soccer

September 25, 2013

For the past week the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup has enraptured Tahiti. There have been sell-out crowds at the To’ata stadium in Papeete and a carnival atmosphere has pervaded throughout the famed holiday destination. Normally, however, the sport which garners the most attention in French Polynesia is va’a, the traditional Polynesian paddling pastime. Now the two events have merged on one special afternoon on Papeete harbour.

Sports fans who call themselves the "Yid Army" have been warned they face potential criminal prosecution amid a crackdown by soccer chiefs that has triggered debate in Britain about whether the so-called "Y" word is acceptable. Long-simmering controversy over whether supporters of London's Tottenham Hotspur Football Club -- known as Spurs -- should be permitted to chant the word "Yid" during games exploded when authorities warned that chanting the term could result in fans being fined up to $1600 and being banned from stadiums across the U.K. and abroad.

The Afghan capital erupted in joyous pandemonium Wednesday night after the national soccer team defeated India to win the South Asian Football Federation championship. It was the first international soccer trophy ever for the war-weary nation and the first ebullient mass outpouring anyone here could remember.

Although doubts about Brazil’s readiness to host next year’s World Cup have focused on renovations at 12 stadiums, some Brazil trade experts say they are more concerned about travel logistics and whether airports, mass transit systems, hotels and railroads will be up to handling the crush of visitors. “The infrastructure behind the games is what will be complicated for Brazilians and foreign tourists,” said Marcelo Rocha e Silva Zorovich, a Sao Paulo business consultant who is a visiting researcher at the University of Miami.

Researchers from the Catholic Univeristy of Leuven in Belgium looked at data from the English Premier League -- the soccer league with the highest number of international players -- to look at differences in the number of penalties collected by players from different regions of Europe. If you believed the stereotype that southern Europeans were picking up the most penalties... well, yeah you're right.

North Korea's women's football (soccer) team is on a rare visit to Seoul to play in the East Asia Cup and on July 21 will take on rival South Korea. While relations between the teams remain tense, analysts say the friendly sports exchange could help improve relations on the peninsula.

Cultural exchange takes on many forms. In Cloquet, the pulp and paper mill’s viability as an employer is intact because of its willingness to travel and learn what the rest of the world’s mills offered. So, there’s that. There’s also this: without cultural exchange, Adam Kangas may have gone a lifetime believing Swedes drove on the left side of the road. Why not? It’s a common assumption all Europeans drive on the left side.

The delegation, made up of Singaporeans from 14 to 20 years old, were specifically chosen for the trip as part of a goodwill mission on behalf of the US Embassy and had the opportunity to see first-hand the structure of the youth development programs in the US. The group visited American professional women's team Portland Thorns FC,in Oregon before making their way to California to explore San Francisco and meet with faculty members at Stanford University.

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