| This Weekend Iraqi Soccer Marks New Beginning
Kids across the nation played in the streets, teenagers aspired to nothing more than play soccer professionally, national team players were regional celebrities and the team would qualify for the World Cup. Then Saddam Hussein put his son Uday in charge of the team and things took a turn for the worst. Uday's motivational methods allegedly included threatening to cut off a player's legs, and failure to show up at practice could result in either jail time or flogging with electric cables. Following the 1990 Gulf War, Iraq was banned from participating in the Asian Games and most Arab competitions and in 1996 the team was ranked 139th by FIFA, the world's soccer governing body That was the low point. Over a decade later, after years of having to travel abroad to see their national football (soccer) team, this weekend Iraqis will finally have a chance to see their beloved Lions of Mesopotamia play at home, the first time the team will play a home game since the American invasion in 2003.
UFC 100 pre-fight skrimish: Mike Florio, of PFT, takes aim at Dana
Soccer, or football for the international readers, is far and away the most popular and most lucrative sport in the world. When one compares soccer's status around the globe to the UFC's, soccer is not merely in another stratosphere it is in another Galaxy. Probably Andromeda. Case in point, the 80,000 fans who showed up to watch Cristiano Ronaldo try on a jersey or the $130 million (£80m, €93million) that Real Madrid paid Manchester United just for the option to negotiate with Ronaldo. Truly mind boggling numbers for the world of mixed martial arts, could the UFC even draw 80,000 fans to UFC 100? It is easy for Florio to make the same conclusions about the NFL and the UFC. Consider that the average NFL franchise is worth a billion dollars, which is the equivalent of the entire worth of the UFC. Now that is not including NFL television contracts and licensing agreements to Reebok or Electronic Arts.
Youth calendar 7/5
The Lakeland College soccer program has extended early registration deadlines for its high school soccer camps. The new early registration deadline for the girls camp is Monday, July 13, and the new early registration deadline for the boys camp is Friday, July 17. Lakeland's Advanced Girls High School Soccer Camp is scheduled for July 19-23. The camp is for girls entering ninth grade this fall through girls who graduated from high school this past June. Lakeland's Advanced Boys High School Preseason Soccer Camp is scheduled for July 26-30. The camp is for boys entering ninth grade this fall through boys who graduated from high school this past June. For questions concerning the camp, contact Lakeland head soccer coach David Madsen at (920) 565-1244 or madsends@lakeland.edu.
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