1
SERBIAN BIG SHOT
As if a visit to the Rajko Mitic
Stadium, home to Red Star in
Belgrade and recent venue for Serbia’s
Euro 2020 qualifiers, wasn’t daunting
enough, fans are now greeted on arrival
by a Soviet-made T-55 main battle tank.
The tank was given to Red Star
supporters, who are often known
as the “Northern Army”, by one of
the companies that decommissions
military equipment.
However, the decision to place the
tank outside the stadium has evoked
painful memories on social media in
neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia following
the not-too-distant Balkans war of the
early 1990s.2
KLAGENFURT FOREST
Austrian second-division leaders
Austria Klagenfurt were recently
unable to play home games at their
Worthersee Stadion after 300 trees
were planted on the pitch by Swiss art
curator Klaus Littmann for an exhibition
called “For Forest – The Unending
Attraction of Nature”.3
NO ESCAPE FOR SUB FROM
ALL-SEEING VAR
During the course of his warm-
up routine behind the goal during a
2.Bundesliga fixture against Bochum,
Holstein Kiel midfielder Michael Eberwein
decided to return the ball to his side’s
goalkeeper following a wayward attempt
at goal.
But as he kicked the ball back to
his team-mate, VAR spotted that the
23-year-old had made contact with
the ball before it had crossed the line.
This observation prompted the
referee, Timo Gerach, to award a
penalty to Bochum and show a
bemused Eberwein a yellow card.
Even more frustrating for Eberwein
was the fact that his extremely brief
involvement in the game was his first
touch of the ball in a Holstein Kiel shirt
since joining the club from Fortuna
Cologne in the summer.4
KING DIEGO
Before he departed as coach
of Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata,
Diego Maradona was treated like a king
when he took the team to play at his
former club Newell’s Old Boys, who
he represented briefly in 1993.
Before the game he was presented
with a throne, on which he sat throughout
the game, which Gimnasia won 4-0.
He also joined in the home fans’
chants and danced along as they sung
his name before kick-off.5
ZLATAN STATUE
Swedish superstar Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, recently returned
to his hometown club Malmo to unveil
a 2.7m high bronze statue of himselfREPORTS WE COULDN’T MAKE UP
was coach of the US under-15 team
but was canned in 2014. Rumour
had it that Perez didn’t get on too well
with USSF people and that his attention
to administrative matters was not up
to scratch. Interestingly, just before
the recent Under-17 World Cup got
underway, Perez announced that
he was going to work for the Mexican
federation – as a USA-based scout for
young Mexican-American boys.
The loss of young American talent
to Mexico is now common knowledge.
Alianza de Futbol, which is a privately
run programme, was set up in 2006 to
discover and showcase young Latino
players. Basically, it does what USSF
fails to do.
It encourages coaches to come to its
various regional tournaments, with
the big event of the year being Sueno
Alianza. And while there are always
plenty of coaches from Mexico present,
no coaches from USSF are in attendance.
According to one former US coach, they
are discouraged from going because
Alianza is a “non-affiliated” organisation.
This has been the year in which
USSF’s snubbing of America’s huge –
and growing – Latino soccer community
has been well and truly exposed. It has
been a year in which the damaging
results of that attitude are beginning
to appear on the field.
By its intransigence USSF is depriving
the sport of a wealth of much-needed
talent, severely damaging the very thing
it is supposed to be nurturing. It is a
situation that cannot continue.
USSF has to change, and quickly.
Its current attitude to Latinos is totally
unacceptable. As the French put it: it’s
worse than a crime – it’s a blunder.
Tanks a lot...
outside Red
Star’s homeFootball royalty...
Diego MaradonaNo game...Forest
are at home this
weekendLarger than life...
Zlatan IbrahimovicSome 60 experts
involved in youth
soccer were
recruited...not one
of them was aLatin-American
male
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