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Author Archives: James Dorsey

16 Aug 15

James Dorsey

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A Turkish stadium harbours a stark message for multiculturalism

By James M. Dorsey A condemned Turkish stadium harbours a dark warning of the long-term consequences of ethnic cleansing or what Turks euphemistically call the population exchange almost a century ago when Turkey and Greece expelled their respective Greek and Turkish minorities. It is a message that has not lost its urgency as Turkey ...

11 Aug 15

James Dorsey

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Israel and Palestine play high stakes soccer

By James M. Dorsey Israel and Palestine are playing political soccer with Palestinian football as the ball. It is a match which Israel is unlikely to win and that could prove to produce a bruising loss. The stakes for Israel‎ are far higher than for Palestine. Israel is effectively on probation as it seeks to […]

05 Aug 15

James Dorsey

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Israel struggles with racist underground

By James M. Dorsey Israel is struggling with how to deal with groups some of which are underground that are linked to a banned nationalist political party that has emerged at the core of recent racist, anti-Palestinian incidents and include a militant soccer fan group that was responsible for last month’s violent clashes during a ...

01 Aug 15

James Dorsey

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Mega Events: Qatar is too hot, Beijing has no snow

By James M. Dorsey 2022 is promising to be the year of mega sporting events that potentially fly in the face of values professed by international sporting events and defy logic. Consensus is near unanimous that temperatures in Qatar are too high for a summer World Cup. Similarly, Beijing lacks the snow needed for a […]

31 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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Qatar’s quagmire: existential fears and missed opportunities

By James M. Dorsey Walking around Qatar’s monumental Aspire Dome sports academy, coach Fred Engh noticed kids playing soccer on an indoor field big enough to accommodate four teams simultaneously during a break in an annual gathering of hundreds of sports leaders designed to project the Gulf state as an innovative, socially ...

29 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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The Cairo derby: Politics vs. repression

By James M. Dorsey This month’s premier league final between Cairo’s two storied clubs, Al Ahli SC and Al Zamalek SC, once the world’s most violent derby, was more than a clash between two soccer giants. It was a clash between management styles and diametrically opposed approaches towards militant, highly politicized, street ...

19 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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Israeli soccer violence moves racism up the government’s agenda

By James M. Dorsey A violent display of racism by extreme nationalist supporters of storied Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem coupled with recent Ethiopian Israeli protests against discrimination and the government’s handling of the capture of two Israelis by Hamas has moved racist attitudes towards dark-skinned Jews and ...

14 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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Fan opposition to Qatar goes viral

By James M. Dorsey World Cup host Qatar is discovering the reputational risk involved in hosting high-profile mega sporting events. Qatar Airways’ sponsorship of FC Barcelona is producing exactly the kind of publicity that is a corporate sponsor’s worst nightmare while a Swiss investigation of the Qatari World Cup bid threatens ...

10 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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Unprecedented Israeli action against Jerusalem club’s anti-Arab/Muslim racism

By James M. Dorsey The Israeli government, in a historic break with past policy, is taking right-wing, nationalist Israeli soccer club, Beitar Jerusalem, to task for its openly racist policy of refusing to hire Israeli-Palestinian players, who rank among the country’s top performers. The move just weeks after the Israel Football ...

05 Jul 15

James Dorsey

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FIFA’s Blatter unwittingly pinpoints soccer governance’s prime issues

By James M. Dorsey Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter unwittingly put his finger on two fundamental issues that underlie a corruption scandal that has rocked world soccer governance, the worst crisis in the sport’s history: the fiction that sports and politics are separate and hypocrisy that distorts legitimate debate about ...