Portland has taken one more step towards actually fielding an MLS team in 2011. The Mayor and Merritt Paulson, owner of the USL Timbers and AAA Portland Beavers, reached a tenative stadium renovation agreement yesterday.
This MLS to Portland ordeal is being drawn out longer than an American Idol results show. MLS initially awarded a club to the city in March and the principals (the city and club owner Merritt Paulson) have been squabling about stadium renovation financing ever since. First, there was an advisory committee that recommended a two stadium proposal (renovation for PGE Park and a new stadium for the soon-to-be displaced Triple-A baseball team), then the City did not approve that recommendation, then they decoupled the two stadiums from each other, and now it is just a PGE Park renovation proposal.
No vote has been scheduled has been scheduled but that appears a mere formality as the required three votes seem secure.. The renovations will be several million dollars less than originally proposed (but who knows if there will be overruns) at $31M. Paulson chips in $8M of his own money for the repairs and will prepay $11M of rent for the facility, leaving the city to finance another $11M, which the City will pay off with revenue from ticket sales and rent. Of note, Paulson gets out of this one without putting up a personal guaranty, which had been a part of the initial proposal.
It is not a done deal yet because there has been no vote on it and only an outline of the proposal has been made public. There is plenty of time to find holes in the plan and surely the vocal opponents will be looking very hard for any mistakes.
Friday, July 10, 2009
One Step Closer to MLS in Portland
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Forced Retirements in Iranian Football
Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh. As if you didn't know.While we don't often delve into politics around here, the situation in Iran is having a direct impact on football, and if that is what it takes to get us to pay attention, then so be it. We have already established that former (current?) president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks that the post-election protests are no worse than your typical footy-related riot. You know, improper elections, losing to Oman. Tomayto-tomahto.
See, when your country has a bit of an issue with secularity and democracy (what, you don't really believe that the Iranian president is in charge of the country, do you?), and the younger generation are increasingly embarrassed by/disgusted with the Holocaust-denying, US-baiting president, it would seem important to have fair elections. Of course, given those issues it is unlikely that a fair election would occur. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a "landslide" victory, mostly due to votes being tallied in areas that exceeded the number of registered voters in those areas. This caused hundreds of thousands to march in the streets of Tehran, resulting in the death of hundreds at the hands of the Basij.
In times such as these, clearly dangerous for protesters, no act of protest can be considered small. So the world was surprised, and impressed, when the Iranian national team wore green wristbands in support of Mousavi, the opposition candidate, during their World Cup Qualifier against South Korea last Wednesday. Sadly, we were not surprised when those same wristbands were missing in the 2nd half of that match. Clearly, an Iranian official had told the players to remove them as they were an affront to Ahmadinejad. However, those officials could not admit that the players were supporting the opposition candidate, so we were all told that the wristbands were religious symbols and that they were removed to avoid "speculation and misunderstanding."
Still, if those were truly religious symbols then the players should have nothing to fear from the Iranian government, right? Well, it turns out that those Iranian officials may been lying. I know, it's shocking!
Following the arrest of Mohsen Safayi Farahani, the former president of Iranian football, on Saturday, four of the players to have sported the green wristbands on the pitch have been given lifetime bans by the Iranian Football Federation. Ali Karimi (31 years old), Mehdi Mahdavikia (32), Hosein Ka'abi (24!) and Vahid Hashemian (32) have all been forcibly retired from the entire sport (both international and domestic competition) and it is unclear if they would have to appeal to FIFA to be reinstated if they wished to play in another domestic league. The footballing fate of other players to have worn the wristband is unknown at this time, but I would suggest treading lightly around Tehran. Mahdavikia, in particular, may want to take special care as he kept his green captain's armband throughout the entire match despite the half-time admonitions. However, none of the 4 have too many options for fleeing the country to protect themselves, as the Iranian Football Federation did not return their passports.
As the situation in Iran continues to deteriorate (people won't be happy that the Guardian Council is refusing to re-run the election), we should keep an eye on the fate of these 4 faces of the opposition movement.
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Thursday, April 16, 2009
WWOS: Who Would Obama Support?
There's been some speculation-- that's to say, full-throated debate, hair-pulling, and name-calling-- in these quarters over what footy club the President of the United States would/should/does support.
