FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, is rightfully under pressure to push Russia and Qatar over their anti-gay laws. They will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022

The Guardian reports that with the World Cup scheduled to take place in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively, FIFA's new anti-discrimination taskforce is joining in the fight to ensure those nations are held accountable for their anti-gay laws:

Piara Powar  the director of Football Against Racism in Europe and a member of the taskforce along with the former FA chairman David Bernstein, said it would raise the issue at a meeting this week.

"Qatar is one of the few countries where homosexuality is still illegal and there are also big challenges in terms of the new law in Russia in regard to the World Cup," he said.

"Qatar wants to host the tournament at the start of a new decade, they will want to present an internationally welcoming face and with FIFA's help we are sure it will be possible to win over the Qataris so that they come into line with the rest of the world, including other countries in the Gulf and Middle East and change the law on homosexuality.

"These are issues of civil rights, fans and players of all races, religions and sexuality need to feel comfortable going to the World Cups in both Russia and Qatar. It is going to be quite a challenge but we have to make sure that football becomes the vehicle for social change that we claim it is. This is a big issue."

Inspired by the example of MLS player Robbie Rogers, this Cornell University soccer player comes out in his own way

From Athlete Ally:

Atticus DeProspo is a Junior Industrial and Labor Industrial Relations major and soccer player at Cornell University, and tells his coming out story below. He is also a Theatre Productions minor. 

As a young man active in collegiate athletics, I am aware that this world about which I am most passionate is not always very tolerant.  There is a strong masculinity that pervades sports, especially male sports, and I was worried about the repercussions I might face if I were honest with my teammates, parents, and family.  Because of this fear, I have kept a part myself secret for a long time: I can hold it in no longer. 

I am Atticus. I am a soccer player at Cornell University. I am a campus tour guide. I am a resident advisor in the dormitories.  I am a dancer. I am a pre-law and lighting design student. I am a human being. 

And I am gay. 

True, being gay is merely a part of the holistic man that I am. But for some reason it is a part that society likes to place emphasis on—both for better and for worse. I believe that there are many aspects to each human being on this earth that make him or her unique from everyone else.  It is what God intended and what makes this world a beautiful place....

....I am Atticus. I play soccer at Cornell. I give tours to prospective students, I advise residents in the freshmen dorms, and I do many other things.  I am embracing all of who I am, but I am not a label.  I will not be stigmatized.  I look forward to the future: if any country can adopt the tolerance and respect for others that will lead to the breakdown of stereotypes that pervade collegiate sports, America is that country.

Read Atticus' full letter here.

Read about Japanese professional soccer after the tsunami and other events: "Courage under Fire"

From inbedwithmaradona.com
Read Barry Valder's report on how Japanese football has responded to the recent disaster.

It’s Shimizu S-Pulse’s first home game of 2011 and the football crazy fans of Shizuoka City eagerly anticipate their team’s entry onto Nihondaira’s perfectly kept surface. But in the early spring sunshine, something is missing. There are no pounding samba drums, no announcer bellowing over the loud speaker, and the customary roof-lifting roar is eerily absent. Three sides of the stadium sit surreally empty.

After a muted introduction, S-Pulse and Yokohama FC emerge to a warm round of applause which soon fades to silence. Both teams line up in the centre circle, and we stand and bow our heads in sombre remembrance of the tragedy which shattered the north east of the country.
Today’s match is a training ground practice game hastily rearranged to be held at S-Pulse’s home stadium. Entry is free but players from both teams man donation boxes at the ticket gates. Despite the event only being announced three days previously, over 5000 people pack the one opened stand, and the charity boxes are stuffed with notes.

The 2011 J. League season was just one game old when the earthquake and tsunami brought a halt to all major sporting events in the country. The scope of the disaster, which occurred on a Friday morning, was soon apparent and an evening announcement postponed all the weekend’s games. This was soon extended indefinitely.

