Space to play

Presto, Instant Playground

2011-08-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/opinion/sunday/presto-instant-playground.html

Opinion
Presto, Instant Playground
By ALEC APPELBAUM
Published: August 13, 2011
Can a trendy retail tactic promote healthier living in low-income urban neighborhoods?

Interesting idea from several New York neighborhood associations. They temporarily close neighborhood streets and create "pop up" playgrounds with different sports for the local communities. They have their arguments on how these temporary playgrounds might motivate children and parents to get out of the house and exercise once the street is reopened. Although I could see it having some impact, I find myself wishing for a more sustainable permanent approach. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement and get out and play when enthusiastic 20 somethings are showing your kid how to play tennis on a mini tennis net in the middle of a normally busy street. When its gone though, it is just as easy to stay home and play the wii.

On Real vs Barca and other collective activities

2011-04-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Simple enough question, there is never a gray area. One of the few things in life that is black and white. Yes, no, or neither (the last response very rare and usually reserved for those completely not interested in football, or don't want to fight). Unfortunately, in the second of what I believe will be 5 matches against each other, Barca lost 1-0, heartbreaking, in overtime. I was in a new cafe on Biranzarane, and liked it.

The place was split in half regarding allegiances and they (mostly boys and men) brought their own flags! It was almost like there were two bodies, and at each missed goal, great pass, corner, breakaway, there was a collective ahhhh that would erupt, or a collective sigh of relief that would escape depending on the team. When Real scored, you didn't hear any individual screams or sounds, but a loud single roar, not just from our cafe but from across the street, across town, across the country.

The only other thing that can emotes such a roar...a Wydad and Raja game (although I would have hoped the promise of constitutional change would do the same thing, I think that time has yet to come).

There is always retour and I can only hope this time I take part in the collective roar and not the collective sulking out the cafe towards your car.

A stadium

2010-09-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

They call it Casablancaise, it sits between Centre Ville and Maarif in one of the few green parks that Casablanca can claim to have. The stadium is full of trash, sports a dirt 300 m track and reminds me of what urban degradation would look like if done by American Eagle. Remember those sweatshirts you could buy, when you were 14, from any of those stores (insert name like Halister, Abercrombie and Fitch etc)? They would be a navy or maroon faded color, with strategically placed holes and shredded ends, as if the entire garment had been rubbed on coarse cement. Then the words Physical Education sewn on the front or back. This is what the stadium looks like now. A photo shoot waiting to take place.

It wouldn't be that depressing if you didn't know what Casablancaise used to be. I have heard stories, of championship African track and field events, full stands, crowd screaming, award ceremonies and medal distributions. It was were many of Morocco's most famous track and field athletes (men and women) started their careers as teenagers. Strangely enough, despite it being forgotten by government and private sectors alike, it is still used. It is free to use and at any moment during the day, you see an incredible cross section of Moroccan society training there. Women wearing the hijab or full niqab, young boys and girls training for a team, old men and women stretching...I could keep going.

This blog entry will start a small series on this stadium, its past and its future. I am currently trying to do a radio documentary on the story behind the area and hopefully try to get enough people to mobilize and get the government to revive it. Partly because I like the ambiance there and think it is truly a very special place and partly because I am tired of seeing Lady Fitness everywhere.

Headscarves, again

2010-08-19T08:56:00.001-07:00

Not sure if anyone has been following this controversy but Fifa just won't leave this alone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR2010081401219.html

Personally I think Sepp Blatter sounds like an idiot and those who ruled that the hijab was not only dangerous during play but also unacceptable because it made a political and religious statement are making a very powerful statement as well: because a woman happens to be born in a Muslim country or to a Muslim family or converts and chooses to wear the hijab for personal reasons or must wear it because of political reasons cannot participate in a sport on the international level. Should we start fining players every time they make the sign of the cross when enter the field or score a goal?

Our friend Sepp said it best, that, "It is very important for football, that football be played by and in all cultures. Especially at this level of the youths, and the Olympic idea, I think it's very important."

According to FIFA, the best way to do this is by making restrictions.

What I did find interesting is that FIFA allowed them to wear these "caps" or what looks like a winter beanie. It in a way put these women in uncharted territory, trying to negotiate between the demands of FIFA and the Islamic codes of Iran, or rather in this case, what constitutes a hijab in Islam. I'm sure that was a controversial topic, case and point when the Iranian woman, Marzieh Akbarabadi, who is in charge of all women's sports, marched off the field at the unveiling of the new "caps" in protest.

Again it is funny to follow FIFA's reasoning in all of this. Wearing a hijab is making a religious/political statement as well as poses a danger to the player or another player but as soon as you uncover the neck, the danger disappears and the players no longer are visually Muslim.

