SPORTS
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
19
‘The beautiful game’ changing young Indian lives MUMBAI: The rutted, dusty pitch at the Bombay Port Trust sports ground is a world away from the English Premier League and its plush, allseater stadiums, manicured turf and big-money stars. But for hundreds of young boys and girls from Mumbai’s slums and streets, playing football on the hard ground in the shadow of crumbling factories and warehouses is like an appearance at Old Trafford, Anfield or Stamford Bridge. An excited crowd shelters from the sweltering sun under a makeshift stand, cheering on their friends, brothers, sisters, sons or daughters. For the length of an eight-a-side game, nothing else matters.
“These children are forced to become adults much sooner than anyone else,” said Sohan Shah, from the British charity Magic Bus, which organises the tournament. “They’re working or taking care of siblings. This is about giving them a childhood. It’s as simple as that,” he told AFP. Magic Bus has been working with thousands of children for more than a decade, using sport-especially the world game of football — to build confidence, discipline and self-worth in the city’s most deprived youngsters. It currently works with nearly 50 groups of about 40 children in places like the Bombay Port Trust area,
where residents live in cramped, filthy conditions with little access to even the most basic of facilities. Football is part of the children’s weekly, two-hour social and personal development classes and are played throughout the year, culminating in the much-anticipated finals in early March. With its simple philosophy of sport as the best school for life, the organisation has captured the imagination of politicians, big business and sports stars around the world. The Premier League-watched in 211 countries around the world and by more than 77 million fans outside Britain every week-is a main strategic partner and one of a number of
international corporate sponsors. Some of the youngsters will even go to this year’s World Cup finals in South Africa, as part of the Football for Hope festival involving children from more than 30 programmes that also use “the beautiful game” for social change. “Kids have a right to play,” said Shah, as a gust of wind blows up white dust from the touchline. “It’s not human not to be given that right. Once they play they will grow and get empowered. “We’ve found that sport helps increase school attendance and reduce substance abuse and crime. It also helps community cohesion.” He added: “The Premier League sup-
porting something here is brilliant.” Getting girls into sport-and encouraging boys to play with and respect them-has been a major achievement, said Shah. “The Bombay Port Trust area is mainly a Muslim community. Even for these girls to be here and play in shorts is a big change. It makes them and even their mothers feel empowered,” he added. “They feel they can be anything they want to be.” Ten years ago, Parvati Pujari was the same age as the players on the pitch. Now the 19-year-old is a charity volunteer, coaching a team of pigtailed girls drawn from a city orphanage and slum area. “Both my parents
were construction workers and I never got to play games,” she said. “I have six sisters and I had to look after the younger ones, so games were never considered important. It was only important to study and do housework. “But when we joined Magic Bus I learnt a lot of new games and I managed to use these games in my daily life. I started feeling that they are not just games. I can really use them even when I go home.” Parvati is one of the charity’s success stories. For the last year, she has been playing fly-half for the fledgling Indian women’s rugby union team and is determined to be a role model for younger girls.
With so many children now involved, young talent has inevitably emerged. One girl is now playing for the state under-15 team while the boys’ team is climbing the local leagues, said Shah. Magic Bus is part of an international initiative to develop grassroots sport in India with help from the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF, UK Sport and the Indian government. Shah is convinced that one day a professional player will emerge from Mumbai’s slums. “It will happen because if you give so many people a chance to play there’s going to be stars that will emerge,” he said. —AFP
Mourinho stokes fire ahead of CSKA clash
IRAN: Qatar’s Al-Sadd player Mesaad Al-Hamad (left) battles with Iran’s Mes Kerman club player Mostafa Sayfi (No.17) during their AFC Champions League Group D football match. Mes Kerman won 3-1. —AFP
Kashima first into AFC knockouts SINGAPORE: Japanese heavyweights Kashima Antlers powered into the last 16 of the AFC Champions League yesterday for the third year in a row and were joined by Korea’s Jeonbuk Motors. The J-League leaders trampled Indonesian minnows Persipura Jayapura 3-1 in Jakarta to leave them unbeaten after four games and on top of Group F. Jeonbuk Motors also went through from the group after grinding out a 1-0 home win over China’s Changchun Yatai. A fine 54th minute strike by former Middlesbrough man Lee Dong-Gook was enough to secure a win for the Koreans. It leaves them on nine points, six ahead of Changchun in third with two games remaining but with a superior head-to-head record. Kashima’s in-form mid-
