8th UEFA European Under U-19 Soccer Championship Elite Round
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When economists, activists, writers and fans turn up the heat in World Cup Fever, it feels like a Sweatshop. Though the debate sees the constant flipping of the two-sided coin of Globalization. As Franklin Foer said in a recent interview with Fareed Zakaria, “the World Cup is a paradox because it’s at once a great spectacle of globalization fueled by multi-national corporations giving the world this common language of soccer, but at the same time it’s a festival of nationalism, so people thought that globalization was going to smush nationalism and the World Cup proves that it can actually facilitate nationalism.”1
This comes reinforced by economic numbers, as Newsweek showed that, “Previous World Cup winner nations get up to a 4% GDP boost; the loser’s GDP drops about .3%.” We see the economic importance of the World Cup and Soccer through Foer, but what of Globalization’s other impact on human rights, trade and labor? The Clean Clothes Campaign, along with Oxfam, recently released reports on the plight of women workers in Thailand producing soccer balls. Particularly the adidas Teamgeist (team spirit) football, used during this year’s World Cup.
At this paradoxical interweaving of Soccer’s position in Globalization is what two scholars claim, “evokes a transcivilizational issue.” Reebok Chairman Paul Fireman made the decision to stop purchasing soccer balls from Pakistan if they continued to use child labor, revealing a progressive idealism in business. Fireman said, “We’d like to see everyone join with us, and although this will sound bizarre in the world of business, we’d rather see the world operate at a better level.”2
This executive idealism is in unison with some of Soccer Culture’s more altruistic moments. When child activist Iqbal Masih escaped slavery in Pakistan as a carpet weaver, he was murdered in the limelight of his crusade making him a martyr of the movement. This inspired another child activist, Craig Kielburger, of Canada to carry the torch of this crusade against child labor, eventually founding the Free The Children Foundation. Reebok had its role in this, granting Masih with the Reebok Human Rights Youth Action Award. Putting Fireman’s ideal in the public spotlight, which could easily lead World Cup and soccer fans to associate the Reebok brand as a responsible globally influential company. As much as this is possible, a multinational like Reebok can’t shake the corporate image so tainted by industry wide use of sweatshops.
The paradox grows ever more when considering Nike’s dominate role with Brazil’s iconic footballer, Ronaldo. As United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, Ronaldo is lionized by his efforts in Brazil and Kosovo to lift children out of poverty and into education. Nike can only hope to gain a respectable bit of pride-by-association through their sponsor deals. For instance Nike is a major sponsor of the Homeless World Cup, which lifts football talent out of poverty and onto the field. Though when players and coaches react to accusations made against companies like Nike, it can affect major sponsorship deals of not just pro, but college level teams. United Students Against Sweatshops have organized pressure across the country to cut sponsorship deals. This even drove St. John's University's soccer coach, Jim Keady, out of the job for refusing a $3.5 million Nike sponsorship for the school. Drove him out the job, but into a life-changing journey to Indonesia to live with Nike factory workers, the inspiration for his documentary Sweat. At a grassroots level, as Andrew Ross has noted, Nike has had its troubles with soccer fans too. In his book Low Pay, High Profile, Ross points out England’s Manchester United football club, whose fan based Stockholders “expressed their outrage to management at making a deal with the leading paymaster of global sweatshops”, that being Nike.3 Also noted by Donnelly and Petherick in their essay Worker’s Playtime?, “Although children are involved in the manufacture of sports and equipment other than soccer balls, and in other parts of the world…the focus has remained largely on the manufacture of soccer balls in South Asia. The authors go on to reveal that companies like Adidas-Salomon, Nike, Puma and Reebok continually violated their signed agreements prior to the 2002 World Cup to not use Child Labor.4
So do Child Laborers get playtime breaks, such as the 7,000 Pakistani children who got 6 cents an hour to make Nike soccer balls? One might ask Nike CEO Phil Knight what he meant when he said, “access to play should be a kid’s inalienable right.” 5 As much as companies have attempted to appease critics and weed out child labor from the soccer supply chain, the recent reports of the Clean Clothes Campaign expose that the problem also extends into other labor violations. Now that Adidas-Salomon owns Reebok its necessary to ask which faction of their efforts will take precedence: continued wage oppression or taking a global position in social responsibility. Its obvious of course how the corporations would respond to this, but the reality on the ground floor of factories is where action is louder than publicity. Both companies have codes of conduct and Adidas has a Standards of Engagement initiative with contracted factories throughout Southeast Asia. Unlike the boosts or drops caused by the World Cup in nationalistic economies, for multinational sport brands the championship kicks profits in one direction, up.
from: Gislynes Weblog
Remis Blog
Paityns Blog
With the EPL title decided–Chelsea–and La Liga set to go down this weekend–either Real Madrid or Barca–many of the World Cup squads have players in flux on league rosters and not soon after their seasons end they will need to be in camp with their World Cup squads getting ready for the monthlong tournament in South Africa.
How do these league races effect the World Cup? Well, every guy who’s playing the World Cup and is already “out of it” will have plenty of time to rest and recuperate–plus they will have time to mentally rest and recuperate.
It’s the mental aspect that helps the most as there are guys who are just bodies with no brains and they are simply tired of thinking. Look at someone like Kobe Bryant. He wins a Gold Medal in Beijing, then he wins the NBA title, but he had some down time between the two and he actually lost the NBA title before the Olympics in 2008.
I don’t know how he managed at the Olympics, but he is the exception to the rule because most people just wouldn’t be able to mentally handle the strain of losing, winning, doing the whole season, and winning a title.
The same is true here. Even the best players need a break and teams like Portugal and Argentina–who count on guys like Messi and Ronaldo–will have some early hiccups with their stars playing so late into their own club seasons.
I don’t expect these hiccups to be big, but they will be there. A few scares here and there before they pull themselves together, but if one of those hiccups lasts too long them someone is going to have a really bad summer.
I don’t wish it on anyone, I’m just saying. Club play is hard and doing it right before the World Cup is harder still.
photo credit: CLF
Soccer WAGs pose in Umbro’s World Championship Collection
May 5, 2010 – 9:00 am by King Ing
Umbro has designed these shirts to celebrate the 7 countries that have taken home the World Cup. And in an even better idea they have chosen some of the hottest soccer wives and girlfriends to model them.
Thankfully they got Peter Crouch’s fiancee Abigail Clancy to represent England. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some body paint.
While Alice Bregol, girlfriend of Alberto Gilardino represent Italy and Uruguay has Diego Forlan’s wife Zaira Nara
Marcell Jansen’s wife Julia Godicke dons the German colors, and Susana Werner, the wife of Julio Cesar wears the bright yellow of Brazil.
Gael Clichy’s wife Charlene Suric shows off the France design, while Luli Fernandez, the girlfriend of Pablo Mouche wears the Argentina uni.
For a little behind the scenes action of the photo shoot Umbro gives us this video. The accents are just killer.
