SPORTS: Soccer

At the WAIS 2001 conference, there will be a session on sports, organized by Carlos López, a Chilean who, in addition to teaching at Menlo College, is a well-known authority on soccer. The session will have as its topic: "Do world sports contribute to international and racial understanding? The amazing rise of soccer as THE world sport."

Soccer began as a popular sport in England. It has spread all around the globe, and South America has produced superb players and millions of fans (an abbreviation of fanatics). The soccer federation FIFA recently chose the best two players of the last decade. One was Pelé of Brazil, the other Maradona of Argentina. Bravo!!

However, Chile has produced some hooligans. Why Chile, I do not know. At a recent game with Argentina in Buenos Aires, violence broke out. It was even worse at a game in Santiago between two Chilean teams. Many arrests were made. Chilean TV showed a crazed individual brandishing a dagger and stabbing people. It was a bloody scene. In both cases it was suspected that politics was involved.

So is money, since soccer has become big money. Latin American soccer players are sold to European teams for huge sums. Sometimes they obtain false European passports, since the European league limits the number of non Europeans each team may have. There has been a major scandal in Brazil, where sums received from Europe for these players must be reported to the Bank of Brazil and exchanged for Brazilian currency. Team owners found several ways to get around this law. One was to transfer the players to Uruguay, which has no such law, and from there to Europe. This is one of many forms of money-laundering, which has become a global activity, against which the European Union is now trying to take action.

Do sports contribute to international understanding? We must strike a balance.

Ronald Hilton - 12/17/00