The One World Futbol Project: Let The Games Begin!

Khartoum, Sudan

Every once in a while, your Bloguero stumbles across something that delights him, that brings great joy and excitement to him, that he just has to share with you. It happened again this week. And the joy is still bubbling inside your Bloguero. This time it's the One World Futbol Project.

Your bloguero found this through Facebook, and this article in the Times. And in this New York Times video.

What is it? It is absolutely brilliant. Delightful. Wonderful. Here you go:

Soccer, known in most of the world as “football” or “futbol,” is the world’s most popular sport, with billions of fans and hundreds of millions of amateur players worldwide. Unfortunately, the traditional soccer ball poses some problems — it can be easily punctured or ruptured. It requires frequent inflation with a pump and needle, which are easily broken or lost. As a result, the phenomenon and waste of deflated soccer balls is a common sight in the backyards of families with soccer players at home. The short life‐span of traditional balls, and the expense of replacing them, means young people in disadvantaged communities are often left to play soccer with rocks, cans, or “rag balls” made from trash, plastic bags, and string.

Our mission at the One World Futbol Project is to make a meaningful impact on the lives of youth around the world through the One World Futbol, a virtually-indestructible ball that never goes flat and never needs a pump. Our goal is to bring the joy of soccer and play to youth in disadvantaged communities so that children can be children no matter where they live.

The problem with traditional balls is obvious. If you play outside on cement, or sand, or dirt, or anything but a groomed pitch from the Barclay's Premier League, the balls die a quick death. The panels fall off. They deflate. They get holes in them that can't be repaired. They scuff or scrape right through. A beautiful ball one minute can be a useless carcass the next. Who can replace the ball when it was donated in the first place? When there's no money, no store, there's no replacement. Even balls made of garbage and duct tape are better than that. Because when they get used up and fall apart, there's always more garbage and duct tape to make a replacement.

The other thing is the cost. You can get cheap balls in the US and other places that last about thirty seconds in play, and you can get expensive balls, costing more than $100 each, and everything in between. But if you're not in the US, or you don't have money, or you're living in poor countries or even in richer countries without super sports stores, it's hard to find a ball, let alone an affordable one. ball. And if you're lucky and you find one or are given one, it lasts only a relatively short while. And then, oof, it's used up and useless and cannot really be satisfactorily repaired.

Enter the One World Futbol Project. And the ball:

Virtually-Indestructible. Unlike any inflatable ball on the market, the One World Futbol never needs a pump and never goes flat, even if punctured. The ball is made using state-of-the-art technology that requires no stitching and is designed to have the same rebound characteristics as a traditional soccer ball. It’s the same size and weight as a standard soccer ball, but it can also be used for netball, volleyball, and many other games.

All-terrain. The One World Futbol is ideal for any playing surface, not just grass or regulation soccer fields: indoors, on concrete, on blacktop, on grass, on a beach, on dirt, or even on a rocky field. The ball can withstand the harshest conditions without deflating.

Sustainability. The ultra-durability of the One World Futbol also helps meet a significant environmental challenge by eliminating the waste of discarded, punctured soccer balls. In Africa alone, 20 million deflated balls make their way into trash heaps every year.

Buy One, Give One. For every One World Futbol you buy through our “Buy One, Give One” program, we give a second ball to children and youth in need through organizations working in disadvantaged communities such as refugee camps, war zones, disaster area and inner cities.

No Child Labor. Many traditional soccer balls are still stitched together by hand by children and adults working under deplorable conditions in Pakistan, China, and India. The One World Futbol is manufactured using state-of-the-art technology that does not require stitching.

Your Bloguero read this. It was clear to him. He said, "I gotta have one of these balls. And I gotta have it right now!" Your Bloguero just loves this. It makes him smile. This the solution to something your Bloguero always saw as a problem.

It was only then in his excitement that your Bloguero discovered the best part. The very best part. The part that has him jumping up and down. The part that inspired this post. It's this: When you buy a ball for yourself or as a gift, One World Futbol donates another one. Let your Bloguero say that yet again with a smile:

Buy One, Give One. For every One World Futbol you buy through our “Buy One, Give One” program, we give a second ball to children and youth in need through organizations working in disadvantaged communities such as refugee camps, war zones, disaster area and inner cities.

Want one or a dozen or a case of these balls yet? Here you go! Buy one, give one.

And that's not all. Check this out! This is just wonderful.

Your Bloguero loves all of this. He asks you to please pass it on. After all, it's the world game, and it's just gotten so much better!!