In the end, you have these girls who want to play and most likely don't care much about the politics around it all. Whatever your personal thoughts are on the hijab, the victims here are these young players who are good enough to play, want to play, and can't for absolutely no reason, pure discrimination and against every Olympic and fair play principles which actually, I have realized, are rarely ever present in any sort of Olympic event or FIFA sponsored event anyway.

Guest Post by Lisa Matuska: If only cars had no horns

2010-07-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

Playing a pick up soccer (football) game in Morocco is like entering into a contract. I didn’t realize this the first time I was in Rabat with my sister and we saw some guys playing on the beach. We had an hour or so until we were suppose to meet some people for dinner so I said, “let’s kick the ball around.” Nicole being the eager-to-please hostess, knew very well those words, “kick the ball around” didn’t exist in the football-loving country, but we played anyway.

Three hours later, my feet bruised and my toes bloody, we stopped because someone was hurt badly enough that he couldn’t walk. So this is a pick up game. You arrive at the beach, kick the ball and linger until you identify some opponents (prey you could say, depending upon how serious you are) and give a quick whistle or indication you want to play. There’s lots of negotiations and arguing about numbers, goal size and other things that I can’t understand due to language barriers, so I usually just wait.

And wait. And wait.

And that brings me to the beauty of this game: one can play in a football match no matter what language they speak- even sign language.

On a chilly and overcast Monday morning, the beach in Casablanca, which is usually filled with footballers, was empty except for a few scattered groups. My friends and I started kicking the ball around and soon my friend Mehdi began match negotiations with a group of guys nearby.

Again, I just waited.

He came back and said, “they don’t speak.” I thought he meant that they were shy, but when we started the game there was something wrong, something missing. Noise. It was a quiet Monday and a quiet game of football. The men we were playing against were all deaf. At first I felt as if we were playing a different game. There was no yelling, no calling for the ball. Everyone on our team could of course speak, but for some reason we followed suit and stayed mostly silent. I thought I was in another world for a while, a silent film perhaps. But about a half hour into the game, people started to push and shove and whine, and I realized that I was actually just playing football in Morocco. The arguments, outrage and debates that dominate every other game were happening here, only with dramatic hand gestures and theatrical reenactments of fouls and bad passes. If someone knocked you down, instead of crying foul from the ground, you had to get up and run in front of them, pointing to the very spot of sand on your leg that somehow represents concrete and undeniable evidence of the foul. And if they disagree well then, you reenact the play, waving your hands wildly. Whoever gets tired and frustrated of these charades loses, and the other gets the ball. In a way it was the only time I could understand what these arguments in Moroccan pick up games were all about. There was no more language barrier.

Even though the group of men couldn’t communicate with their words, they were very good. Their passes were quick, intuitive and difficult to read. They had a different vision of the field, one that replaced the oral communication we use when we play. I could also tell that they played together a lot, like a team, not just a mash up of random talented players. Often times during the game they would talk and argue amongst each other in very dramatic sign language, and my Moroccan team members would look at them like, “what on earth are they arguing about?” Now they knew how I felt, and so while they silently argued we did the only thing we could do- went back toward our own goal and waited.

-Lisa Matuska

Bethesda SC Morocco Tour, 2010

2010-07-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

Back again, just finished a really great program sponsored by the US Embassy. I brought over a US girls mixed U-15,16,17 team from Bethesda Maryland (Bethesda Soccer Club, http://www.bethesdasoccer.org/) and we did a huge tour around Morocco. It was a mix of tournaments, games and clinics as well as a round table discussion and a somewhat interesting press conference.

The goal of the program (officially) was to provide an exchange opportunity, allowing American girls to get a glimpse of and experience women's football in Morocco and Moroccan girls to do the same with women's football in America. My personal goal for this program was to give them Moroccan teams a chance to play an American girls team and through the press and attention, highlight and increase the importance of Moroccan women's football. I think that happened (maybe not as much as I would have hoped but more than I expected, if that makes any sense). We had some great press coverage, all over the big TV stations as well as satellite arab TV (thanks to Reuters TV). We were in arabic and french papers as well. The tournament in Casablanca (our first stop on the tour) with Wydad, Berrchid and Sidi Moumen went really well, and was very well attended. Most of the Casablanca women's football scene was there, including the regional president of the women's league from the Federation (which for me really means nothing but added to the importance of the event just by his attendance at the press conference). There were a lot of other people there, faces I see often at games, at Federation conferences, opportunists, names I don't remember. I didn't thank really any of them and they right it off as me being a foreigner who doesn't understand proper etiquette. Little do they know that it is really just because I don't know
their names and have a rule that a "thank you" in front of the press from me requires you actually having done something related to the program.

