Play The Game is the site of a Danish organization dedicated to questions of fairness in sport. They are the group behind a conference going on right now (November 6-10) that is addressing such thorny questions as match-fixing, doping, and the intimidation of sports journalists. Best of all, there is a comprehensive site in English which features many of the presentations. Issues of such importance are rarely addressed by the media and are often dealt with in a PR-friendly way by the major sports organizations, so organizations like Play The Game are tremendously important. It’s not just about winning.

Palestinian National Team

In 1994, FIFA became the first organization to formally recognize Palestine as an independent state, granting it the status of “guest member” and allowing it to field a football team to compete in international competitions including the FIFA World Cup.

This hasn’t been easy. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza made it nearly impossible for players to assemble and practice, and there are few decent football pitches. An internet appeal for players of Palestinian ancestry has resulted in a national team made up of “Palestinians” who were born in places as scattered as Chile and the United States. The very unique struggles of this group of players to represent their nation were depicted in one episode of an excellent BBC2 series of documentaries called Frontline Football (good review here).

Wanting to find out more, I was happy to discover that a film is being made by Chileans Nelson Soza and Marcelo Piña documenting the team’s (and nation’s) ongoing struggles. Futbol Palestina 2006 is a work-in-progress, but there are generous clips available from the web site. You can find out more about football in Palestine at the site of the Palestinian Football Association.

I found out about this project through the fascinating online publication The Global Game. If you’re at all interested in the cultural and political aspects of football, I highly recommend you check it out.