Fw: Why Football And Religion Are Not Always In Holy Alliance...

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-----Original Message-----
From: Chidozie Farsight <chidoziefarsight@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:45:17
To: <ofoegbuchidozie.s4gb@blogger.com>
Subject: Why Football And Religion Are Not Always In Holy Alliance...

The news that West Ham United's Israeli manager, Avram Grant, has been
excused duty for the Hammers' league game against Stoke City this
weekend in order to observe Yom Kippur — one of the holiest dates in
the Jewish calendar, requiring Jews to fast and pray on Friday night
and Saturday — has put the relationship between football and faith
under the spotlight in a week when the Pope kicked off his state visit
to Britain in Glasgow – a footballing city whose Old Firm rivalry is
still defined by the Protestant-Catholic religious divide.

Through the tensions of sectarianism, the devout beliefs of
individuals in the game, the inexorable spread of secularism and even
the infamous 'Hand of God', the coming together of football and
religion has long produced conflict.

Yet the prevalence of club chaplains and the familiar sight of players
crossing themselves as they enter the pitch confirms that a certain
accommodation has also been reached.

Just another manic Sunday

In the UK, condemned this week as aggressively atheist by one of the
Pope's entourage (who was subsequently dropped), bodies like the
Lord's Day Observance Society saw the work of the Devil in the
decision to launch Sunday soccer on January 6, 1974 when four FA Cup
ties were staged. Big crowds at all four made the experiment an
irreversible success, to the chagrin of churchgoers. Oddly, the
regular staging of a full league programme on Christmas Day until the
mid-1950s had aroused much less controversy.

But keeping certain days holy clearly means a lot to some believers.
Avram Grant – who may yet walk to the Britannia Stadium to attend the
game in silence - might identify to an extent with compatriot Dudu
Aouate, the Israeli goalkeeper currently playing for Real Mallorca. In
September 2006, his then team Deportivo La Coruna's fixture against
Real Sociedad was scheduled for the night of Yom Kippur, on which
playing football is one of the prohibitions.

As a compromise, Aouate said he'd take part in the match but then
extend his observance of the Day of Atonement by a couple of hours to
make up for non-observance time during the game. His decision upset
many in Israel, some calling for him to be dropped from the national
team.

The ultimate extra-time



Another goalkeeper, Argentina 's Carlos Roa (right), who famously
saved a David Batty penalty in a shoot-out against England at the 1998
World Cup, stunned football by announcing he was quitting the game
because his Seventh Day Adventist religion would not allow him to
train or play on Saturdays. That was shortly before 2000, when he was
at the peak of his career with Mallorca, and he further declared his
belief that the new millennium would signal the end of the world. He
retreated to a farm in rural Argentina to await his fate, acting as
priest to his family. When no apocalypse materialised, he swallowed
his pride and came out of retirement, returning to Mallorca, then
Albacete and finally Olimpo back in Argentina.

Gotta serve somebody





Others have found football got in the way of their religious beliefs,
too. Nigeria defender Taribo West (left) reacted to his own wealth and
the materialism all around him by becoming a born-again Christian and
pastor and founding his own church – the Shelter from the Storm
Ministry - in Milan, where he played for both San Siro clubs. After he
left Milan in 2000, he frequently returned there to preach in his
church, which created friction with his new club Derby County. He was
transferred to Kaiserslauten, where instead of attending Sunday
morning training he preached to his  congregation back in Italy. When
the German outfit consequently sacked him, he stressed that, "The Lord
is more important to me than a football club".

Someone else who lost his job in football because of his spiritual
beliefs is Glenn Hoddle, who was sacked as England manager in 1999
after publicly implying that disabled people were responsible for
their own suffering. Hoddle, who also placed great trust in the powers
of a faith healer, had said: "You and I have been physically given two
hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been
born like that for a reason; karma is working from another lifetime."

Instant karma | The word of Hod backfired

Twenty years earlier, Wolves superstar Peter Knowles hadn't waited to
be pushed, but voluntarily gave up football to concentrate on studying
the Bible and spreading the word as a Jehovah's Witness. He stuck to
his guns, though Wolves kept his contract open for another 12 years in
the hope that he might one day return to the game. In 1991, Billy
Bragg recorded a song, "God's Footballer", which was widely seen as a
direct reference to Knowles.

The number of the beast

Others have found ways to keep the faith without quitting their
careers, though certain compromises have had to be made. As a devout
Muslim, Fredi Kanoute (right) insisted that wearing the Sevilla shirt,
emblazoned with the name of sponsor and online gambling company 888,
was an affront to his religion. He declared: "Gambling is the work of
Satan. It is forbidden by the Koran and I will not play in a shirt
that promotes it."  So he taped over the offending name in protest.
And played.

Sevilla's own compromise, to appease both 888 and Kanoute, was to
agree on a charitable donation to a cause supported by Kanoute, if the
striker would carry on scoring while wearing the devilish garment.

The God squad & Fifa's commandments

In sharp contrast, some footballers have used their on-pitch attire to
advertise their faith, in the process giving Fifa something of a
crisis of conscience. Well, an embarrassing dilemma anyway. The world
governing body controversially disciplined the Brazil team for some
overt declarations of Christian allegiance during a Confederations Cup
final. Stars including Kaka and Lucio revealed T-shirts with slogans
such as "I Belong to Jesus" and "I Love God", and after their victory
players and coaching staff formed a circle and went down on their
knees in prayer.

Fifa has regulations which specifically ban players from making
displays of a personal, religious or political nature on the pitch,
and sent a warning letter to the Brazilian football federation
reminding them of this to ensure no repetition. In doing so Fifa
risked accusations of being anti-religious.
On God's team | Kaka & Ambrosini promote their faith at Milan

But Jim Stjerne Hansen, secretary general of the Danish football
association, reacted by urging that all religious statements be banned
from football. He said: "Just as we reject political manifestations,
we should also say no to religious ones. There are too many risks
involved in clubs, for example, with people of different religious
faiths."

Penitent shoot out

That Brazil team was successful, but God doesn't always provide the
assists. When Barcelona starlet Bojan Krkic (left) failed to convert a
chance to score the winning goal against Chelsea in a Champions League
semi-final, he questioned his Catholic faith. After heading wide at
0-0 with only three minutes remaining when it looked impossible to
miss, he said: "That's a goal God would have normally helped me score.
I don't know what happened. I crossed my chest as I came onto the
pitch, so this doesn& rsquo;t really make sense."

His team-mates consoled him, assuring him that God still loved him.
Coach Pep Guardiola (allegedly) revealed: "He was pretty down in the
changing room. We reassured him that if God didn't love him, he'd just
be a normal person, probably working in an office or cleaning the
streets of road-kill or something."

Better than sects

The issue of faith has sometimes attached itself to entire clubs in
somewhat provocative fashion. It is well known that Rangers are
perceived as a bastion of Protestantism, and their city rivals Celtic
the expression of Irish/Scottish Roman Catholicism. When Graeme
Souness was appointed Rangers manager in 1985 he boldly pronounced
that sectarianism was out and that he'd sign Catholic players. Read
more: http://m.goal.com/en/news/article?contentId=2123128&page=5&SID=jisano875ti5g9s36r2f46c3e6




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Chidozie Ofoegbu
Project Manangement
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