My Sidi Moumen girls from the Cultural Center came and we played around during half time on the turf grass that Wydad just built (this was the first time these young girls ever played on any sort of surface other than dirt, rock, broken glass mixture they are used to near the center).

After Casa we traveled to Amzmiz and held clinics in Amzmiz with Sana and her group. Of course we had an amazing welcome, the group of boys and girls were there. We didn't get as many young girls (because it was ridiculously hot, summer, and many parents didn't want their daughters outside), but eventually we had enough girls and added some curious boys and did a good hour and a half of drills and games.

After Amzmiz was Fes (we played Abdi's team from Khenifra) and then had an amazing program in Oujda. The clinics went way better (partly because now the american girls knew what they were doing and partly because we had way more little girls and a nice field with equipment). Then we did the round table and then the game at night. It felt good to be in Oujda just because there are some really great girls there, and no league for them to play in. Oujda is a border/frontier town right next to Algeria in the north east. It apparently was a a bustling economic hub when the border was open but now is sort of a dead zone and just really far from all other Moroccan economic and social hubs. This also makes it hard for the girls team to enter the league. Not enough teams around them to start a regional league and too far to be affordable to travel and play in the other regions. So they are just stuck, traveling and guest playing with other teams but eventually, will have to give it up, get married and have nice memories of playing a game they loved.

After Oujda we finished up in Sale against a sort of national select team, Bahia's doing. Bahia is a great force in women's football and I think, of all the women and even men I have met in the domain, has good intentions rather than wanting a political post or some sort of money. We will see.

We had the ambassador come as well as the Mayor of Sale, lots of media again, and a nice reception.

Not the most sustainable of programs and a lot of money dished out by the embassy for just one week but I also would not have done it if I hadn't thought that the impact on women's football in Morocco would be big. I think it was. Hopefully through this team from Bethesda we can continue contact and get some donations to the teams and programs here. Maybe there are other ways for collaborations. Will continue thinking of things.

My next project is grassroots coaching training for women mostly. Still int he planning stages and looking for money of course.

Salim's prediction

2010-07-02T04:43:00.001-07:00

My prediction for this cup is Argentina or Ghana because a little boy told me that Messi is God and mama Africa will always prevail. I think this little boy, whose name was Salim, thought that Messi played for Ghana because he was quite adamant that Messi and Ghana would win, both. I tried to explain that you can only have one winner but he wouldn't have it. We never reached an understanding.

Also an interesting application from France 24...
The Foot-o Booth is now available on facebook. This World Cup special application lets you show support on your facebook profile for your favorite team by painting the team’s colors onto an uploaded photo. Foot-o Booth on facebook is now up here : http://bit.ly/dB9YXd . How-to video here : http://bit.ly/9eOQ2R .

In addition to showing support, participants’ photos are broadcast daily on France 24. All fan photos submitted to Foot-o Booth are arranged in a World Cup 2010 Mosaic broadcast around the world during France 24’s international World Cup reporting. Check out an HD version of the current mosaic here : http://bit.ly/cvR1v4

Women's national team vs. Senegal, March 20, 2010

2010-04-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

coaches from the Sidi Moumen Nassim team

The game felt a lot like the day they played France two years ago on Women's Day: a lot of anticipation, then a slightly below average performance followed by again, the squashing of any hope in playing in the African cup or reaching an international tournament.

This game, on March 20, was against Senegal, the return game at a Sale turf football field (for the life of me I cannot understand why they would play on a turf field rather than a real grass field, yes Morocco has quite a few, and should be opened to the women's national team). I made the trip from Casablanca, considered painting my face red but settled on a national team jersey and a green hoodie. Again, girls teams from all over Morocco came, in buses, grand taxis and trains. There was a 50 person brass band, journalists on each end, the junior Moroccan men's national team as well as a modest VIP area which I imagine was reserved for president of the women's commission and anyone else he managed to drag to the game to elevate its importance.

There is not much else to say. The spectators watched and cheered and yelled insults but mostly just came to catch up on women's football gossip. Senegal fielded a strong, tall, big boned team with speed and a slightly better than average touch while the Moroccans were slow, heavy and constantly pushed off or beaten to the ball. As the game was nearing its end, the journalists and photographers who normally should have their cameras pointed at the net or focused on strikers lit their cigarets, layed their cameras in their laps and leaned back on the grass.

I spoke with my friend Hassan, a journalist with Radio Mars, who agreed with me that the coach had no idea who he was playing on the field. Apparently, he is new, and benched some players that should have been playing. Frankly, I am not sure if it would have made a difference.