fielder Yasushi Endo put his side in front after just two minutes at a virtually empty Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, volleying home a left wing cross from Brazilian defender Gilton. Surprisingly for a team that has conceded 21 goals and scored just one in their Champions League debut, Persipura snatched a shock equaliser through striker Tinus Pae on 19 minutes. Shinzo Koroki restored Kashima’s lead seven minutes later when he nicely controlled a Takuya Nozawa pass and whipped the ball past the goalkeeper. Atsuto Uchida smashed the third to kill the game off 10 minutes before the break. In Group H, Adelaide United could have sealed a knockout-stage spot with a win over Japanese strugglers Sanfrecce Hiroshima, but they
failed to take their chance, forced onto the back foot for much of the game in a 1-0 defeat. Hiroshima skipper Hisato Sato broke the deadlock shortly before half-time with a neat header after a pinpoint cross from Koji Nakajima. It leaves Adelaide on nine points, level with defending champions Pohang Steelers of South Korea who needed an 84th minute goal from Kim Tae-Su to secure a 2-1 victory China’s Shandong over Luneng. Kim Jae-Sung opened the scoring on 51 minutes before Li Jinyu pulled one back for the home team with 16 minutes left, setting up an exciting finale. The defeat leaves Shandong on three points and needing to win their last two games to keep alive their slim hopes. Elsewhere, former Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe
Scolari’s Bunyodkor slumped to defeat against Group B leaders Zobahan, with Brazilian veteran Rivaldo sent off. The Uzbek champions were beaten 3-0 by Zobahan last week and crashed 1-0 yesterday with Mohamad Reza Khalatbari getting the winner on the half hour mark. Two-time champions Al Ittihad, meanwhile, aim to repeat their win over UAE’s Al Wahda when they host their rivals in Jeddah and keep the pressure on the leading pair. Al Sadd of Qatar remained in second despite going down 3-1 to Mes Kerman, who also have six points in third on points difference. Eder Luciano, Ali Samareh and Paulo Zaltron were on the scoreboard for the Iranian side after Al Sadd had taken an early lead through Khalfan AlKhalfan. —AFP
Hotels, shopping malls come to South Africa’s changing Soweto SOWETO: Giant black-and-white photos of a young Nelson Mandela smile across the broad halls of a four-star star hotel, looking over the dusty street market where he once hid from apartheid police. This is the new Soweto, a mix of uppercrust comforts and urban grit, where shopping malls and landscaped parks have sprung up among some of South Africa’s most important landmarks of the struggle against white-minority rule. It’s a side of Johannesburg that residents hope World Cup visitors will venture out to see, where one third of the city’s 3.8 million people live. “In the past, you would be ashamed of saying you come from Soweto-first of all because it was associated with crime... shantytowns and poverty. But now it has improved,” said Frans Malotle, a 48-yearold businessman. “People want to stay in the townships. Our B-and-B’s are fully booked for the tournament,” he said. Soweto burst into headlines in 1976, when police fired on 10,000 students marching against apartheid, leaving 566 dead in the uprising that followed, becoming a symbol of the regime’s brutality and a spark for international sanctions. The image of burning tyres, violent protests and police brutality still colour perceptions of Soweto and South Africa’s other townships. The apartheid government, which ended in 1994 with the first all-race elections, created the townships as black-only residential neighbourhoods to provide labour for nearby industry or as domestic
workers in white homes. Soweto began in the 1930s as the South West Townships, separated from downtown Johannesburg by mine dumps and strips of empty land, an area now home to Soccer City, venue for the World Cup’s opening and final matches. Under apartheid, residents had scarce water supplies, few paved roads, inferior schools and were generally barred from opening businesses. Blacks couldn’t buy land, but received 99-year leases. When Mandela became the first black president in 1994, Soweto-like much of South Africa-was hit by a dramatic surge in violent crime. New government investment has paved roads and expanded access to electricity and water. Private investors have created the Maponya Mall and the four-star Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square. “Soweto has evolved as a township and now has become a city, because there is a mall, streets are tarred, crime level has come down. There is more respect among people,” said Garth Klein, an urban planning expert from the University of the
Matches on TV (local timings) UEFA Champions League Inter v CSKA Al Jazeera Sport +5
21:45
Arsenal v Barcelona Al Jazeera Sport +3
21:45
