Beitar Jerusalem and Arab clubs: A surprising look at the history of soccer in Israel

The Beitar Jerusalem soccer team – today a hotbed of ultranationalism – and Arab teams were once so cordial that the Palestinian Football Association suggested Beitar join it. And when other Jewish teams discriminated against Arab clubs, it was Beitar that helped the latter

The first game played in the Jerusalem YMCA soccer field, 1933. Credit: Central Zionist Archives, from “Defending the Goal”

US Olympic Trials: Gwen Berry turns away from flag during anthem

Hammer thrower Gwen Berry turned away from the American flag during the playing of the national anthem at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

A fist raised and a knee taken: US gold medalists Gwen Berry and Race Imboden protest racism, social injustice

“Somebody has to talk about the things that are too uncomfortable to talk about. Somebody has to stand for all of the injustices that are going on in America and a president who’s making it worse,” said hammer thrower Gwen Berry

Olympic fencing medallist Race Imboden took a knee in protest during his team’s foil medal ceremony at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru on August 9, 2019

American gold medalist fencer Race Imboden took a knee and hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist – as other politically-engaged athletes have done in the past – during the playing of the US national anthem at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, to protest social injustice and to call attention to their country’s racism, mistreatment of immigrants, and ongoing gun violence epidemic.

XVIII Pan Am Games: A world away

By TONY SEED

Do you remember the Pan-American Games in 2015 in Toronto? It was a festival of sport and friendship of more than 6,000 young athletes from the Americas with venues throughout Southern Ontario. To raise the army of volunteers needed for various tasks, more than 60,000 people came forward to be selected, and of these only a third were chosen. Canada organized a delegation of its top athletes, who finished second in the medal standing. The Rogers Centre was packed for the closing ceremonies. The hosts built more than ten new facilities and 15 others were remodelled, to inspire the crowds that filled them. The privately-owned Hamilton Tiger Cats even finally walked away with a new stadium paid for by public tax dollars and renamed after some coffee chain owned in Brazil.

This day. The Black Power salute

October 16 marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Black Power protest at the 1968 Olympics 200m medal ceremony by African American athletes Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (right), the gold and bronze medalists. Peter Norman (left), the silver medalist from Australia and an opponent of the White Australia policy, displayed the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). This was – and is – a powerful example of defiance in the face of racist oppression, in particular, and for human rights for all, in general.

Mesut Özil walks away from Germany team citing ‘racism and disrespect’

• Özil attacks DFB president Reinhard Grindel in statement 

• ‘I am German when we win, an immigrant when we lose’

Mesut Özil was part of the Germany team that was eliminated from the World Cup at the group stage in Russia

Reuters (July 22) – Mesut Özil has announced his retirement from international football with immediate effect, the midfielder hitting out at what he perceived to be unfair discrimination surrounding his meeting with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in May.

I’ve got some things to say

The Player’s Tribune has published a series of first person life stories of footballers competing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. One of the more compelling is that of ROMELU LUKAKU, the outstanding Belgian striker. Something he says struck a chord, reminiscent of the Canadian media’s attitude towards world class sprinter Ben Johnson in the 1980s. When things were going well for him, we read articles calling him Ben Johnson, the Canadian champion. After he had been incriminated with steroids, they called him Ben Johnson, the immigrant from Jamaica.

Sam Robles | The Players’ Tribune

Who is singing now?

By TONY SEED

(July 11, revised July 19) – The world has been saved from an England-France Brexit final at the 2018 World Cup, renditions of “Three Lions” and “Rule Britannia” in the stadiums, and the tsunami of British chauvinism unashamedly embraced by the Canadian media.

What goes around, comes around. The dodgy English threw their final match in the opening round with Belgium back on June 28 with the pretext of resting players and avoiding injuries for the Round of 16. “Sometimes, you have to make decisions with the bigger picture, and that’s what I did tonight,” rationalized head coach Gareth Southgate at the time – as if the decision was his and his alone. That “bigger picture” seems to have included getting a better draw in the knockout stage, that is, to avoid Brazil and therein build the size of the betting pool, the TV market, the revenues of the English Football Association, and a “hearts and minds” diversion from the Brexit crisis at home – giving a new definition to match fixing and a level playing field. Such are the elastic ethics of England. 

Croatia at centre of World Cup cover-up as FIFA admit secret let-off over fans’ fascist banners

Getty Images

The British press has seemingly discovered the unsavoury behaviour of Croat fans. Not the athletes, but of regular citizens who become fans and hooligans and travel around showing their true colours, as in a football World Cup held in a country which lost 28 million people during World War II to Hitlerite Germany.

2018 World Cup: British über alles – great nation chauvinism

Panama’s Felipe Baloy exploits an English defensive mix-up and slides the ball into the corner for a historic goal.

BY TONY SEED

England humiliated “little Panama” 6-1 on Sunday in Nizhny Novgorod. One newspaper (the Herald Sun) called its team a “fraud.” The TV broadcasters and the four members of the TSN “World Cup Panel” – all British, two from Yorkshire – oohed and awed over the superior English performance. The London Guardian unashamedly rejoiced: “Panama hammered by England in World Cup walkover.” The Independent screamed that the great power “can go all the way” and win the World Cup. A Guardian photo spread selectively featured four shots of Panama players “manhandling” and “bear hugging” the innocent and virtuous Englishmen, the so-called inventors of the game. This from a country where UK Sport was forced to conduct in 2017 a “root and branch review” of its policies following reports of a culture of fear in organisations as diverse as British Cycling, British Swimming, British Bobsleigh and British Gymnastics. This hubris and the whole concept of “hammering” and a “rout” by a great power over a small nation completely negates the modern spirit of friendship, respect and appreciation of all peoples and their right to be. It is British über alles of the imperialist era.