Sunday, August 8, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
White Harte FC playing in Santa Barbara Tournament
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
World Cup South Africa 2010- Watch at White Harte Pub, a British gastropub in Woodland Hills CA.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Soccer City!
Expect a spectacle of an opening night at Soccer City
Feb 28, 2010 11:40 PM | By SALLY EVANSFifa is remaining tight-lipped about preparations for the World Cup opening ceremony to be held at Soccer City in Johannesburg. But if the 2006 opener in Germany is anything to go by, fans can expect a spectacle.
The 2006 World Cup opening ceremony attracted a record global television audience of 26.29 billion, who tuned in to see German super model Claudia Schiffer and Brazilian soccer legend Pele carry the Fifa World Cup Trophy into the stadium in Munich, followed by 170 former World Cup winners.
There was a 37-minute multimedia theatrical production and hip-hop dancers and rappers performed to the beat of 120 drummers. Videos of memorable scenes from World Cup tournaments were shown on massive screens.
The details of this year's opening ceremony are expected to be announced only two or three days before the big event.
But Fifa has announced that fans will be treated to a pre-opening "Official Kick-Off Celebration Concert" on June 10 at the renovated 40000-seat Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Fifa announced the concert in October, after appointing Emmy Award-winning producer Kevin Wall and his company as executive producers of the concert.
In a press release, Wall said: "We are honoured to have been selected by Fifa to organise and produce this event for the world's largest sport. We believe sports and music transcend cultural, language and geographic barriers, and through this international event, we will present the sights and sounds of unity and celebration ."
Beyonce, Jay-Z, Akon and the Black Eyed Peas are some of the celebrities who have been invited to perform.
Proceeds from the concert will go to the official campaign of the 2010 World Cup, "20 Centres for 2010".
In a statement last year, Jerome Valcke, Fifa's general secretary, said: "This kick-off celebration will be one of the greatest events of its kind in Africa and a must-see for football and music fans around the world."
Wall's company was responsible for the Live Earth concert in 2007.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Soccer News from Los Angeles Times, The Fabulous Forum, Sports section:
Major League Soccer 2010 schedule pits Galaxy against Chivas USA on April 1
Finally, as it approaches its 15th season, Major League Soccer has a schedule that makes sense.
The league on Wednesday released its 2010 lineup of regular-season games, and for the first time, they will follow the pattern set by the top leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Each of the 16 MLS teams will play the others twice during the season -- once at home and once on the road, for a total of 30 games per team.
The league will take a two-week break from June 11 to June 25 during the first round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Locally, the Galaxy, which reached the 2009 MLS Cup final, and Chivas USA, which has qualified for the playoffs four years in a row, will play their first game on Thursday, April 1 at the Home Depot Center.
The Galaxy will be the home team that night, with Chivas USA staging the return game on Oct. 3.
The 2010 MLS season begins on March 25, with the expansion Philadelphia Union playing at the Seattle Sounders. Chivas USA opens its season on March 26 at home against the Colorado Rapids, while the Galaxy opens at home on March 27 against the New England Revolution.
The regular season will end on Oct. 24, followed by playoffs leading to the 2010 MLS Cup final on Nov. 21.
For more on the 2010 MLS schedule, go to http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/ later on Wednesday.
-- Grahame L. Jones
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Club or Country? Soccer World Cup revives tensions - MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Lionel Messi is probably the top sportsman in the world right now. Unless you ask fans in Argentina where the soccer star was born and grew up in a town called Rosario, roughly 180 miles north-west of Buenos Aires.
After helping his club, Spain's FC Barcelona, win most of the top awards in 2009, Messi was named World Player of the Year by FIFA, soccer's governing body.
He received the 2009 Ballon D'Or, given to Europe's top player, based on the votes of journalists around the world. Messi won this honor by the widest margin since it was first awarded in 1956. He even won the Latino Athlete of the Year 2009.
But when it came time for Argentina to pick its top athlete, the soccer-mad country chose tennis player Juan Martin del Potro, a relative unknown on the world sports stage until his U.S. Open win last year.
Messi has been criticized in the Argentine press for not playing as well for the national team as he does for Barcelona. Argentina has been one of the strongest soccer countries in the world, along with Brazil, Italy and Germany. But the Albicelestes, as they're known, almost failed to qualify for this year's World Cup in South Africa. Read MarketWatch's World Cup blog.
"Nothing new: Messi has once again disappointed in the Albiceleste shirt," Argentine daily newspaper La Nacion declared after a lackluster performance in a World Cup qualifying match against Peru in October.
Messi moved to Spain to train with Barcelona in his early teens and some critics have questioned his commitment to Argentina's national team -- stirring strong emotion in the superstar.
"I get angry when they say I have no feeling for the Albicelestes," Messi said in a December interview with Spain's leading newspaper El Pais. "Nothing upsets me more than to say that I am not Argentine. Who knows of my feelings?"
The controversy puts the diminutive 22 year-old Argentine at the center of one of the biggest battles in soccer -- between the richest clubs who pay the superstars, and international organizations such as FIFA which run international tournaments including the World Cup.
On the surface, it's about who gets access to top players, like Messi, and who pays when they get injured. Dig a little deeper and it's about power and money.
"There's always been tension between playing for your club and your country," said Ian Blackshaw, an international sports law expert at the TMC Asser International Sports Law Centre in The Hague. "This tension will always exist because football is a matter of power politics and it's all fueled by money. It's not only the world's favorite sport but the most lucrative."
