It is tempting to call Fifa’s corruption debacle a gift that just keeps on giving. Except it feels like something else by now, a gift that has, frankly, given too muchAre you feeling it yet? The Fifa corruption fatigue? It has, after all, been seven years in the making, from the oddly homespun excesses of the whistleblower Chuck Blazer, football’s own mobility scooter Liberace; to the cold, gangsterish disdain of the Grondona-Teixeira-Leoz axis, the kind of Fifa men who would carve out your liver with an ivory-inlaid oyster knife if it meant getting a step closer to a secret six-figure TV rights access sweetener.This week the US justice department court case sparked into life in New York. Its first few...
A key point often lost in the criticism of the IOC’s tolerance of tyranny is that by hosting the Olympics, democracies become more authoritarianOn Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee will rubberstamp the plan to hand Paris the 2024 Summer Games while Los Angeles will host in 2028. Given the lack of bids from democratic countries and the increasingly frequent torpedoing of bids by activists and referenda, Olympic boosters are surely thrilled to lock down Paris and LA, two cities in democracies with storied Olympic histories.After all, the IOC has received negative attention – and rightfully so – for bestowing the Games on authoritarian regimes. Olympic honchos even handed Beijing its second Games – it will host the Winter Olympics in...
The presidential candidate and the former Yankees star may seem like an unlikely MLB ownership team, but theirs is a very American storyIf the Miami Marlins were a politician, they would be Jeb Bush. Both were expected to be a powerhouse from their inception, but after some early success – the Florida Marlins two World Series titles and Jeb twice being elected to run Florida – they failed to generate much of a following and eventually became a punchline. Both call Florida home, both are synonymous with losing and few seem to care that either exists. And what was the exclamation point thrown into Jeb! 2016’s logo but the desperate campaign equivalent of the home run sculpture at Marlins Park....
The Wall Street Journal describes Nascar as a sport in free fall, but the rollicking spirit of mirth and community on hand in the Daytona infield is built to lastIn pictures: camping and carousing at America’s great raceCush Revette paced down the starting line with a checkered flag and a full handle of Coulsons Rum, exhorting to the crowd with a carnival barker’s brio.“Who’s next? I need two more dumb rednecks,” the 59-year-old from Tampa cried. “Speaking of two dumb rednecks, I see three right there.” Related: Kurt Busch wins first Daytona 500 title in crash-filled race Continue reading...
LA’s mayor may have accused Donald Trump of ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ – but one man’s flames of hatred is another’s flames of desireBack in 1994, IOC member Dick Pound declared the only way Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games would lose to Quebec City was because Utah’s capital had “no more rabbits to pull out of the hat”. Yup, I know – bless Dick for thinking that’s how Olympic bids are won.Working on more conventional lines, however, the Salt Lake City bid president and his senior vice-president shipped $1,200 worth of rabbits (trivia buffs may care to know that amounted to 12 rabbits) to Pound. Dick and his wife declined to accept the rabbits,...