I did see my old team ACDA, a couple of the girls, who more or less looked the same. It made me think of Rabat again, and Abderahman the coach, and Megan and filming and playing on the Oudaya beach.

I caught a ride back with the Sidi Moumen team in their bus, half listening to one of their coaches talk about the problems of women's football in Morocco and if the federation had just consulted him in building the national team and the league, then maybe things would be different. Again, I doubt this.

Spirit of Football, Spirit of Sidi Moumen

2010-03-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I updated but just wanted to share (since they have updated their blog with their visit) a special visit Sunday, February 21, by Andrew and Chris from Spirit of Football.

Their project is pretty amazing, check out their blog at http://theball.tv.

They are basically traveling from England to South Africa for the World Cup, through Africa, with one ball. It serves as sort of a torch, and everyone along the way has the opportunity to sign it. They stayed a couple of days in Casa and Zaki, a friend a technical director at Wydad, hosted them here. They came to Sidi Moumen and we organized some drills, got the Tacharouk football club kids to come as well. All the kids were able to sign the ball which was great. Andrew and Chris also visited L'Heure Joyeuse, another great association that works with street kids in Casa. They have a dancing shantytown program where kids from slums learn break dancing and hip hop dancing, sponsored/funded by Nike I believe. We wish Chris and Andrew luck as they head south. Check out their blog as well, you can follow their journey to South Africa. The idea of everyone signing this ball is great because no matter who you are, from famous players to street kids, everyone signs with the same markers on top of eachother and all the signatures at one point fade as the ball is kicked and handled. It is such a temporary thing, a moment that everyone participated in, in exactly the same way fundamentally but uniquely at the same time (if that makes any sense). One way is not more important or more unique than the other. And that is what football is essentially, fundamentally the same game around the world played by millions of professional and non professionals. The same game, taken and made their own, played in an utterly unique way. Millions of moments that are the same but not. Okay, I am done.

Women's soccer specific stadium!

2010-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

(Empty wasted garbage filled space which could be cleared and turned into a field in Sidi Moumen...one example of many)

I know this is not news from North Africa/Middle East but rather from Kennesaw, Georgia, but roll with me.

The new expansion women's pro team in Atlanta is building a soccer specific stadium in partnership with Kennesaw State University, a $16.5 million, 8,300-seat stadium. They are saying it will be one of the only women specific soccer stadium's in the world (which may or may not be true, not sure) and if true, then it is pretty exciting and could work, particularly in the states because of the women's game's popularity.

Perhaps we can convince the mayor of Sidi Moumen to build a field for Nassim, the women's team. There is enough empty space filled with nothing but garbage, I'm sure they could clear a bit of land, help the environment as well as local women's football. No, actually, what we need more are apartment building too expensive for inhabitants or some new sort of INDH center that stands empty most days but is a great impressive notch on the local governments CV demonstrating their ability to, as superficially as possible, help local citizens.

Federations, Ministries, Rabat oh my!

2010-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

For those with even a small familiarity of the way ministries and federations work here in Morocco, then the read below will be enjoyable. This comes from Lisa Matuska, foreign women's football correspondent extraordinaire on her attempt to get even the slightest amount of information from the Moroccan Women's Football Committee. I will leave out names but no one knows who is in the committee anyway, not even those involved in Women's football in Morocco so it doesn't matter too much either way. Enjoy!

Federation interview

Rabat Morocco

Royal Moroccan Football Federation Building, 3rd floor

We entered into a meeting with seven people. I explained I was a university student doing a project on women’s football which I began in 2008 in Oak Brook Chicago and now I was working with a radio station in Chicago to continue this project on womens’ football in Morocco, profiling some girls that came back from Oak Brook and the teams they play on here in Morocco, as well as the status of women’s football in Morocco.

I put my recorder on which they said was fine, then I asked when the league began. They were confused at what I wanted and unsure of the exact dates. When I said that a general date was OK they said they need to do research to get an exact date because this must be official word from the federation. Someone left the room and then brought a piece of paper that I assumed had the correct information. This man read the paper and said, “oh this says 1998 but I’m sure it was before that.”

I then asked a more general, opinion-based question: “has the league grown since it started?” I assumed this answer, like most answer if something has grown from it’s first year would be yes, of course, we don’t have the exact numbers but blah blah blah. This sent another whirlwind of confusion, stemmed from one man, about exact numbers and official word and they can’t tell me anything. I should send my questions by email and they can get together and put together official answers and then set up a meeting and get back to me.

My last question, which was my last ditch effort, was, “what are the challenges the federation faces regarding women’s football in Morocco,” and of course, once again, Imane and I didn’t understand, they can’t answer, it must be official. As if their titles were not official enough, maybe they needed a stamp or something.