In his column for the NYT Monday, George Vescey referenced Mr. Obama's [loose] ties to West Ham. But that's hard for a lot of us here to swallow. This president isn't blowing anything... least among them, Bubbles. Forever. And we can say, though I'll have to confirm with GBWTF, that his style sense is about 3,745 notches above your classiest Hammer chav.
Join me for some baseless speculation... after the jump!
So what is it really for El Presidente?
We know Mexico and South America are weighing heavily on his mind these days, and given his concern about access to higher education, might he be on the blackberry right now finding the best price for the new Estudiantes strip?
Or, given his success with the latino electorate in SoCal, perhaps there's a Chivas scarf in his closet?
He seems pretty popular in Germany-- could Mr. Obama be a closet Hertha freak?
The President has been derided in some trog righty circles as being too quick to please Europe. So, as far as pleasing in Europe goes, would it be so far-fetched to suspect he has a soft spot for the Nou Camp Catalans? They're clever, successful... beautiful to watch...
And then there's always the possibility that Barack's African, Southeast Asian, and Muslim roots have pointed him toward the likes of Hearts of Oak or Haras El Hodoud.
Just some test balloons here. So what is it UF, who does the president support? Who should he support? Please back up your opinion with some implausible-yet-empirical evidence!
p.s. He's not, nor would he ever be a Gooner. It's a weak argument, so don't bother.
Read more on "WWOS: Who Would Obama Support?"...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Silence, Bande de Cretins!
La Marseillaise is one of the most recognizable songs in the world, and is generally considered to be the greatest national anthem ever written. The lyrics recount the struggle during the French Revolution, and are filled with vivid imagery such "May a tainted blood irrigate our furrows."
Now, we French take the sanctity of the French language very seriously, even enacting a law (Loi Toubon) to protect against the infiltration of non-French words into French society. This goes back as far as 1635, when Cardinal Richelieu established L'Academie Francaise to act as the official authority on all matters concerning the French language. So what does all this mean?
Like I said, we take the French language very seriously.
Yesterday (Tuesday, October 14th), France played against Tunisia in a friendly. Although the match was played in Paris at the Stade de France, many of the 60,000 spectators were Tunisian. Given the history of French colonialism, this is not surprising. However, given the context of that history, it should not have come as a shock that many of the Tunisian supporters whistled during the playing of La Marseillaise.
In France, as in much of Europe, whistling is extremely derogatory and is considered even more offensive than booing. This has happened before, against Algeria in October 2001 and against Morocco in November 2007 (both friendlies, and both against former French colonies). 
This time, the opposing supporters took things even further, whistling at Hatem ben Arfa as he was announced. Ben Arfa was born in France to Tunisian parents, and the Tunisian Football Association spent a great deal of time trying to convince him to play for that national team, which was obviously unsuccessful. While Domenech stated that he was "moved" by the beautiful singing of both national anthems by several franco-tunisian women, he claimed that he simply ignored the negative energy from the crowd.
The rest of France, however, did not. Prime Minister François Fillon called the whistling "insulting for France and the French players", while Bernard Laporte, the ministerial secretary of state for sport, was quoted as saying that France should no longer play friendly matches against their North African former colonies. After meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Sports Minister Roslyne Bachelot stated that in the future any matches at which La Marseillaise was interrupted by poor sportsmanship would be stopped immediately. She went on to state:"Government members will immediately leave the arena where our national anthem has been whistled. When whistling of our antional anthem happens, all friendly games with the country concerned will be suspended for a period yet to be determined by the federation president."
Unfortunately, Jean-Marie Le Pen also felt the need to open up his yap. The far-right (way far right) mouthpiece declared that the whistling of La Marseillaise was a sign that the multicultural experiment of France is not working.
I've discussed before the appelation of the national team as "Les Blacks, Blancs, et Beurs", a concept of which Le Pen is not fond. Incidents such as those of yesterday simply give this asinine man even more ammunition for his National Front party ramblings.
Certainly, the history of French colonialism in North Africa is a painful one (on both sides), and it is understandable that resentment against racism (both state-supported and individual) is present.
But really, how can you boo the greatest national anthem ever written?
To recap:
If you are English and boo Cashley Cole, that is acceptable.
If you are anyone and you disrespect La Marseillaise, we will hunt you down and beat you with a baguette. Or maybe we'll just take our ball and go home.
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