needing only a point to win another Serie A title is too hard to ignore.
This is usually the time of year Italian soccer conspiracy theorists are ranting and raving about how ‘Juve’ pulls off so many titles — by having matches fixed. But the soap opera appears to be more than just melodrama this year, after Juventus general director Luciano Moggi was heard on taped phone conversations discussing referees with the league’s head of officials.
On Friday, police raided the offices of the Italian soccer federation, with AC Milan, other other Serie A powerhouse, Lazio and Fiorentina also being probed. Juve is the famed grand ‘Old Lady’ of Italian soccer, with such splendid players as Nedved, Del Piero, Vieira and Ibrahimovic leading the way for club, as well as country in the World Cup.
It’s a scandal that may prompt little more than shoulder-shrugging over here, but the fact that big clubs — not the Cagliaris, Lecces, etc. are getting seriously looked at could be a watershed in Italy, where match fixing, financial scams and generic corruption is a part of the soccer fabric.
I’m getting to the Brewhouse early Saturday for the F.A. Cup final, my first at that hallowed hall of footy splendor in the heart of helmetball land. Liverpool goes for its seventh crown in this esteemed event against West Ham. Didn’t think the Reds would have any steam left after starting in mid-July, but a great finish in the Prem and getting to this final compensate for crashing out in Europe. And even Stevie G says this has been his best year.
Update: Yes, Chris, there may be bigger trophies out there, but good God, what an incredible performance by Stevie G! West Ham thoroughly outplayed Liverpool, but if he’s on your team, you’ve always got a chance.
The Brewhouse crowd got a cameo appearance late into extra time from none other than Elvis Costello. And he looked every part the Little Five Points denizen: dark black, almost dyed hair, with a black trenchcoat and wide black-rimmed glasses. He had a show with the Atlanta Symphony Saturday night and it seems he’s a West Ham fan, since he bounced out of there with fellow Hammers as soon as Reina turned away Ferdinand’s PK. But at least he knows where Mecca is when he comes to Atlanta.
Road Wanderers FC, aka the Atlanta Silverbacks, continue their away slate Sunday at Miami, where Romario has made an appearance on the field, and probably mucho more in South Beach.
The U.S. World Cup camp has begun in the teeming metropolis of Cary, N.C., which means the boys are getting a bit of ink and air time. It’s still just a trickle, but the quadriennial Footy 101 lessons have begun.
My pal Grahame Jones of the L.A. Times had some fun earlier this week picking apart comments from the Commander-in-Chief to a German magazine. I normally don’t like to link to sites that require registration, but this read’s a hoot. Key quote from Dubya:
“A lot of us grew up without any connection to soccer — me, for example,” Bush told the newspaper. “But there is a new generation that has grown up with soccer. They obviously have a great interest in the World Cup.”
Pish, posh, says Grahame, pointing out that Clint Dempsey, a kid from Nacogdoches (aka, Naca-damn-nowhere, I’ve been there) in the ex-governor’s own state, will be playing in the World Cup for the good ol’ USA.
The first part of that remark reminds me of something I read in Soccer America during the 2000 presidential race, when some soccer-playing school kids in New Hampshire hit Bush up for an answer about his favorite MLS team.
“Well, uh, fellas, I’m kinduva baseball guy,” Bush said, in that now-famous heh-heh snicker. Fast forward six-plus years to reveal the progress of one man’s soccer education.
“Some of us older fellas are starting to understand how important the World Cup is for the whole world,” Bush told Bild (the magazine in question.)
If not starting wars, occupying other countries, setting up secret prisons and wiretapping the home folks, yedy yedy.
I’ve got the perfect soccer book to send to the White House: Pete Davies’ hilarious ‘Twenty-Two Foreigners in Funny Shorts,’ which is just as relevant now as when it was written, for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.
And chock full of heh-hehs. Even for a fella who doesn’t do a whole lotta reading.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By BMOQ
May 12, 2006 10:13 PM | Link to this
Soccer? Who cares? Certainly not anybody here in the good ol’ US of A except those twenty-two guys in the funny shorts. And you prove your ignorance when you say wiretaps, there were no wiretaps, all they looked at was the number of calls and where they were placed not they content of the call. The phone companies do the same thing on a regular basis just to be able to plan for future cabling needs.
By john
May 12, 2006 11:06 PM | Link to this
Why is it that soccer bloggers can not keep soccer and politics seperate?
By Michael
May 12, 2006 11:34 PM | Link to this
I don’t remember if this was mentioned in that article but pappy Bush played soccer at Yale. The NASL was around for a little while as well. People around 30 like myself grew up without a soccer league until we were in high school and many of us grasped it quickly.
It sure would be nice if he could at least pretend like he really really cared about the World Cup. I think Bill Clinton invited the 1999 Women’s team to the White House, although there could’ve been alterior motives. :)
Three weeks until the Silverbacks play a home game. Lordy.
By the pig
May 13, 2006 5:09 AM | Link to this
wendy… stick to the game
i love the game
i hate politics (it’s politics either side)… keep to the damn game
i will not link this putrid crap
and grahame (aka: her royal majesty) is an jerk and an idiot… you might want to dump him as a friend
By Chris in Spain
May 13, 2006 6:29 AM | Link to this
20 Euros (sorry, hard to get greenbacks here!) says Romario doesn’t suit up against the ‘Backs on Sunday. From what I’ve heard he has a clause in his contract that stipulates that he doesn’t have to play 2 games in the same weekend.
No mention of the Lady ‘Backs? 2 games, 2 wins! Did Leslie quit?
And I’ll be joining you for the FA Cup final, across the Atlantic, mind you. A few pints, some homemade curry and my job as “bar policeman” to keep the hooligans over at the Dutch bar next door. Cheers.