It seems they don’t meet often so this was a long working meeting and I understand we might have been a bit of an intrusion. However, I don’t see anything wrong in answering in general and then sending details later, or I don’t see anything wrong in one person coming out with me and doing a one-on-one interview because I did emphasize the unimportance of this piece of my project, just a few words about women’s football from the federation. But it seemed that the women, who were the friendliest weren’t in control of what would happen and this one man, took over and didn’t think anyone knew the answers so they would all have to confer and get back to me. It seemed as if they didn’t work together much and communication between them was very disorganized as well.

Football's energy finaly harnassed

2010-01-26T16:09:00.000-08:00

What a great example of what happens when simple ideas are applied to sports! Check out this story

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/using-soccer-to-supplant-kerosene-use/#more-38859

A group of Harvard students come up with a way to gather energy from the kicking and playing around with a football and use it to light rooms, charge cell phones at night. Free energy combined with one of the greatest, most played and most accessible sports in the word plus a positive impact on the environment because it could (theoretically) reduce kerosene lamp use, and you have an extraordinary product. Their distribution method is interesting too although I am not so sure how much of their US/high income bracket sales will be made because of this ball's attractiveness as a new tech gizmo compared to the attractiveness of "must help out developing countries, particularly through football as the World Cup approaches", but in the end, whatever gets the job done.

How great would it be if they could get the ball to be used in the kickoff of the first world cup game! Hmmm...

Journeys to South Africa, 2010

2010-01-19T02:39:00.000-08:00

I was recently visited by a group of Portuguese journalists last week working for one of the biggest papers in Portugal. They are making their way down to South Africa in this pretty intense looking 4x4, reporting on stories about football in each country they pass through from now until the World Cup in June in South Africa. They ended up doing stories on the Sidi Moumen football team as well as the girls down in Amzmiz! Check out their blog (its in Portuguese but still pretty exciting).

http://worldcup.record.xl.pt/

Latin America, Middle East...same uniforms and smiles

2010-01-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

Great piece on women's football in Peru and how it is linked to land reform and women's struggle for a place in society on the Global Game blog.

http://www.theglobalgame.com/blog/2010/01/peruvian-women-in-fulbito-andino-find-light-in-the-darkness/

What stuck me most about this story is one of the pictures, of the Peruvian girls juggling a ball in her skirt and pink uniform top and the other girls watching. Their uniforms, even the smiles on their face as they watch this girl juggle, reminded me of a picture I took in a locker room in Rabat. The girl was juggling and another watching her. The picture has such a feeling of similarity, parallel worlds on the same track. The quote to from one of the women in the article too reminded me of so many things I have often heard here..."The football world beyond our mountains we do not know. We do not know who plays there, who are the best players, what they wear and the rules that everyone follows. We only play in order to have some happy moments, to have fun. Of technique and tactics we do not understand much. But we play with our hearts, with all our will. And that brings us together into a single force. That is football for us."

What else do we need football to be. Something so universal yet for these women, something so isolated, their football, in their mountains, with their rules, their happy moments.

A touch gone awry...

2009-12-21T14:45:00.001-08:00

Not all criticism is bad. When someone makes fun of your touch on the ball it could be a good thing, at least for girls in Morocco.

This past Saturday, I was again in Sidi Moumen watching a girls league team (Nassim) practice at the local district field usually dominated by men. As they played, groups of older boys who just finished practice leaned against the gate, faces pressed through the bars staring. They started making comments such as "what kind of touch on the ball is that" and "hey, did you see her control, she has no idea how to control the ball, even on flat land." My first reaction was annoyance. Let the girls be, I thought. Arrogant punks. But then I realized that perhaps these comments they were making was progress. They reflected a new level of respect. No longer were the boys commenting on the girls themselves as they had in the past (calling them dirty, saying they look like boys, or they are prostitutes or that girls shouldn't play football). Now, the comments reflected criticism of their game, something all players do to other players, be it male or female. The key to this was that they saw these girls as players. Don't get me wrong, they were probably still arrogant punks but at least, from my point of view, they respected the girls enough to comment on their game and not on them.

Rainy days are good days in Sidi Moumen

2009-12-20T11:23:00.001-08:00

Why? Well, the boys stay away and the girls come to play. Like I mentioned before, every Sunday I go to the Sidi Moumen Youth Culture Center where I run their sports program. The center is located in one of Morocco's biggest sprawling slums/low income neighborhood, infamous for being the home to many of Morocco's suicide bombers. We offer kids Lacrosse, field hockey, basketball and football. Today, the normal 150 kids did now show up because of heavy rains in the morning. On my way in bus number 17 (as Lisa and I read aloud to each other an old Harper's magazine article on the state of education in America and old men kept saying hello to Lisa because she has become something of a regular on this particular bus) I wondered if we would find any kids at the center today. They tend to stay away when the weather gets bad.