Boca Juniors v. River Plate on TV Today

This is why nothing is getting written. Nothing is getting done. 3 pm. Fox Espanol. This is not to be missed. El duelo de titanes en la Bombonera!

h/t nomoreonionbags

The Champions League Final 8

Barcelona's Xavi and Lyon's Benzema

Once again, the English Premier League dominates with 4 teams: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. The other 4: Bayern Munich, Porto, Barcelona, and Villareal. There are no Italian teams left. The draw for who plays whom is on 3/20/09 at 4 pm ET.

These are eight fantastic teams. And there's a chance that two of the English teams will meet in the coming round. I'm excited.

Barack, Say It Ain't So!

Here's trouble. The Telegraph reported a year ago that president-elect Obama's favorite Premier League team is West Ham. Obama hasn't denied the story. Oh, puhleez! Barack, say it ain't so!

The key question hanging over Barack Obama's White House credentials has been answered - the Democrat has been revealed to be a West Ham United fan.

As the 46-year-old's campaign to become America's first black president moves into overdrive, Obama has declared his fondness for the Claret and Blues quarter of east London.

According to reports, the US senator has been a fan of the Hammers ever since a trip to England five years ago and watches Premier League games whenever his busy schedule allows.

Of course, Bill and Hillary Clinton are reported to be Man U fans. As is Nelson Mandela. That's despicable in my view, but at least Man U is at the top of the table.

But West Ham? As of today, West Ham is 10th in the Premier League, with a record of 7 wins, 5 draws, and 9, that's right 9 losses. And it has a -4 goal differential. The team plays 9th place Fulham tomorrow. I'm pulling for Fulham.

What about this team could it possibly be that deserves any of Barack Obama's attention? I just don't get it. Not at all. I hope and pray it's not an augury of things to come. Things like stubbornly backing abject losers. Supporting failed strategies. Inadequate defense. Uncoordinated offense. Poor planning. This I could expect from Bush, who has no idea what the Premier League is, but from Obama?

Meanwhile, it's reported that Osama bin Ladin apparently is/was a fan of Arsenal:

First there was Osama bin Laden's association with Arsenal, which led to the north Londoners reportedly banning the terrorist from attending any future games.

Bin Laden was apparently on the terraces as Arsenal side reached the final of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1994 season. The man behind the Sept 11 attack was rumoured to be so smitten with the Gunners that he bought a replica kit for his eldest son.

I have no idea what to make of that.

Ebbsfleet United!!! My Football Club!!!!

Ebbsfleet (in red) Beats Torquay in the FA Trophy Final

Imagine my surprise, when today's New York Times reported on Ebbsfleet United, the football (that's soccer to the gringos) club that is owned by its fans, including me. The Times writes:

LONDON — Wembley Stadium is usually the stage for some of the most glamorous names in soccer, yet 26,000 spectators were there in May, most of them clad in red and white to support tiny Ebbsfleet United in a cup final match against Torquay United. It was an incredible turnout for such a small team, considering that many had never heard of it until a few months earlier, when they got together over the Internet and decided to buy it.

Watching from the stands was Will Brooks, the architect of one of the world’s most unusual sports experiments.

“Twelve months ago this was all a dream, and now we’ve gone to Wembley,” he said.

For Brooks and the rest of Ebbsfleet’s fans/owners, the trip was a success. Their team prevailed, 1-0, and won the F.A. Trophy for English soccer’s equivalent of minor league clubs — the biggest prize in Ebbsfleet’s 116-year history.

Brooks, a 37-year-old former advertising copywriter, set up a Web site in 2007 called MyFootballClub.co.uk that asked a simple question: how many people would be interested in pooling their money to buy a soccer club, so that ordinary fans could vote on every decision, from uniform design to player selection? More than $400,000 was raised on the first day of public registration.

The Web fantasy became reality when members voted in February to take over Ebbsfleet United, a tiny, unsuccessful club in southeast England, for slightly less than $1 million.

MyFootballClub has about 31,000 members/owners from all over the world (including the author of this article), all of whom pay an annual subscription of about $60 to be a member of the nonprofit trust that owns “the Fleet.”

And most important, one of the 31,000 members/owner from all over the world is your truly.

Why would somebody do this, you might ask? Why would somebody spend the princely sum of $60 +/- per year to own a share of a professional sports team, especially an English football team that is four five divisions below the Premier League? And why would somebody proudly wear an owner/manager t-shirt for Ebbsfleet?

This is the kind of thing that, if you don't get it instantly, it's very hard to explain. It might even be impossible to explain if it doesn't light you up on hearing it.