S-Pulse’s opening home game with Kashima Antlers was set for a sell out but it was Kashima who were one of the teams hardest hit. Their stadium and training facilities received considerable damage and are unusable for the immediate future. It’s a situation common to other north eastern teams, in particular Vegalta Sendai. The team nearest to the epicentre, Sendai’s club house was destroyed and training grounds rendered unusable. Their Yurtec Stadium was also badly damaged.
Other teams are unaffected by physical damage but still have to face up to shortages in power and supplies. This, along with considerable difficulties in transportation and communications, are affecting areas such as Yamagata, home to Montedio Yamagata.

As the emergency operation was in full swing, J. League teams throughout the country began offering the use of facilities to those in need. Sendai have been offered the use of Kashiwa Reysol’s second stadium, and of Vissel Kobe’s training ground.

And the country’s football fans are right behind them. Fund raising games such as S-Pulse’s with Yokohama FC are no one off. It’s a situation mirrored up and down the country with many matches played and many more scheduled. From the Yokohama fixture alone, 2000000 yen was raised. Multiply these efforts over the J. League as a whole, and you have an idea of the scale of endeavours by the nation’s supporters. Before the season is due to resume, S-Pulse have three more charity games lined up, including a high profile fixture in Holland against Ajax.

A major recurring theme since March 11th is the unifying effect of adversity. The sharing of stadiums and training facilities is strengthening relationships and building new ones. Supporters of rival teams are standing shoulder to shoulder raising funds. Players nationwide have been donating their time to community events such as a free S-Pulse football workshop for Shizuoka children which raised over £2500.

When a J. League all star XI took on the Japanese national team on March 27th 50,000 supporters packed Osaka’s Nagai Stadium. It was the first major footballing event since the quake. One huge banner simply read: Football Saves Japan.

And it was with a strong sense of this sentiment that I watched S-Pulse play out an entertaining game with Yokohama FC. The, if only brief, sense of normality is something those around me seemed to be craving. After such a traumatic fortnight, football does save. This sport has given people a channel for their energies, and one which is perfectly suited to the overriding national characteristic of community and common responsibility.

The unimaginable hardships being endured by those in the most badly affected areas are not dampening the ambition and drive to get their teams up and running again. Due to efforts of officials and supporters, their own and of other clubs’, Sendai will be back in action at a training camp as early as April 3rd. For many there is still a long, hard road ahead, but when the season restarts on April 23rd, it will be with a new sense of unity. Rivalries will exist as ever, but beneath the surface, ties between opposing teams and their fans will be deeper than at any time. The J. League will be all the stronger for it.

To read more from Barry, visit www.ukultras.co.uk.

Swedish professional soccer star comes out, breaking the long-standing jock code of silence

"I might not play in the top league, but I want to prove that there is no big deal if I'm a footballer and also gay. If I perform as a footballer, then I do not think it matters if I like men or women."

--Anton Hysén

NYTimes: "Andrés Iniesta: Barcelona’s Once-in-a-Lifetime Guy"

By ROB HUGHES

Published: December 19, 2010
LONDON — If ever we doubt that sporting values still hold in the mercenary modern era, then the last weekend before Christmas was gold dust.

The Times's soccer blog has the world's game covered from all angles.
Go to the Goal Blog. Before the Catalan derby match on Saturday between Espanyol and FC Barcelona at the new Cornellà-El Prat stadium, it was a player from the visiting team who received the applause of the 40,000 men, women and children in the audience.

And then, five minutes before the end, with Espanyol suffering a 5-1 home defeat, its supporters stood to applaud the same Barcelona player in that same spine-tingling manner.

This, trust me, is a once in a lifetime thing.

Andrés Iniesta is a once in a lifetime kind of guy. He gets a warm reception everywhere he goes, in every Spanish stadium no matter how hostile the atmosphere.

It is recognition for the little man who came in off his wing to volley the game-winning goal in the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg last July, giving Spain the World Cup for the first time.