We arrive today and surprisingly I find all the girls who come to play football inside, waiting and about a handful of boys who probably just followed their sisters. It made me realize how far they have come from when we first started, half interested in football, not taking anything seriously, sometimes coming and other times not. The attendance has been pretty steady now for three months and playing with them today, I could also see an improvement in their game. Not that this is my main goal but it is nice to see they are learning more about the game. What makes me the proudest is that they are dedicated and are starting to respect each other more and their coaches more, especially when Amal (my go to women's football coach who comes to help Sunday mornings) is there. She is this great athlete who grew up playing football and now coaches a local Sidi Moumen team and has been a part of many camps and trainings that either I held or the US embassy or the British Council. The girls really like her and she does a great job with them. They have learned to respect her as well as me. Last week, Amal couldn't come so it was just me and the girls were pretty out of control, not listening, fighting among themselves, refusing to play if another girl was on their team. Nothing I could say was doing anything and so I finally told them to go home, that football was done for the day and they could tell me why next Sunday. Today, one of the girls came up to me and apologized, recognizing that they were out of control. I can't describe how great it was to feel that. Most of the time you think they have no idea how they are acting.

Regardless, we did some great warm up drills, boys weren't in our way trying to take our balls and kick them as far away as possible into the empty lots full of used hypodermic needles and it didn't rain again until we finished and were inside.

Oujda part jouj

2009-12-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

The trip, like I said, was very informative and revealing of what football still means and is in small border towns across from Algeria. Oujda, before Morocco closed the border with Algeria in 1994, was a bustling and important gate to the desert but now, it is the end of the line. It is where the train stops, where the bus route ends, where things begin to stand still. Appropriately, women's football is no different. I met with a team, the team, over the weekend. They are mostly friends from their local high school and have been gathered and organized by an enthusiastic PE coach (male). Several of the girls attended the camp in Bouznika as well as my camp this past summer. Several of the girls, great players, travel to Casablanca on weekends, making that 10 hour trip, just to play with a team here. There is nothing for them in Oujda. They want to joint the national league but to do that they need to play at least three other teams in the region, in order to officially be able to play in the national championship. Three other teams no problem right? They are the only team in the region, that is where the problem lies. So they are stuck, with no money to travel and improve their game against teams in other cities and no ability to play within the national Moroccan framework because of bureaucratic obstacles.

They recently approached the local men's team, an actually very good and historical club in Morocco called Mouloudiya. The team's manager said they will take the team, incorporate them into the club and that is where the conversation ended. I met with the club's managing team and was basically asked by them for a new field for the girls because there is not enough field space for everyone. Everyone, they mean the two other boys teams that play. Fortunately I don't have the ability to build fields for cities so hopefully this team will figure out how to "squeeze" the girls in.

The ideas toward women's football in Oujda is still a bit conservative. It is true too that they are just far from the metropoles of Morocco, such as Casablanca and Rabat, where many more advances in the game and many more opportunities exist. However, I think the discussion is too focused on what is lacking and not focused enough on what can be done with what there is because of the hesitation in ceding that space and attention to the women from the men. The dialogue is still dominated by men, who know best. It was extremely refreshing to speak with the manager of Mouloudiya, who was a woman, because she was literally in a man's world. She was this really dynamic woman, master's in Sports Management and there on her merit rather than because she was a big former footballer with the club. That in and of itself gives me some hope that the club's perspective is headed in the right direction because they would hire someone like that in the first place.

I realized in the end that my contribution or help is very limited. My capabilities allow me to bring some attention to Oujda, create some buzz through camps and US women's teams touring through the area but that is it. Perhaps that is enough. Part of the problem I find sometimes is people making the first step. However, if you make it, then there is no shortage of people to help or no shortage of those who think it is a great idea.

First step in Oujda is to create a camp in March. Then, bring the girls' football team in the summer. Then, we will see who jumps on board.

