Soccer and Nationalism Conference

Soccer and Nationalism
This event can be used for lecture extra credit, but you must go to the movie and corresponding panel. You also must connect the movie to IR concepts.


An Interdisciplinary Conference

Monday, April 20, 2009, 9:30– 5:00
UIC Institute for the Humanities, Lower Level, Stevenson Hall

Schedule of Events:

9:30: Opening Remarks

9:45-10:45: Film Screening: Who is Deutschland?

Who is Deutschland? focuses on the outpouring of national feeling
expressed in Germany during the 2006 World Cup tournament, and the
reactions and discussions it prompted in German society among people of
various backgrounds. Interviews with German politicians, rock stars, media
executives, museum directors and students highlight the tensions
surrounding the expressions of contemporary German patriotism. While
tracking the progress of the German team in the World Cup, the film
focuses on Markus, a leftist Berlin University student who tells his side
of the “German identity story.”

11:00-12:30: Film Screening: Goal Dreams

Founded in 1928, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) is considered
one of the oldest football associations in the Arab World. Following the
team as they prepare for the 2006 World Cup, Goal Dreams chronicles the
suspension of domestic league games after an Israeli air strike on
Palestine Stadium, while Austrian coach Alfred Riedle makes a heroic
effort to mold players from diverse countries such as the USA, Chile,
Palestine, and Lebanon into a national team like no other.

12:30-1:30: Break for Lunch

1:30-3:00: Panel Discussion with the creators of Who is Deutschland?
Boaz Beeri, Director
Jon Medow, writer/researcher
Abraham Singer, writer/researcher
Mark Webber, York University and the Canadian Center for
German and European Studies

3:00-3:15: Coffee Break

3:15-4:45: Panel Discussion on Soccer and Nationalism:
Jeffrey Saunders, writer and director of Goal Dreams
Laurent DuBois, Professor of French and History, Duke University

4:45: Concluding Remarks

Sponsored by the International Studies Program, the Departments of
Germanic Studies, History and Political Science, and the Institute for the
Humanities

Attacking Sport

This article discusses what we over in class the other day, the fact that sport seems to be losing is privileged place in states as an untouchable target. The diplomatic externalities produced by sport are important factors in stable interstate relations. Removing this option removes a basic form of exchange between states.

"Last night New Zealand cancelled a tour to Pakistan at the end of the year. “We are not going,” said Justin Vaughan, the chief executive of the country’s cricket body. “I don’t think any international team will be going to Pakistan in the foreseeable future.”

Steroids Everywhere

This Sports Illustrated article makes it clear steroids were just about everywhere in the 60s. Why is this relevant to IR? Its not but I never liked the idea that steroids are new or that only a few people ever did them, so we can call this empirical evidence.

Academic BCS

This annual academic BCS ranking looks at graduation rates as well as performance on the field. Some schools, ahem Texas, should be ashamed of themselves.

"Every year, college football fans get caught up in some "major" controversy with the BCS rankings. They spend hours talking about obscure statistics and cursing computer formulas. This year, it was Oklahoma and Texas fans battling it out for the right to play in the Big 12 and National Championship games. Texas fans were devastated when they lost the rankings fight.

But the real tragedy for this team is that only 40 percent of its players, and only 27 percent of its black players, will graduate. Texas' football players put the University on the national stage. And what do they get in return? Besides the precious few that will make it to the NFL, most will leave school without a degree and with few career prospects."

UIC Soccer on ESPN

Sorry for the lack of recent posts, been busy writing (with frequent ten minute mario kart breaks). For some reason my blog has gone all funky in terms of text colors and what not, so for now it is a blueish purple to allow it to be read. I will fix later.

ESPN on UIC soccer

And now for a non-IR moment

As some of you know, soccer has sorta lost its allure to me after my team, Manchester United, won it all last year. We won the league and the European championship. Now there isn't much to play for. The best player, Ronaldo is being a jerk about wanting to leave the team that made him a star for Real Madrid. My other team, the US national team, is playing some of the worst soccer I have ever seen, even though the players are supposedly getting better and more experienced.

So I have pretty much moved on full time to baseball. Going back to my first childhood love has been a fun experience. It is nice to remember what it was like to be a kid. To idolize Steve Garvey, then Jim Abbot, then Barry Bonds (yes, I liked him back when he was a skinny kid). By my count I have been to 34 Cubs games this year with four more to go (ain't a sabbatical and a flexible schedule grand).


Baseball brings everything I love together, stats and luck. Statistics are about finding means and averages, knowing what to expect based on the past. That is the whole point of numbers, to tell a story. Baseball is pretty much like that in that most players preform pretty much as expected given a certain amount of at bats and innings. Yet, there are always those that luck out, those that have a career year that no one expected, like Geovanny Soto or Ryan Dempster.

And then there is the other part of baseball I love, the stories, the pain, and excitement of being a fan. Of rooting for your home team, and when they do well, everything is right in life. As my friend said, it must be nice to be a guy and have your whole day made by a sports team. But such is life.

Baseball also is about experiences, good and bad. And this story is one of the best, most heartbreaking, stories I have ever read. It is not a fun read, but sometimes the best ones are like this, as is life. It is what it is.

Soccer in Politics

Taking a novel approach, this op-ed piece proposes threating the coming World Cup in South Africa as a consequence for South Africa's non-action on the Zimbabwe question.

"Perhaps it’s time to share the Zimbabweans’ pain, to help persuade Mr. Mbeki to bear down on its source by threatening to grab the world’s soccer ball and take our games elsewhere."

Sports rules the world...once again