I love the game. I love the game in its disorganized, pick up form, and in its most star filled, regimented, corporate package. I love the game when the ball is made of rags and duct tape. I love the game when it's played before 50,000 screaming fans. And I love the game at all the spots in between. I'd rather watch re-runs of Boca Juniors playing River Plate in the rain in a scoreless tie than most professional US football (pigskin) games.

So the chance to play a new role in the game, as if I were a small scale Sir Alex or George Steinbrenner or Roman Abramovich, is just delicious. It's fantastically exciting! Let's face it, I can make some room in the upper arcana of teams I like to follow for Ebbsfleet United, of which I am a proud owner.

And to top it off, I'm delighted to bring this kind of inexpensive, democratic ownership to sport. After all is said and done, Ebbsfleet United is a great experiment and I want to see it succeed. It's something great that the Internet has made possible. Its success will inspire other groups of people to own other clubs. We will slowly take ownership of the sport back from the undeserving, spoiled, greedy billionaires, spread it around, and make it a widespread, public phenomenon.

You can get involved in this too. Click this.

Tears On Opening Day In Condado Del Diablo

The beautiful game

This isn't about America's so-called pastime, major league baseball, which begins tonight with the Braves playing the Nats and Commander Codpiece McFlyboy throwing out the ceremonial first ball. No. This is about something smaller, more intimate, and in many ways, much more a game of the People. It's about futbol, soccer, and how anti-immigrant local legislation in Northern Virginia has destroyed the local leagues.

It's an infuriating story. I'm angered not just because I love to play this game, but because of the important role it plays in the community. I doubt you've heard about this before.

This essay begins in July, 2007. The Christian Science Monitor reported then that local communities, including Prince William County, Virginia, which has about 40,000 undocumented residents, had decided to enforce immigration laws, something formerly thought to be a federal function, because Congress couldn't pass an immigration bill:

In the past, cities that welcomed diversity and new immigrants made a point of refusing to let their police officers help federal agents identify people who might be in the US illegally. Others worried that their departments would be slapped with harassment or racial-profiling lawsuits if they became involved in enforcing US immigration laws.

But when political leaders in Prince William County saw national reform legislation falter last month in the Senate, they approved their own immigration-reform resolution that, among other things, would give local police a shot at enforcement.

To that end, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on July 10 to allow county police officers the authority to check the citizenship status of anyone they've stopped or arrested whom they have "probable cause" to believe is in the US illegally. The county board has yet to define "probable cause," but board chairman Corey Stewart says it may be based on whether a person has a driver's license.

The county "has reached a boiling point," says Mr. Stewart. An influx of illegal immigrants over the past four years has led to overcrowded houses and schools, overstretched public services, and a rising problem with gangs, he says.

The Washington Times reported at the same time in July:

Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart, at-large Republican, commended his colleagues for "stepping up to the plate" and taking action on immigration enforcement when the federal government has failed to do so.

"We're going to do what we can," he said prior to the vote, which came after nearly four hours of impassioned testimony from people for and against the tough policies. "We know this is a federal issue, but I think the citizens have a right to expect that their local government and the state government are going to do whatever they can to address the problem."

The resolution, introduced last month by Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr., Gainesville Republican, was amended before the meeting yesterday to clarify the circumstances under which county staff — including police — should ask about immigration status.

The resolution calls for the police department to establish standards of probable cause and methods by which officers can determine lawful presence, then report back to the board within 60 days.

There don't appear to be any recent news reports about the standards for probable cause.

And now, let's pick up the story in March, 2008. The law is still on the books. The law is still being enforced. There has been no reported litigation to end local enforcement of this law. And the WaPO reports that the "crackdown on illegal immigration [has] quieted" Prince William County's soccer fields:

As Prince William proceeds with its crackdown on illegal immigrants, one result is a shake-up and shrinking of the area's entrenched Hispanic soccer leagues. The reason is simple, organizers say: Players and fans, among them many illegal immigrants, are so worried about being detained by authorities en route to or at games that they are avoiding local fields. Legal immigrants are also wary, for themselves or their illegal relatives, organizers say.

"I have never felt as good as I felt in Manassas," said Hector Bardales, 26, a Sterling mechanic who plays in four of the region's leagues but most loved the crowds who cheered him on when he donned his Honduras de Manassas uniform. But he is in the country illegally, so Manassas is now no man's land, he said. "I would play in any county except Prince William."

Officials have said the policy is not meant to intimidate but to remove illegal immigrants, particularly those who commit crimes. The imperiled leagues draw little sympathy from backers of the county's enforcement program.