Oujda, peanuts and go carts at the border crossing

2009-11-24T10:52:00.000-08:00

Twenty hours on night trains and one Algerian border go cart amusement park later I am back in Casablanca, completing a successful but short trip to Oujda, part of my follow up evaluation of the camp I ran last summer. I felt like a small celebrity thanks to the director of the American Corner (an American cultural center) Mohammed Bendaha who set up interviews with local sports journalists and gathered quite a crowd for my talk on women's sports development in Morocco. I gave the talk on Saturday morning, all in arabic, with a nice little picture power point. Besides the complete butchering of Moroccan Arabic, the talk went well with representatives from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Football federation, and coaches/directors of the Oujda professional men's team Mouloudiya. Of course, the girls football team that I work with was there, all 35 of them (girls from the team, their friends, other girls from the school) and random local students and curious passerbys. After my talk, there was a great question and answer session and discussion involving everyone. The girls were shy at first but really made some great points as everyone got more comfortable.

After the talk I sat down with two journalists from a multilanguage online journal as well as RTM (local radio) and Radio Plus (a southern radio station with an Oujda correspondent or some reason). After the journalists I sat down with the girls team and their coach for a discussion on what we can do in Oujda for women's football. After that, I sat down with the Football federation rep and the director of the men's team Mouloudiya (a really impressive woman with a master's in sports management who did her thesis on professional jet skiing in Morocco and is essentially one of the only women in a man's world, tabarkal3liha!). Lots of sitting down with people but there were some very important points brought up and I realized some important things about my role in Morocco, my purpose etc. It might have taken three years, sleeping in numerous night train compartments, cheap hotels and hundreds of omlette sandwiches later but Oujda, next to Algeria, victors over Egypt in the World Cup qualifying underdog match of the year, was a small little victory for me at least. Below are highlights of the discussions I had and some of my ideas. Bare with me...

Structured play

2009-11-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong with this post. I am an advocate of unstructured play time for kids as much as the other. Growing up, my small little life was full of unstructured play. Whether I was stranded on a deserted island or kicking around a football in the front yard or racing straws in the gutter after it rained, I was often left to my own devices, along with friends, to create games and rules etc. However, I also had a lot of structured play time in the form of organized sports and I think that structure and organization allowed my unstructured play be, well, more structured and I guess fair to all parties involved. I learned how to play on a team, make decisions with respect to those playing with me etc. That is the importance of structured and organized sports. I was working at the Sidi Moumen Cultural Center this morning. I work there every Sunday morning, running the local sports program for the center. We work with about 100 kids, splitting them up into football, lacrosse, field hockey and basketball. We were a bit short on volunteers today so we had to make due, meaning we had to let some groups play among themselves without a supervisor, an older member of the association or a coach watching them. This group was the boys football. First the older boys played and were for the most part fine. They could referee among themselves and decide who made the foul etc. Then the younger boys took the field. By younger boys, I mean between 7-14 years old. I was trying to get an organized game going so I could leave them to play while I went back to the girls when I realized that this would be impossible. They not only would not listen but started fighting among eachother, lying about who had already played, forming clicks and picking on others, crying, hitting, punching and throwing rocks. I just stood there imagining that this is how they play with eachother in the street and probably at school to. This is how they had learned how to play. That is when it dawned on me the importance of a coach, a mentor, a structure to play. The lessons that sports teach are for the most part apparent but I have also realized that they are not embedded or found naturally in the act of playing. They must be taught, shown. Playing a game or a sport can just as well teach the stronger to pick on the weaker or the more skilled to ignore the less skilled as it can teach collaboration, respect and fair play. Another testament to the importance of organized sports for young children growing up in environments where everything else around them is a little less structured. I am mostly speaking about lower income neighborhoods where the sports field might be the only place that these lessons are taught or the only place where there is a definite structure to their lives.

Needless to say, I put the boys onto teams, 4v4, let them play 10 minute games and then told them to stop acting like little children and go home to eat lunch. I am also not saying this behavior is specific to boys. Girls are just as guilty. Perhaps in slightly other ways. There is less physical violence and more just not listening and talking and giving up or throwing of tantrums but the general idea is the same.

Tetouan Follow up trip

2009-11-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, on Sunday, I stuffed my sleepy sick self next to Lisa in a grand taxi to Tetouan from Tangier and went to visit the girls who participated in my camp in July. I met with Doha, Houda and Hajar (as well as some young girls who went to the states on a US Embassy football program) at the local football stadium. We had a good discussion about their thoughts on the camp (well, as good as any discussion can be when there are dominating male coaches in the room with them cutting off their responses and answering questions for them). Although I would have liked a slightly more open and honest discussion concerning the camp (which I can do later on alone with them I imagine), we did make some headway on ways they can use their skills in Tetouan to help the community. The idea I found most interesting was working at the girls orphanage, I think called Angel Association. This association is where the other three girls who were at this meeting came from. The place is basically a dormitory for young women and girls with no parents and the director was there accompanying the girls this day. She was talking about the ages of the girls (starting very young to late teens) and how they would love a sports program and are very much in need of sports and health education. Doha, Houda and Hajar as well as the other three girls from this orphanage seemed to like the idea so now they will come up with a proposal among themselves and then reconvene with me to decide the next step forward.