This tension is rising as national teams prepare for the 2010 World Cup starting in June, while club teams in Europe battle for supremacy in seasons that typically end in the spring. Add in the Africa Cup of Nations, which has been running for most of January, and the competition for talent is intense.
$2.7 billion
There's a lot of money at stake. The last World Cup in Germany drew a cumulative television audience of over 26 billion -- almost six times the number of people who watched the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Advertisers will pay a lot to reach such a large audience. FIFA got roughly $2.7 billion for the television broadcast rights to this year's World Cup.
Part of the draw is to see superstars like Messi, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Brazilian Kaka pitted against each other in an electric atmosphere fueled by national pride.
FIFA, as the organizer, gets that money. Clubs like Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid, which pay tens of millions of euros employing superstars, see little of the cash directly.
"International tournaments now generate very significant sums of money and historically the clubs have not benefited from this. So clubs feel aggrieved that they're providing free labour for others to make money," said Richard Parrish, professor of sports law at Edge Hill University in the U.K. "My employer doesn't allow a competitor to make free use of my labor and neither, I suspect, does yours."
Pride
So why do top players take part in the World Cup?
One reason is that FIFA regulations mandate involvement in top international tournaments, said Michael Gerlinger, director of legal affairs at Bayern Munich, Germany's largest soccer club. Some international matches don't come with an obligation to release top players and clubs regularly refuse to take part in those, he noted.
There's also the pull of pride in playing for your country. If players perform well in top international tournaments their value increases, which can trickle down to the clubs that employ them.
"If players become more valuable that trickles down to the clubs," Blackshaw noted.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Footballers at their BEST
UEFA announces it will join FIFA in its support of the United Nations Development Programme’s annual football match
Geneva - The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced this week that it will for the first time join the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to support the annual Match Against Poverty. The Match has been held each year since 2003 under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and at the initiative of Zinédine Zidane and Ronaldo, to raise awareness of and to advocate for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) , and to raise funds that support specific initiatives to reduce poverty.
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| Zinédine Zidane at the 2007 Match Against Poverty in Malaga, Spain. |
Up until 2010, the friendly competition pitted Ronaldo and his friends against Zinédine Zidane and his friends. This year, on 25 January, at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Ronaldo and Zidane will organize a team together to play against a Benfica all stars team. Ronaldo, who is currently playing for Corinthians FC of São Paulo, and Zidane, the former captain of the French national team, are both UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors.
UEFA President Michel Platini said the match is a concrete example of an act of solidarity with the poor. “One of UEFA's key aims is to channel the immense popularity of the game into positive social forces. This match is a concrete example of solidarity in action.
“I am proud to lend my full support and UEFA’s name to the 7th edition of the Match against Poverty’’, he said. “This event demonstrates how football can be used in the fight against social ills such as poverty, exclusion and illiteracy.”
Cecile Molinier, director of UNDP’s Geneva Office, said the Lisbon match will emphasize the importance of all stakeholders and sectors of society working together to address global poverty. She also said although the challenges may seem insurmountable, there is a lot of good news. “Despite the challenges, progress is being made – reducing the number of people living below the poverty line, educating more children and saving lives. The MDGs can still be achieved if all countries live up to their commitments,” she said.
Molinier said the funds raised in the previous six matches have benefited anti-poverty initiatives, such as support to female entrepreneurs for the construction of sports centres for street children and the underprivileged, throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“I am sure all those attending the Lisbon match will have a most enjoyable and rewarding evening,” concluded Platini, “knowing their presence will contribute to solutions that can make a real difference in peoples’ lives.”
White Harte F.C. supports Balls Without Borders, a charity with a big heart
 
Picture: Handing out balls to Iraqi chidren;
photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force
Bridging Cultures
For children who may harbor a limited understanding of the events that surround them in the midst of war, being given a benevolent gift that they can relate to, a soccer ball, will make a lasting impression on their young lives for years to come. This operation is important now more than ever in the regions of Iraq and Afghanistan as the United States is leading the effort to rebuild infrastructure and stabilize dangerous regions. A gesture of goodwill and cultural understanding in the manner of handing out soccer balls to the youth encourages trust within the communities where so much violence rules daily life. During this phase of the OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM reconstruction process, when men and women of the U.S. military hand a child from a war torn country a ball to play with, the gesture can be seen as a sign of peace and camaraderie; an olive branch extended to children who are so often overlooked in the process of stabilization and reconstruction.
Helping Both Sides
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common condition in both the children we aim to help, as well as the military personnel whom we depend on to the deliver the balls.
Research for PTSD is on the cutting edge of science.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that some people develop after seeing or living through an event that caused or threatened serious harm or death. Symptoms include flashbacks or bad dreams, emotional numbness, intense guilt or worry, angry outbursts, or feeling 'on edge'.
To aid those who suffer with PTSD, Balls Without Borders, Inc. (BWB) is supporting PTSD-focused research, and related studies on anxiety and fear, to find better ways of helping people cope with trauma, as well as better ways to treat and ultimately prevent the disorder.
While we are pursuing our goal to make the lives of children affected by armed conflict or natural disasters happier and also to contribute to the well-being and understanding of veterans, our purpose also is to raise awareness of PTSD by contributing a percentage of our donations to local community medical facilities conducting research & education on the prevention, understanding, and treatment of PTSD.
More information about PTSD can be obtained online at:
The National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD)/ Wikipedia
