football diplomacy

Last month, multi-national telecommunications company Huawei renewed its sponsorship of Wellington Phoenix. It is the largest sponsorship deal in the history of New Zealand football. Though the deal is vital for the club, it is also significant for Huawei. So significant that Huawei global CEO Guo Ping made the official announcement when Prime Minister John Key was at the company's Beijing headquarters as part of his latest China visit.

PD News highlights the power and limitations of Soccer Diplomacy.

New York: The New York Cosmos will kick off a new era in sporting relations between the United States and Cuba on Tuesday when they become the first American sports team in 16 years to play in the Communist-ruled island. Brazilian legend Pele is to join the glamorous New York soccer team's traveling party for Tuesday's exhibition match against the Cuban national team at the Pedro Marrero Stadium in Havana. The fixture reflects the rapidly thawing ties between the United States and Cuba following moves to normalize relati

Six years ago tomorrow, the Hrazdan Stadium in the Armenian capital of Yerevan erupted into a wall of noise as two unlikely opponents lined out in the first World Cup meeting of Armenia and Turkey -- a match which became the first round of the so-called 'football diplomacy' between the two troubled neighbors. 

As part of the sports diplomacy program, Tony Sanneh and Thomas Rongen, two American football (soccer) coaches arrived in Port Au Prince this week to take part in a sports program for youth in Haiti, from August 3 - 9, 2014 with partnership from the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the Community Policing Unit, Scouts d'Haïti, and the Haitian Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa was one of the first glimpses of this new German identity on the international stage. In the eyes of many it represented a modern Germany, free from the shackles of its history, as the center of European affairs and subsequently, highlighting the changing face of race and ethnicity on the continent.

Some of the world’s best soccer players are gathered in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which begins next week. But during the rest of the year, the 736 players who are members of national teams play on club teams around the world in 53 different countries. Pew Research analyzed the final rosters for each of the 32 qualifying nations posted to FIFA’s official website and found a total of 476 players (65%) who currently play for clubs in countries outside of their World Cup nation. 

Qatar's soccer league, in a break with a reluctance among Gulf states to give their largely expatriate majorities a sense of belonging, is next month organizing the region's first cup for foreign workers' teams. The cup, involving up to 24 teams formed by foreign workers primarily from Asia who account for the bulk of Qatar's 1.5 million expatriates, is part of an effort to improve working and living conditions as well as a bid to fend off international trade union demands to meet global labor standards.

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