By Chris in Spain
May 14, 2006 7:24 AM | Link to this
All I’m going to do is repeat something you told me this time last year:
There are bigger trophies to win.
By Wendy Parker
May 14, 2006 11:39 AM | Link to this
Oh, here comes the “keep the game separate from politics” crowd.
Folks, a reminder: The game of soccer just about everywhere in the world is rife with politics. Dictactors in Africa have been known to hand-select World Cup teams. The former prime minister of Italy (GWB’s pal Berlusconi) built his political career by becoming the head of its most popular soccer club, AC Milan. Barcelona became for many in Spain one of the rare symbols of resistance to Franco’s regime, especially when it beat “his” team, Real Madrid. Dutch legend Johan Cruyff backed out of playing in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina because of his disapproval of the regime there.
These are only a handful of examples. There are thousands more.
The World Cup is less than a month away, and this is by far the sport in the world that seeps deeper into the culture, the fabric, the psyche and yes, the politics, of so many nations than any other. You will be hearing a lot about this between now and July 9, and hardly on this modest forum.
In America, we like to think we put sports on a pedestal. Then again, there are the obligatory fighter jets flying over during the national anthem at the Super Bowl, an event synonymous with flexing our patriotic pride and military muscle. This display rarely draws the hackles of the “keep sports and politics separate” crowd. Where are any of you then?
The fascination of the World Cup, and the international game of soccer, at least to me, is that it doesn’t pretend to be this idyllic, pastoral escape from the world. It is deeply a part of it, with all the joy, beauty, ugliness and mendacity that makes up the human condition. It is far more than entertainment, which is what we are happy as Pavlovian dogs to put up with, while the government tracks our phone calls and bookstore purchases, saber-rattles with another crazy Middle East dictator and prepares to put National Guard troops along the Mexican border to satisfy the restless nativists.
As for Clinton, no love lost there. I had to stand outside the locker room after a night game in D.C. in the ‘99 WC quarterfinals because he couldn’t extricate himself from visiting with The Girls of Summer. They said Hillary was in there too, but I ain’t buying it. Almost missed my deadline. Politics and sports certainly mixed far too long on that particular evening.
By Jack Dundee
May 14, 2006 10:09 PM | Link to this
And we wonder why people call soccer a communist sport??
By Henry
May 15, 2006 8:21 AM | Link to this
Soccer (Football) is more influencial in world and local politics than politics is in soccer. Acctually all types of sports are. Some, specially in the press, cannot understand this. When I lived in Brasil I lived through three revolution. Only Futeball was imuned to any political violence, passion is a different story. So people get with it and concentrate on the World Cup politics, called Soccer.
By thetooth
May 15, 2006 3:20 PM | Link to this
Wendy, Your comments about the current administration have absolutely nothing to do with soccer or the World Cup. If I want an “educated” view on current US politics I will read the Opinion or News pages. Keep your personal opinions/biases about our government to yourself. Your attempt to cross over into “legitimate” news is unwarranted and reeks of self-importance. Your connection between soccer and politics in the US is admittedly weak at best.
If you can’t write a weekly soccer blog without peppering it with personal political beliefs, (in addition to the insistent derrogatory references to “Yanks,” and other cute British phrases) perhaps you should contact the OP-ED board.
Of course, if this is your attempt to create controversy in hopes of obtaining a greater following, I can assure you that a weekly soccer blog on AJC.com will probably not lead to such fortune. Terrance Moore is effective at this, but he actually gets published…
Wendy, a reminder: “the game of soccer just about everywhere in the world is rife with politics.” Of course, such is not the case in the US, so why the inference?
By Michael
May 16, 2006 12:49 AM | Link to this
Soccer is a communist sport because most of the world plays it and most of the world is communist.
Wait a second. Something wrong with that.
But as Wendy says, everybody seems to LOVE mixing politics with sports. Find a sporting event that doesn’t involve the national anthem. We never did it before spelling bees or band concerts. Hell, NASCAR takes it a step above and beyond by making it a 4-hour political and religious rally.
Plus if you really think politics and soccer are seperate, go check out the San Antonio expansion and Real Salt Lake Stadium issues.
By Wendy Parker
May 16, 2006 7:10 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the career advice, thetooth, but I’ll pepper this blog as I like, since it is my creation and my real, full name goes on top of every entry. I was commenting on what appeared in another publication about the president and the World Cup. That’s a lot of what blogging is all about.
Another mainstay of blogging is this: You’re free to comment as you like and I make no attempt to muzzle you or anyone else who posts here. Too bad you don’t share that notion of one of the quintessential freedoms of living in Freedom’s Land.
When David O’Brien writes about his favorite bands in his Braves blog (which he does far more than I do about politics), would you tell him to keep his musical opinions to himself — again, on his own blog? I dare you.
By Nicholas Irwin
May 17, 2006 6:58 PM | Link to this
Numerous people have, Wendy, and you’ll be happy to know that he either ignores them or basically says the same thing you just did.
By Wu Ming 1
May 25, 2006 8:51 AM | Link to this
It ain’t only about soccer. This scandal is much bigger, investigations started from soccer match-fixing but now they’re impacting on Italian national politics and the economy. It’s the beginning of a powerful domino effect, more and more teams (and their owners, including former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi) are being dragged into the scandal, this will have an influence on the World Cup, and certainly it’s having an influence in other countries, like Britain, as contracts between Italian and British clubs are already under investigation. I set up a lens-page on squidoo with frequent updates on the scandal, background info, rss feeds etc. It’s here: http://www.squidoo.com/italiansoccer