Search: 'London 2012'
Stories
Whether you keep them in an old shoe box or put them up on a wall, ticket stub collections are a small part of what defines the match-going fan
Badge of the week ~ Al Hussein Sports Club, Jordan
Al Hussein Sports Club came into existence after their founder, a share fisherman, was hypnotised by a storm petrel. Khalid Hussan, later to become first club president, was having a cigarette on deck in the dead of night when the diminutive bird alighted on the boat railing and cocked a gleaming eye his way. Lost in his own reverie – in his own words he was wondering at the time how to dry plates while his wife washed up without looking inadequate – Hussan paid no heed to the bird at first, but then realised he had been staring into its beady eye for several minutes.
Badge of the week ~ Rebels FC, British Virgin Islands
There are some things one’s mind jolts to instantly on hearing the word “rebel”. One is of course, Marlon Brando in The Wild One. If I recall the dialogue correctly: Young lady: “What are you rebelling against Johnny?” Marlon Brando: “What’ve you got?” Young lady: “Chlamydia.” Marlon Brando: “I’m rebelling against chlamydia.”
How Chuck Blazer got rich from – and sold out – the most powerful cabal in world sports
by Mary Papenfuss & Teri Thompson
HarperCollins, £20
Reviewed by Alan Tomlinson
From WSC 353 July 2016
Chuck Blazer: the Father Christmas lookalike whose weight had mushroomed to 450lbs by the time the FBI and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) nobbled him on the Manhattan pavement outside his Trump Tower base in November 2011. This was just under a year after FIFA’s decision to award the next two World Cups to Russia and Qatar, and while a generation of FIFA powerbrokers and crooks was beginning to shatter the silence of a long-held code of omertà.