But the Cornellà is something different. It is the stadium of Espanyol, the other club of Barcelona. We should never say the second club, but of course it is smaller, less rich, and I dare say has a lesser team than the all-star line up of El Barça.

The philosophy is different, the means are different, but the rivalry is eternal and strong.

However, even the most partisan followers of Real Club Deportivo Español make an exception for “San” Andrés. And this goes deeper than gratitude for bringing home the Cup.

Cast your mind back to that South Africa night last summer. You might recall Iniesta’s first impulse after he scored that goal. He ran toward the crowd, tearing off his shirt and revealing an undershirt with the inscription: “Dani Jarque siempre con nosotros.”

It translates to “Dani Jarque, always with us.”

The words were in memory of a friend. Iniesta, and for that matter Cesc Fàbregas and others who shared that national triumph, had been raised with Jarque.

The personal friendship between Iniesta and Jarque deepened as they grew up together in the Spanish youth teams.

They represented the country at every level from 16 years to 21. Spain, better than any other nation, nurtures its young by identifying talent in adolescence and bringing it through as a group to manhood.

Barcelona is a mighty part of that, because seven players on its current team lined up in the World Cup final. Iniesta, though not born a Catalan, is a product of Barça’s La Masia academy.

Dani Jarque came up through the cross-town Espanyol apprenticeship.

Their bond was stronger than any division between the two clubs of the same city.

“I felt it on the field,” Iniesta said before he departed the stadium on Saturday. “This is the biggest thing. People sent me messages. People are more important than rivalries.”

Unless I am mistaken, Iniesta will very soon start cleaning up awards as the world’s outstanding player of 2010.

Also vying for those awards are two Barcelona teammates, Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez.

And while the match Saturday reiterated that there is no player on earth more special than Messi, and none more influential to Barcelona than Xavi, Iniesta ’s strike in the 116th minute of a World Cup final will probably seal him those awards.

Even his club coach, Pep Guardiola, felt there was something exceptional about Espanyol’s affection towards Iniesta.

Exceptional, too, was the Barça team spirit. If there is one place where all its secrets are known, it is inside Espanyol. The clubs are so close that Espanyol hires former youth players from its neighbor — including five on its current squad.

Yet once they cross the city, cross the line, they become the fiercest of rivals. Up to Saturday, Espanyol had played seven La Liga matches in its own stadium and won seven. It had conceded a mere two goals.

Its coach, the Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, made threats that his men would be just as aggressive as he was. Pochettino earned more red cards as a player than any other man in an Espanyol shirt.

He had captained Espanyol, just as Jarque, a big, strong central defender, was chosen to do a few years after Pochettino retired.

Alas, poor Dani Jarque. He collapsed and died of a heart attack while at preseason camp with Espanyol in Florence. He was 26, and he simply stopped breathing while talking on the telephone with his girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant.

That was why Jarque was uppermost in the mind of Iniesta last July in Johannesburg.

That was why Iniesta, though he intended to keep the undershirt, felt it belonged with Espanyol. He donated it to the club a month ago.

And that, surely, was why everyone applauded Iniesta on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the English referee at the World Cup final ruined the moment in Johannesburg by showing Iniesta a yellow card for removing his shirt.

It is in the FIFA rule book, so referee Howard Webb did as the rule dictates.

He showed Iniesta the same color card that he had flashed at Nigel De Jong after the Dutchman’s kung fu kick into the chest of Xabi Alonso during the final.

If FIFA has a conscience, it will revise that rule. It could do it in memory of Jarque, or in plain common decency.

But Barcelona is more than a club, more than a city, more than an act of sentimentality.

Guardiola’s team, three quarters of it grown at La Masia, proved again that it is among the finest ever to play soccer. Maybe the Real Madrid of the 1950s, possibly the AC Milan of the 1990s, were as great, but this Barça is still growing.

Guardiola is still learning to coach it. The display Saturday, with two goals from Pedro, two from David Villa, one from Xavi and more breathtaking creativity from Messi, was against a good, tough opponent.