The meeting was interesting because like I mentioned, there were about four men with us (one was the President of a local association, the vice president, a local football coach etc). They all had their opinions on what the girls should do and what type of project we should implement and what players I should bring from the states. They also were great at answering questions for the girls. This has been the case every time I do interviews with women, especially with younger women. I think it does have to do with the gender roles and relationships here regarding whose opinion gets voiced but I also think a lot of it is the barriers and obstacles you face as a young person speaking in front of elders. The lack of honesty or frankness youth exhibit here in front of those older than them is sometimes disturbing. I know that you find a little of this in many other cultures obviously, a respect for your elders and a shyness in being truthful and candid. It was magnified for me in Tetouan and I think it is even more so when you are dealing with younger women and older men. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case here often, groups of young girls formed into teams by older male figures who then play up on the power trip/authority of their position and never allow any true leadership to emerge among the young women (or young men in many cases). Alas, I have learned that next time I go on a follow up interview I will make sure to interview the girls alone.

Red card or 15 minutes of fame?

2009-11-11T00:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/sports/soccer/11iht-SOCCER.html?_r=1&hpw

Not sure if many people read the New York Times piece on a young women named Elizabeth Lambert who's ridiculous fouls committed in one recent game have caused somewhat of a national buzz. Not sure why really. Apparently Good Morning America commented on it as well as Julie Foudy. Firstly, it is sad to see yet again women's football in the US receive media attention in this way. Secondly, not sure why this even received attention. At first I thought the article would perhaps detail a long season full of "deadly" fouls and irrational behavior by this one player, perhaps meriting an article or a discussion. However, this was ONE game. Growing up playing football, I've seen girls do things just as bad or even worse in one game and they were 16. I'm not by any means condoning what she did. The fouls are pretty bad and there is nothing worse than those types of players but again, I don't understand the media attention. She should have been given a red card, sent off the field and no one should know who she is. Rather than articles on the newly created professional women's football league or interesting players, team achievements and defeats (always like a good defeat story), we are seeing the women's game either ignored and brought to light by one game in which one player lost her temper. I also dislike the way the article, again, uses the same stereotypical approach to this top comparing the "rough" men game to what they imply should be a calmer women's game. Again, if anyone has ever played women's football, they know very well that is not true and the New York Times should know well to avoid these stereotypes and cliches.

Green March to Tangier

2009-11-06T00:37:00.001-08:00

Today is a holiday in Morocco, the day that celebrates the green march when Morocco took back the Western Sahara and a large contingent of Moroccans holding Qurans literally walked down to Layounne. I will be making the opposite journey to Tangier and Tetouan for Latin music and follow up with some of the girls who came to the camp in July.

Amzmiz camp a success!

2009-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I would like to use my first post to celebrate the young girls and boys in Amzmiz for a camp well done. Amzmiz is a small town, a village, one hour outside of Marrakesh. The camp was two days with over 70 young girls participating, all from the local schools. They organized leadership activities with the help of Ami, a peace corps volunteer in town as well as pretty amazing zumba style aerobics and a soccer tournament in the end. What I liked the most, besides the clean air in Amzmiz, was that each following Sunday the organizers of the camp will hold a tournament for the girls at the school. They essentially have started a girls soccer league in Amzmiz. There are some pictures below but you can check out more on my Smug Mug page. Check out more information about the camp and the girls who organized it on my website as well. Three of the young women participated in the Women's Leadership through Football Camp in July and two of those three also participated in the British Council Premier League Camp this past year as well.

Next goal, get the league uniforms!

Women footballers in Morocco

2007-03-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

I find it amazing how football, a truly global game which is immensely popular and accessible to almost every social/economic class around the world, is still restrictive when it comes to gender. However, things are changing. Morocco, where I am currently working, is most likely seeing its first generation of women participating in a sport that has in the past been reserved for their brothers and fathers. There are similar situations all over Africa and the Arab world. Cheap satellite television brought players like America's Mia Hamm and Brazil's Marta Vieira da Silva into households that had yet to see women playing. Every since the mid 90s and the increasing popularity of the Women's World Cup, the game is no longer seen as solely a male activity. That being said, there is still an immense lack of opportunity, at least in Morocco, for women and young girls who want to play football. Many still battle a social stigma that doesn't apply to other sports such as basketball, handball or volleyball. This blog is dedicated to some of my observations in Morocco through my work in various sports development based initiatives as well as observations on where women's football across the globe is heading.

2007-03-07T11:39:00.000-08:00