Tagged with Football

Boycotting Qatar World Cup 2022

Qatar_2022Sport and the left have not always been the most comfortable of bedfellows. Despite many famous left leaning sports stars over the years, sport remains associated with individual achievement and cut throat competition.

Yet the major international trade union campaign set to dominate the rest of the 2020’s involves arguably the biggest sporting event; the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Controversy has surrounded the staging of the competition in the dictatorial country ever since labour analysts found last year that an astonishing 4000 migrant workers could be dead from preventable industrial diseases and accidents by 2022.

More than 1,000 workers have already been killed whilst building the infrastructure that will deliver the World Cup. Continue reading →

State of Play: Euro 2013, Football and Palestine

In the autumn of 2011 Philosophy Football met Honey Thalijeh, then captain of the Palestine Women’s Football team. Inspired by what she told us about what football meant to her country we promised that when Euro 2013 opened in Israel we would be in Palestine.

From 5-18 June Israel hosts the second biggest international team tournament in European football, the Euro 2013 Under 21’s Championship. Its the biggest international sporting event ever held in Israel. And England have a decent chance of winning. Continue reading →

Di Canio in Swindon, the Dog that Didn’t Bark

Mark Haddon’s book The Curious Incident Of the Dog In the Night-time was set in Swindon, referencing the famous dictum by Sherlock Holmes, in the story The Silver Blaze.

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Throughout the recent furore concerning Paulo Di Canio, the contrast between the reaction to his appointment at Sunderland and his appointment at Swindon has been pronounced. For example, pompous Tory idiot Iain Dale: Continue reading →

Paulo Di Canio: We Must Prevent Fascism Becoming Acceptible

I was delighted at the response of David Miliband in resigning as vice chair of Sunderland after the appointment of open fascist Paulo di Canio as manager. Since then, Durham NUM have asked for their banner to be returned, up until now proudly displayed at the Stadium of Light:

Davey Hopper, General Secretary of the NUM in Durham, and a former secretary at Monkwearmouth pit – on which Sunderland’s Stadium of Light is built – said the fury of his members had sparked the move.

He said: “We are writing to the club asking for the return of the banner unless Di Canio says he is not a fascist. Otherwise his appointment will besmirch the memory of the miners who lost their lives in the fight against fascism in World War II.

“We do not want our union associated with the club now.”

Back in 2011, Wiltshire and Swindon GMB, where I am branch secretary, withdrew our sponsorship and commercial links with Swindon Town FC, when they appointed Di Canio. During the twelve months up to that point we had provided £350 in direct sponsorship, and £3500 in business to the conference/catering arm as we used the club venue for training. Continue reading →

Can you be a fascist, Paolo Di Canio, without being a racist?

A lot has been made of Sunderland Football Club’s new manager Paolo Di Canio’s previous comments and actions, that have been expressly fascist in nature. The accusations, that Di Canio now call “ridiculous and pathetic”, include giving roman salutes to A.S. Roma fans (who are known to have a wide Jewish following), a recorded interview in 2005 where Di Canio said he was a fascist, not a racist, and a ‘Dux’ tattoo on his arm referring to Il Duce, Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

He has once described Mussolini as “basically a very principled, ethical individual” who was “deeply misunderstood”. To be rather (too) charitable to Di Canio, when he says Mussolini was misunderstood, this probably refers to the notion that unlike in Germany, Italian fascism was primarily predicated on authoritarianism, not race hatred. Indeed Di Canio says today that, apart from the fact he is not a politician and dislikes taking questions about his previous comments, that he has never disliked anybody – a further denial of his possible racism. Continue reading →