Espanyol chased, kicked, and scored the first goal anyone has scored against Barcelona in seven matches. For Barcelona, which has won 10 consecutive matches, five goals a game is becoming a norm. An exceptional team, to be sure, with a saint on the wing. Iniesta doesn’t say a lot about his own talents, but Pablo Picasso, a former resident of this city, once wrote: “It is not what the artist does that counts, but what he is.”

A "golden year" for my favorite Spanish soccer player, Andres Iniesta

Ballon D’or: A golden year for Iniesta

11 Dec 2010
THE immediate aftermath may have been lost in a whirlwind of jubilation, but the goal that won the World Cup and thrilled an expectant nation remains vivid in the memory of Andres Iniesta.

With his speed of thought and exquisite technique, the little playmaker was already a standout for all-conquering Barcelona before he became king of the world with La Roja after his extra-time winner against the Netherlands.

Having progressed through Barca’s remarkable youth academy, which has produced some of the finest footballers in recent generations, Iniesta is the perfect modern attacking midfielder.

He performs with distinction for both club and country alongside Xavi and Sergio Busquets, and has lifted every major title available to him in domestic and international football.

However, his greatest triumph arrived when he capped a man-of-the-match winning performance with the goal that crowned Spain as world champions for the first time in South Africa this summer.

“When Cesc [Fabregas] passed the ball to me, I didn’t have any time to think or be nervous,” recalled Iniesta in an exclusive interview with Herald Sport. “I knew where the goal was and how I had to shoot. The shot did not go exactly where I wanted, but it was good enough and the keeper could not react.

“When I saw the ball hit the net, I ran, I screamed. It was awesome. After that I was looking forward to the end of the match, so I could celebrate it. I don’t remember what happened after the game, or even days later. It was an amazing night for everyone.”

While the superlatives used to describe Iniesta’s skill have all but run dry, his ambition has not, with the Spaniard now setting his sights on improving on a trophy haul that includes four La Liga titles, four Spanish Super Cups, a Copa del Rey, the FIFA Club World Cup, a UEFA Super Cup and two Champions League medals, as well as World Cup and European Championship wins with Spain – all at the age of 26.

Individual plaudits have been plentiful, too, and last week he was nominated for the FIFA Ballon D’Or, a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Year Award and the Ballon D’Or, a prize handed out by France Football Magazine, alongside Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi and Xavi.

“I never dreamt that I could win the Ballon D’Or; I dreamt of winning titles because that is the most important thing for me,” Iniesta said. “I’m excited to be nominated with other great players, especially with players like Diego Milito missing.

“I have been lucky enough to win many things but, in a few years when I look back, I want to have won more medals than I have now.”

It is little surprise that Iniesta’s managers for club and country, Pep Guardiola and Vicente del Bosque, are shortlisted for the Coach of the Year award, alongside Jose Mourinho, a Champions League winner with Inter.

To Iniesta, the 39-year-old Guardiola is a master of his craft. He said: “He is a coach that every day teaches you something new in each training session. He gives you solutions, he makes you a better player. With Pep, we [Barcelona] have taken a leap in quality.”

With three wins from three games, including a 3-2 victory over Scotland at Hampden, Spain are well on route to qualifying for the 2012 European Championships, where they will be favourites to retain their crown but Iniesta believes Scotland can still join them at the finals.

He said: “We knew the game against Scotland was going to be difficult. There are still games to play and Scotland still have a chance to qualify if they play with the same motivation and football as they did against Spain."

--Antonio Garcia and Christopher Jack, HeraldScotland

Qatar was named as the host country for the 2022 World's Cup. Watch this video of their stunning soccer stadium designs

Maybe the greatest soccer team in history, Barcelona, trounces their rival Real Madrid, 5-0

Maybe the best team in history. Read here.

Diego Forlan, the great Uruguayan soccer player

Gifted, a strong leader, loyal to his family, advocate for people with disabilities, principled, and recipient of the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And handsome too.