This bud's for you, or maybe it isn't

Outside the United States soccer is the sport of the working class. Tales of violence at soccer matches around the world are legendary. Violence used to be a problem at soccer matches in Brazil. That is, until the government banned the sale of alcohol at soccer stadiums in 2003.

The measure seemed logical. Rowdy, passionate fans and alcohol don't make the best of combinations. The ban has had limited success since there is no ban on the consumption of alcohol outside the stadiums.

FIFA, the corrupt governing body of world soccer, awarded the 2014 World Cup to Brazil. But now there are problems.

The Brazilians wanted to set aside some discounted tickets for students and seniors. FIFA didn't like that idea as it would reduce the filthy lucre that Sepp Blatter and his cohorts can take back home to Europe. But the biggest dispute has to do with alcohol.

Budweiser, maker of piss water beer, is a big (shall we say huge) sponsor of the World Cup. And, as a major sponsor, carries a bit of weight. It seems that the folks out in St. Louis (or wherever the company is headquartered after its sale) aren't too terribly happy about the prospect of no alcohol sales at the stadiums across Brazil. And Mr. Blatter, always happy to get down on his knees and do the bidding of FIFA's sponsors,  has informed the Brazilian government that there will be beer sales at World Cup venues - Brazilian laws be damned.

Now once upon a time sport was just that - sport. Now it is a business and the actual sporting event is but a marketing device for any corporation that wishes to peddle its products to the viewers. It is beyond absurd that FIFA is demanding that the Brazilians serve alcohol at World Cup venues.

Now I understand the network and cable folks view sports as the ultimate reality show. I also know that there are quite a few universities that are more than happy to let the broadcasters tell them when and where to play. But that doesn't make it right.

I hope the Brazilian government holds its ground and refuses to sell out for a beermaker. But I'm also fairly certain that that is exactly what will happen. And what message does that send to the Brazilian people? And what message does that send to other multinational corporations who don't like the laws in a particular country?

FIFA and Budweiser knew the rules before the tournament was awarded to Brazil. They need to learn to live with it. After all, it's all about the (beautiful) game.

From a field of nightmares to a field of dreams

As we wind down the old year and get ready to crank up the new one, the people in Afghanistan are still trying to extricate themselves from the nightmare that was the Taliban regime. And part of that transformation is taking place inside a soccer stadium.

Ghazi Stadium in Kabul is to be the home of the Afghanistan national soccer team.

During the days of the Taliban, Ghazi Stadium was where the regime carried out public executions.

Daud, 40, a driver who only wanted to give his first name, was at the stadium in 1999 when he witnessed the execution of a woman called Zarmeena, who was accused of killing her husband. 

Dressed in a blue burqa, she was made to kneel on the field. 

"The Taliban got the Kalashnikov, put it behind her head and shot her two times. She fell down on the ground," Daud said. "The crowd went very quiet. It was a strange and dangerous atmosphere. People were shocked and scared. Sometimes I remember that woman — I even dream about it." 

But he said he hoped that the stadium, once dirty and littered with bullets, now would be a symbol of hope in the country 

"Now the stadium is 100 percent changed," he said.

Sports can divide us, but they can also bring us together. Although the reopening of the stadium is more symbolic than tangible, it is a sign that normalcy may be returning to the country.

Play ball!

Are you ready for some futbol?

Oh, once again our Saturdays are filling with rushing from field to field across the west side of Houston for soccer.

I love the sight of those fields as the sun rises on Saturday morning. It's quiet. It's peaceful. In just a couple of hours, however, chaos will reign as the wee weekend warriors take the pitch.

This season marks my fifth year coaching the little ones. I watched with great pride as my oldest daughter took the field in the afternoon. I coached her the first three years she played and it's amazing the player she has become. My little one has been dribbling a soccer ball since she was two and has mastered the drills we go over in practice.  But when it comes to game time she's a bit shy and scared at the prospect of a sideline full of parents watching the game.

I've told her just to focus on the ball, the other players and me and to ignore everything else around her. But I know for some that's easier said than done. She'll be there by the end of the season - I just know it.

For all of the headaches involved in organizing registration, placing kids on teams and dealing with parents upset about whose team their child is on, these next eight weeks are pure gold. All of the stress is worth it when you look into the smiling face of a child happy to be wearing a uniform and chasing a ball around the pitch.

I'll take a little cheese with my whine, please

Now, if I might be permitted the indulgence of a little whine...

I coach youth soccer. This is the fifth year I've coached a team of kids six years old or under. I am also the soccer commissioner at the church my daughters attend. I volunteer my time to get the fields ready to play, to run registration and to organize teams (14 this season).

The past few weeks I have been attempting to run a law practice, be a good husband to a wife who watched her father die and get things ready for the upcoming soccer season.

Along the way I have to deal with parents who want their little angels on the same team with their BFF's. I have to deal with coaches who aren't willing to split teams up in order to field enough teams to ensure kids have adequate playing time. I have to recruit parents to volunteer a couple of hours a week so we have enough coaches for the teams. And I have to arrange practice times so that we don't end up with two teams on the same field at the same time.

When I was a kid playing soccer we didn't request whose team we wanted to be on. We signed up and were assigned to a team. You might know some of the kids on the team and you might not know others. In the end you made some new friends.

The first year my oldest daughter played she knew one other kid on her team. She made friends with the other kids and has been playing soccer with some of them for the past three years. She did fine. She never complained that so-and-so wasn't on her team. She just went out and played.

But apparently the notion that kids can play with other kids they don't know and, not only survive, but make new friends, is a bit out there for some parents today. They get upset if their child isn't on the same team as their best friend or their classmates. They get upset if the guy down the street isn't the coach. It would be one thing if it were just a couple of parents - that I could handle with ease. But no. It seems that everyone walks around thinking the entire program needs to revolve around them and their kid's need to play only with their friends or classmates.

How does such behavior do any of the kids any good? When they go to school they will be placed in classes at random. They won't get to sit next to their best friend. Heaven forbid they have to sit next to someone who's different than they are.

Athletics, like school, is as much about socialization as it is anything else. Sure, by the end of the year the kids will have developed just a little bit more as soccer players. But they will also have developed a better sense of sportsmanship and what it means to be on a team. And, at this early age, that's far more important that whether their team wins or not.

Everyone wants their kids to live in an antiseptic bubble. Well, guess what. The world ain't like that. Kids scrape their knees, they fall off their bike, they get dirty, they get scared. And, through it all, they mature and learn how to cope with adversity and disappointment. They learn to rely on their own intuition and skill.

I guess we could baby them all and let them grow up to become little lemmings that just accept it when the government decides it's time to take away another freedom in the name of greater security. And you wondered what ever happened to the Fourth Amendment.