Fiction

It was the last match of Group 2 qualifier for the 2050 World Championship. Bulgaria was receiving Scotland at the Sofia Glorious People's Arena. The game was sold out despite the incidents in the previous match where eight fans of the visiting side had been killed (two of them lynched under the burning crosses outside the stadium), and which had led to a 500 Euro fine by UEFA, and the rule that no banners of the League for White Europeans would be allowed within 50 meters of the stadium.
Scotland's star player, Kwame McMurthy, had expressed that he did not want to go to Bulgaria: the previous year the Celtic striker Alastair Nsonowa had been discapacitated for life after a racist attack in the player tunnel during a European match (this had led to a 100 Euro fine and two match suspension from being streamed online). The threats were numerous and many right-wing fan groups (there were basically no other fan groups any longer) were openly showing the weapons they planned to bring to the stadium under the resigned acceptance of authorities. A few Bulgarian newspapers even displayed large banners with pictures of the burning crosses from the previous match with the caption: "Welcome to OUR Sofia, Kwame".
Despite McMurthy's fear for his life, UEFA had publicly announced that his refusal to play the match would go against his contractual sponsor obligations, leading to a million Euro fine, McMurthy being disqualified from all football for life, and Scotland being banned from all football for ten years. The Scotting football federation had also asked that McMurthy be provided extra protection, but UEFA had said that they fully trusted the Bulgarian authorities to provide the necessary security.

Amid the widespread violence and death there are no news of the result of the match, but it is known that most of the Scotting players never played football again, and that after reiterating its commitment to fight racism in all its forms, UEFA fined Bulgaria 500 Euros and an unprecedented five matches were not to be streamed online.
But nothing helped, and within a few decades football was dead: Children and youth, growing up in a more diverse and tolerant society (if sadly not yet inclusive),  massively turned away from a sport that seemed to accept that it had become the exclusive playground of ignorant racism, xenophobia, discrimination and violence.
And nobody shed a f...ing tear.

Bulgarian disgust

Today I read about the dreadful match between Bulgaria and England, with the awful racist behaviour by Bulgarian fans. While I am happy that the English players decided to let the football talk by showing their superiority to the fifth rate Bulgarian side (just because of their lack of quality, personality and courage, every single player should be disqualified) by trashing them 0-6 on their own ugly soil, this remains unacceptable. I do not understand that UEFA at the same time say that they will "wage war on racists", while they can be in any doubt about the punishment: disqualify Bulgaria from all football for at least four years! This is doable and would send an important signal about UEFA's real commitment to fight racism, although I would go even farther and ban Bulgarian clubs and players from playing outside their own country (if they are so proud of it, why not...?).
Otherwise, this is just another example of football's disgusting appeal to the worst of humanity. The English players reacted the correct and gentlemanly way, but that is a rare exception in the game of football.

RIP 'Blue Girl'

Although I have all but abandoned football, the story of Sahar Khodayari ("Blue Girl"), really saddened me.
It saddened me because she was a young girl who saw no other way but to kill herself; it saddened me for the inaction of so many over so many years, for an outright violation that has existed for so long; it saddened me for the women and girls, all over the world, who are discriminated against because they are of the same sex as all our Mothers.
It saddened me because people die because of football and because of so many other irrelevant things.

Women's Football is Real football

Fantastic article (in Spanish), by Miguel Angel Castillo, on all the hipocrisies and lack of fair play and lack of manners we did not see in the Women's World Cup:
https://es-us.deportes.yahoo.com/noticias/no-las-mujeres-no-saben-jugar-futbol-y-el-mundial-lo-demostro-024919786.html

Three finals in a day

The Champions League final was the first match that I watched on TV since the World Cup Final. I was happy for friends who are Liverpool fans, but otherwise it did not do anything for me, besides an immense sadness that I have no interests any longer.
For the last month, nevertheless, I had started watching some football news as three interesting national team tournaments have been going on: the Copa America, the Gold Cup, and most interesting, the World Cup for teams made up of female players.
I carefully started watching the Copa America quarterfinals, when Argentina played Venezuela (two countries I have lived in), and Colombia played Chile (the country of my Mother and the country of my birth).
Argentina, and not least Messi, have been one of my great disappointments over the last years, and watching them against Venezuela made me support the "Vinotinto", who undoubtedly are a better team, but still lost to the lucky Argentines. And although I supported Colombia, I was not unhappy to see Chile progress. I watched both semifinals: Argentina lost as expected against a superior Brazil (although they did not play bad), while Peru played the best I have ever seen them play in defeating Chile 3-0. After a disgrace of a third place match between Argentina and Chile, Peru were no match for Brazil, who played well to win 3-1 today.
I like this Brazil side by Tite. They play quick modern football, using the qualities of their spectacular players, instead of the defensive destruction of Dunga or the overambitious arrogance of Scolari. With a good Brazil it might even be worth to watch football again....

It has been difficult to watch matches from the World Cup in France because of the time difference, but I have followed with interest as the tournament has had as much interest as it deserves. As I sat to watch the final this morning I must admit that I was supporting the Dutch, but also that it was always clear that the US ladies were by far the better team, winning 2-0, and they are deserved repeat winners in what in many ways has been a historical tournament.
But congratulations to the USA ladies; in particular I like Megan Rapinoe (as so many people do): she is a great player (better than so many, also men!), but also a fantastic personality. She is the rare person who loves the sport, and knows that all the nationalism around it is just that: nationalistic crap. A well-deserved Golden Boot.

I started to watch the Gold Cup when the country I am currently in, El Salvador, started doing well: they defeated Jamaica and tied Curacao, and were set to go through with a tie against their arch-rivals of Honduras, who had already been eliminated. But El Salvador completely lost their nerves against Honduras, who trashed them 4-0, and then they both were eliminated to the delight of Jamaica and Curacao. I did not watch any matches until today's final between the two CONCACAF archrivals of USA and Mexico. It was a good and intense match which Mexico won 1-0 on a spectacular Jonathan Dos Santos goal. While Mexico were overall the better team, USA had some huge wasted chances to score, and one has to wonder, surely, how these guys get more in salary than the amazing USA soccer ladies....
Open discrimination lives on in football....

I enjoyed watching the matches today, but I still feel that football mostly appeals to the worst in people and that football is an all to open expression of everything that is bad in the world (which is an awful lot).