Witwatersrand. “Before you had to take two taxis to get to the closest mall, but as these malls mushroom, we can do shopping conveniently,” said Tsakane Maringa, 29, as he strolled through the air-conditioned halls of Maponya Mall. Now nine out of 10 Sowetans buy their goods locally, rather than travelling into the city for shopping, according to University of South Africa research. Shacks and grinding poverty remain. But the growing black middle class has upgraded their original matchbox houses to sturdier brick homes, and even mansions like Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former president’s ex-wife. Government has built new public spaces like Thokoza Park, where a stream runs under willow trees and children swing on new playgrounds. The Hector Peterson Museum memorialises the 1976 uprising, named for the 12year-old boy who was the first to die. While Johannesburg is definitely a city for driving, cars are still a luxury in Soweto, so neighbourhood streets are filled with pedestrians greeting neighbours over their fences. It’s that community spirit that Sowetans say is their real lure for visitors. “People are so friendly, no one has braais (barbeque) and parties like people in Soweto,” said 19-year-old Simphiwe Ngwena, who attends a private school downtown but chooses to keep living where she grew up. “You don’t need an invitation, you just rock up and say ‘what’s up’. We look out for each other.” —AFP
MILAN: Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho yesterday questioned CSKA Moscow’s right to still be in the Champions League ahead of their quarter-final, first leg clash at the San Siro today. CSKA defenders Aleksei Berezutski and Sergei Ignashevich were both provisionally suspended after they tested positive for a banned substance following their group match away to Manchester United in November. They were later found to have taken a cold medicine that had not been reported by the club’s doctors and they were retroactively given one-game bans (which they had already served). They were let off harsher punishment as UEFA accepted that club doctors had made a technical mistake. But Mourinho questioned the legitimacy of the club’s continued participation in the competition. “There’s something grey about CSKA’s progress in the Champions League. If two players go to an anti-doping control and a substance is found that’s not allowed in the Champions League, there’s something grey,” he said. The controversial former Chelsea boss was speaking to the press for the first time since the last round of this comeptition. He has boycotted the Italian media for the last six league matches since he was banned for three games after making a handcuffs gesture to TV cameras against Sampdoria in February. It was the fourth time he had received a touchline ban since arriving in Italy but Mourinho explained his silence was merely to allow him to do his job. “My press silence is doing me good because it allows me to sit on the bench and that’s important for me,” he explained. “I’ve always said that a coach does not win a match from the bench but it allows him to stay close to his players and that’s where I want to be. “Not speaking about Italy or the Italian league allows me to sit on the bench, and no I don’t want to risk that,” he said in answer to a question about whether or not he would end his boycott. And Mourinho added fuel to the fire of speculation that this will be his last season in Italy by admitting he retains an affinity for English football. “I miss English football and English football misses me, there’s no doubt about that, but right now I’m thinking only about Inter,” he added. “At Inter I’m very busy with the league, the Italian Cup and the Champions League. These occupy all my thoughts, preparing games and analysing them.” Looking ahead to today’s game, Mourinho said he expected the Russians to keep things tight and lamented the fact that the second leg will be played in the Russian capital on an artificial pitch. “If people think CSKA are not a team at the same level as a Barcelona or a Chelsea, they are nonetheless a very difficult team,” he said. “I expect a closed game, very defensive, which will need the highest level of concentration. “I would have much prefered to play the first game in Moscow. The synthetic pitch will also be difficult for us in the second leg.” Inter also have some selection difficulties with Thiago Motta and Lucio suspended but even so there will be no return to the team for teenage forward Mario Balotelli, frozen out for the last six games due to discipline issues. —AFP
ITALY: Inter Milan’s Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho ponders a question during a press conference at “la Pinetina” in Appiano Gentile yesterday. —AFP
Game Breakers hold Rangers KUWAIT: The first match of the sixth week of EFFK league at the Shuwaikh fire station ground was held on March 26. Game Breakers drew with favorites of the tournament Ranger’s FC. In the 11th minute of the first half Ricky of Game Breakers scored and in the 18th minute striker of Ranger’s FC Hemant equalized. The match resulted in a 1-1 scoreline. Luciano of Ranger’s FC and Sam of Game Breakers were shown yellow cards. Nepal VS Goa Boys Second match was a well contested game resulting in Goa Boys winning with score line of
4-2. Scorers of Goa Boys were Miguel, Roland, Melvin and Dominic and for Nepal were Kali and Udaya. Red card was shown to Peter of Goa Boys and yellow cards were shown to Udaya and Raj Kumar of Nepal. Kuwait Bangladesh Challengers VS Thai Third match was a high scoring match which resulted in Thai defeating Kuwait Bangladesh Challengers by a margin of 8-2. Scorers for Thai were Pongpat 4, Sophon 2, Surasur 1 and Ansor 1 where as for KBC scorers were Mohd Shepon and Mohd Anwar. Morshed of KBC was sent off with two yellow cards.