"I would hope that the soccer leagues didn't depend on illegal aliens to make them viable," said Greg Letiecq, president of Help Save Manassas, an anti-illegal-immigration group. "It just doesn't seem like a valid reason for overturning the rule-of-law resolution: because without the illegal aliens, the soccer clubs will all fall apart."

And so ends an important feature of community life in Northern Virginia. Some teams are moving to other, safer counties, and some are not playing. The four main Latino leagues in Prince William County had 80 teams last season; there are fewer than 50 this year. The biggest and oldest league, the Liga de Manassas, is skipping the season entirely because it has fewer than half its teams playing. In other words, the legislation has destroyed the league, and it's destroyed the games.

Games used to be played on weekends from April through October at various fields and they used to attract crowds who could hear bands play, eat ethnic food (pupusas, if you're Honduran), and let their kids play. Security guards curbed rowdiness and crews cleaned the fields after the games. Matches could be heard on Spanish-language radio. You can wave good by to all of that now. Adios.

To try to allay fears, league owners have hosted team meetings at which police have explained the county's policy, which took effect [at the start of March] and requires officers to check the immigration status of crime suspects who they think might be in the country illegally. There are to be no immigration checkpoints, racial profiling or sidelines raids, the teams were told. The meetings have had little impact, league owners said.

That's no surprise that the talks haven't changed anything. With such obvious and outspoken animus against immigrants, only a fool can take the assurances at face value that there will be no raids. You have to be crazy to drive to the game. You have to be nuts to sit in the stands. "This is what they have nicknamed this county: the Devil's County. They call it Condado del Diablo." Because here, a game, in particular a lovely and fun game, futbol, can get you harassed, land you in jail, get you deported, and split up your family. It's just not worth the risk.

Would we see this kind of fear, this kind of jackbooted enforcement if our congresspersons would do their jobs and tend to the immigration issue? Would we see this kind of erosion in the community? Would we see this kind of pervading fear? Would this kind of "enforcement" be permitted? I doubt it. I'd like to think that our congresspersons were busy with other things, so they couldn't quite reach this issue, but to be frank, this is just another example of their fecklessness, their cowardice, and their inability to come to grips with important issues, their being neglectful and their letting our communities rot.

I'm too old to play effective defense any more. I get tired and winded. My agility has faded. I find myself more and more grabbing onto the shirts of offensive players, slowing them down however I can, evading the referees' eyes, pushing them away from the goal. This in itself is beautiful. It makes me feel ageless. If I didn't love the game, would I still be trying to do this?

I just cannot believe that our politics has found a way to destroy even these leagues, even this game. I shed a tear for the beautiful game that won't be played. And I'm so very sorry and sad that my companeros in Prince William County, to whom these games are so important and so much a passion, are having to stay home this Spring.

Homenaje a Cancun

Cancun, despite whatever anybody may have told you, is a literary destination after all. It has fewer bookstores per capita than even Las Vegas. But to its credit, there is a Mayan guy who wanders up and down the beach with a sandwich board. It says, "Beer 20 pesos, Used books 15 pesos, Villanelles 30 pesos, Sestinas 30 pesos." Is this some kind of joke, I wonder. Evidently not. I spent a grand total of US$6.50. I got a very cold Superior beer with a slice of lime, a used copy of Roberto Bolano's Night in Chile, and a sestina. The sestina was unusual and somewhat disappointing. It was mostly words in Mayan but rounded itself out by having the rhymes in Spanish. I was impressed. Others might not be. But seriously, what kind of sestina can you get anywhere else for US$3.00? Or more bluntly, how many rhymes can you get for US$3.00, forget about what language they might be in.

In his novel, Diana, which is not his best work by a long shot, Carlos Fuentes complains about the quality of paper in Mexico. It's cheap, but the pen goes through the page, and the pages disintegrate in the humidity. The pages don't smell good either. OK. He won the Cervantes prize so he knows about this. And he's Mexican. Fine. So I needed a notebook on June 7, 2007. In Super Mar Caribe, my favorite small mini mart, I found one. It is perfect. It has squares on every page and on the cover a picture of Tweety Bird kicking a soccer ball and the logo of the Mexican Football Team. It's about the run up to the 2006 World Cup, and it says, "Nos vamos al mundial!!" It was US$2.50. It says in small print on the back that it was made in Chile. There are dozens more of these on the shelf. There are enough to give every single writer in Quintana Roo a chance. A chance to wander the beaches of Cancun selling beer and haikus, fruit juice and essays, ice cream and used books.