Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Soccer in America - According to Carrard

Can't believe I haven't written anything in a month, but anyway, check out today's New York Times column by Juliet Macur.   It's about Francois Carrard, the Swiss lawyer named to heard FIFA's reform committee, and an interview he gave to the Swiss newspaper Le Matin.

All soccer fans in the United States need to know about Carrard is that he said soccer was "not a true American sport" and that “There, it’s just an ethnic sport for girls in schools.”  Macur wrote, "Let’s see him repeat those comments to Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd or Hope Solo, or any of the other members of the United States team that just won the Women’s World Cup. Or to Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard, who helped lead the United States men’s team to the Round of 16 at last year’s World Cup. (That is the same round the Swiss men reached, by the way.)

Carrard’s words were fighting words, if fighting 77-year-old Swiss lawyers is your thing."