Footylosopher

With future travel back on everyone's mind, we take a look toward the next most important global destination event--The FIFA World Cup 2022.

This one was controversially awarded to Qatar back in 2010. Since then FIFA itself has been decimated in an FBI corruption bust and the nation of Qatar has been carefully scrutinized. We're even seeing some countries begin the discussion of boycotting the games all together.

As fans, we ask the question: Is it ethical to travel to Qatar for World Cup 2022?

We all like to travel with a purpose. For some it's to immerse themselves in a new culture. Some want to see history first hand. Others want to leave their stressors behind for a relaxing vista and a modicum of peace from responsibility. Whatever your passion is, experiencing it in a foreign land is an unforgettable thing. 

So why wouldn't these podcasters plan travel around soccer games?

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The world has lost some of it's color. The passing of Diego Maradona doesn't just affect the soccering world, but the world at large. He was a larger than life personality that had a global spotlight both on and off the pitch. Part of what drove him to become one of the player he was drove his life straight toward the grave. Join us to reflect on the man, the myth, and the legend that was, and will always be, Diego Maradona.

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The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete.

                                                                                             -Charles Pierre de Fredy, Baron de Coubertin

International competition seems to be a relatively new endeavor. The idea that one nation would assert it's dominance over another through sport seems as natural as breathing. In fact, when one looks at the timeline of human existence competition on behalf of a country happened just as soon as it possibly could. All the ingredients were there: defined borders became more of a reality just as advancements in transportation shrunk the globe exponentially. The first modern era Olympics were design to be an international affair, even though the ancient namesake was not. So why do nation's seem compelled to compete?

You can't begin to discuss the first International Football Match without first establishing the first Non English Football Club. Glasgow's Queen's Park Football Club was established in 1867 in a most unceremonious manner. It did however go on to shape the game of football for most of the world in the last part of the 19th Century. The team established a style of collaboration and teamwork heretofore unknown to the beautiful game. It was this combination method of play that would be given the moniker "Scientific Football" for the very thoughtful and deliberate distribution of the ball. This scientific style would emigrate with it's Scots to inform the game on multiple continents, as well as the birthplace of the sport itself. Scotland would send ripples through the sporting world that would lead to competition on a whole new level...a national level.

Kobe Bryant spent an important part of his childhood in Italy where he grew a love of the game of soccer. A natural talent in basketball, his destiny was set. He did, however, apply tactics and strategies of soccer to his basketball game and in so doing, elevated his game, and the game of his opposing teams, perhaps forever.

He remained an influential ally to the growth of US Soccer and helped bring fandom of the beautiful game into the American mainstream. 

We also look at other celebrity soccer fans and how their visibility can transform the attitudes of the uninitiated, and possibly lead them to the light.

Charles William Alcock was a major player in the formation of the structure of English Football we know today. A Harrow boy, and avid Cricketer, he needed a sport to play during the winter months when Cricket was on hiatus. He, like many others, turned to the pitch to play football; or what passed as football in the 1850's.

After school, Alcock co founded his own team (Forest Football Club) but struggled to find opponents that played by the same set of rules his club had adopted. While history can't seem to agree on whether or not Alcock was present at the Morley meetings that created the Football Association, his team was a charter member of the FA. 

Alcock's sportsmanship and drive for competition led to him proposing an idea of a sudden death championship complete with ornate trophy. As captain of one of the winningest clubs in the FA, he lifted the cup 5 out of the first 7 years. He also organized the first international exhibition match pitting England against Scotland in 1870.

Alcock would die a journalist, writer, perennial founder of things, and leader of two major sports. His grave is still a place of honor as his headstone itself is a cross embossed with an image of the FA cup he was instrumental in creating.