Sport

Jailed for watching football

Laura Schwartz reviews Offside, directed by Jafar Panahi Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad recently ruled that women would finally be allowed into the stadiums of football-mad Iran. When “supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei overturned this ruling on the grounds that it was un-Islamic for women to look at the uncovered arms and legs of male players, angry women football fans stormed the Azadi stadium in Tehran. Offside has been banned in its own country for its portrayal of this surreal mixture of football and fundamentalism. Jafar Panahi was inspired to make the film when his own daughter...

Reclaim The Game

The World Cup is with us, and for football fans, it's a fantastic celebration of the best of the beautiful game.

For most of us, it is a matter of supporting your team and respecting the right of others to do the same - whether it is England or one of the other 31. But the likes of the BNP are out...

Anyone but England?

I’m generally uninterested in anything connected to football — but a recent article by the SWP’s Keith Flett in tankie rag the Morning Star is really worth reading. Flett is quite literally a “man of letters” — he has a letter printed in the Guardian at least every couple of weeks, and apparently repeats this feat with numerous other publications, both bourgeois and leftist. Anyway, his latest wheeze on behalf of the SWP seems to be sucking up to the Stalinists via football commentary. Flett will not be supporting England in this year’s world cup. There are often racists attacks after England...

Anyone but England: the SWP and the World Cup

SWP man of letters Keith Flett really surpassed himself in today’s Morning Star (19 May 2006), with an article, Anyone but England: Socialists and the World Cup.

Flett says he won’t be supporting England in the World Cup because:
1) There are often racist attacks after England games,...

Two things that are annoying me at the moment

  1. Dry gardening magazine articles.

    Like this one. And adverts. And even a bloody Mayoral campaign.

    Fair enough if you just want a nice garden that you don't have to be arsed to water too often. But this is being marketed as the latest weapon in the war against climate change.

    Wake up. Global warming...

The Stolen Wealth Games

By Bryan Sketchley Aboriginal protesters and their supporters have set up camp a couple of hundred metres from the Government House, in Melbourne, where the Queen will be staying during her taxpayer-funded holiday in Australia. The camp has been set up in defiance of state Labor government, who for months tied Aboriginal representatives up in negotiations promising an officially sanctioned place to erect the tent embassy, only to renege a month out from the games. At the time Aboriginal people asserted that if no agreed place of camp was finalised they would erect the embassy in Kings Domain...

The first and the Best

By Heenal Rajani We should remember George Best for his football alone and not his decline. All the rest, everything else that has contributed to the legend of George Best, is supplementary, incidental. Remember his achievements, remember how Best and a few other men helped to heal a city devastated by the Munich air crash (of February 1958 in which 23 Manchester United players, staff and supporters died). Some unkind commentators have remarked that Best’s death has only been covered with such volume because most sports journalists are middle-aged Manchester United fans. Unfair. He deserves...

Olympics 2012: who will win?

There will be gold medals for corporate sponsors, TV networks, sportswear manufacturers and politicians. But will Hackney’s workers and communities get the wooden spoon? The Olympic Games are big business. But unless we put up a fight, we could end up with ‘regeneration’ that pushes up prices, reduces our green space, and creates facilities that local residents can not afford. Property developers will use the opportunity to make a ‘land grab’. And Ken Livingstone expects us to pay for this through the already-extortionate Council Tax! Hackney Trades Union Council is to launch a campaign...

Haggerston Pool newsletter June 2005

LABURNUM STREET PARTY 3rd JULY This year's Laburnum Street Party to celebrate the 101st birthday of Haggerston Pool will be on Sunday 3rd July from 12 - 6pm. There will be a big stage in the street with djs, mcs (including Haunted House from Kiss FM), r&b singers, elvis singalike, chinese childrens dancing and much more. Also lots of stalls with food, games, bric-a-brac, plus the playbus, bouncy castle, facepainting, clown and a football tournament. To book stalls or take part, please call on general number below. Thanks to our funders so far, the Single Community Program, Canalside Housing...

Market morals at Man U

By Mick Duncan The American billionaire Malcolm Glazer, has succeeded in his bid to take control of Manchester United, causing a huge backlash among the soccer club’s supporters. Supporters think that Glazer’s buy-out is too heavily “leveraged” — it has taken the most profitable and debt-free club in the country and overnight put it hundreds of millions of pounds into debt. Fans fear higher ticket prices and declining performance on the pitch. But they are also angry about the general direction of the club. Over the past decade or so UK soccer has enjoyed something of a renaissance. Match...

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