They hold demonstrations in villages across Palestinian territory in order to prevent the soldiers and bull dozers from forcing people out their houses.

Recently, (March 21st 2010) a female volunteer for the ISM was shot with a rubber bullet, breaking her wrist and sending her to the operation room. In 2003 we saw Rachel Corrie, an American volunteer run over by a bull dozer. These people are not just protectors and activists but also victims of Israeli soldiers’ aggression and violence.  People across the world were outraged by the appalling abuse of ISM workers. Patti Smith wrote a song to Corrie, and called for peace, the Green Party that Smith supported in 2000 called for a government inquiry into the death of Corrie.

The Israeli government for years has displaced thousands of Palestinians from their homes in order to build new ones for Israelis. Although the government in Israel denied running over Corrie, and maintain they were doing nothing wrong, it seems pointless to deny the operation of demolition that is occurring in Palestine as you read. With the Mayor of Jerusalem hailed as a new hope for peace between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem and beyond, there is, it appears, light at the end of the tunnel. His secularism is in stark contrast to that of the hardline Israelis that have dominated the mayorship for years, however he has promised to expand the city’s population, much like former mayors have. The question is where the  houses will go. The expansion will inevitably result in the demolition of more Arab homes and lives.

It is relatively easy to join the ISM, fly out there, get through the borders, take a two day training course, and you’re away.

http://palsolidarity.org/

http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/west-bank/4936-ism-volunteer-shot-another-arrested-in-west-bank

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Solidarity_Movement

Patti Smith – Peaceable Kingdom (inspired by and dedicated to Rachel Corrie)

Liverpool Fc after Fernando Torres' second goal

Atletico Madrid players applaud the crowd

As a keen Liverpool supporter, I have always seen my team in the Champions league. The UEFA Cup, newly dubbed as the Europa League, has always seemed to be as irrelevant and unnecessary as the colour of the curtains… in my dog’s kennel. I always just glanced at the newspaper pages describing matches between clubs who’s footballers get paid as much as binmen, or should I say ‘waste disposal supervision officers’, and have so many v’s in their name that they look like the Himalayas. Now however, I believe my eyes have been opened. Last night’s matches, including Fulham v Juventus and Valencia v Werder Bremen were the best matches I have seen during this entire football season. All in all, 34 goals were scored last night, in 8 matches. Two games broke the seven goal mark. Shocking defending from most sides involved, maybe, but it was incredibly entertaining!

You may be thinking that I am only trying to improve Liverpool’s appalling position this season. I am not. We have been awful all year and have displayed tedious and horrendous performances… but last night’s game was not one of them. The newly branded Europa league seems to be heading in the right direction. The awareness of the competition in England appears to be growing as well, which is very good. The closeness of this year’s race for the fourth Champions League spot will only serve to intensify this feeling. It will be good to have a major English club in there from the start, not that Fulham aren’t a major club, but Tottenham, Aston Villa, Manchester City or Liverpool representing English football at the supposed lower standard, is just amazing. It will restore and improve Europe’s confidence in a debt ridden and crumbling Premier League.

Having said this, Fulham showed some absolute pedigree last night. To an, Himalayan sounding named outsider, it would appear that Fulham should be topping the Premiership, not at tenth place. The match was amazing. The goals? Even better. Valencia vs Werder Bremen was even better to watch. A David Villa hat-trick rounded up a game that was enjoyed both by the fans and for once, visibly by the players. The Football on the night was of the highest quality, for as Michael Heselschwerdt, Uefa’s head of Club competitions says, “This demonstrates the quality of the teams at this stage of the competition in the first ever UEFA Europa League”

The competition is getting better; there is no mistake about that. It is as though my dog’s kennel’s curtain has just spontaneously burst into flames and then blown up, removing all of the nearby Miss European Competition’s entrants’ clothes. If it carries on like this, and if we have 53 goals scored again in the next round, then it will be a fantastic month for European football. I really hope that it does happen, because it will make Liverpool’s fate seem slightly less unbearable.

It’s official, I love the YYYs! Not only is their frontwoman amazingly cool, her voice is like ear intercourse, as opposed to ear rape (ahem…Cheryl Cole). Karen O gives amazing depth and meaning to their songs, sounds pretentious but its true. The trio (four when touring) originate from the wonderful city of New York. Having formed in 2000 they released Fever To Tell in 2003 and since then two more albums.

 Their music is indie rock, by genre, but not any of that generic indie rock. They bring their own noise to the musical fray. Having toured in the UK in late 2009, they have made an impression. Their music has changed, Fever To Tell is a lot rawer and old fashioned rock, whereas It’s Blitz!  their 2009 album is more finely tuned and displays their maturing nature.

Their first album was their best, others may disagree, but there is no competition between Karen O’s wild vocals in 2003 and their music in 2009. They are a definite listen, for those of you who get that fuzzy feeling and start rocking it. But no head banging, absolutely no head banging!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cold Light youtube

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll

In the 60′s, 70′s and early 80′s there was a surge in the film industry. Any person with a script and a camera had their shot at glory. As a result of this not every movie was top notch. Hence the rise of b movies. These were usually sleeze filled, gore fuelled tales of rabid zombies and man-eating women. Not to mention the sex and nudity added in to attract a larger audience.

”Classic” films like ‘I Drink Your Blood’ and ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’ are making come backs. The satanic ritual in ‘I Drink Your Blood’ has been coppied in many new movies, including blockbusters like ‘Jenifer’s Body’ . The b movie tribute star, Quintin Tarantino, is filminga remake of Pussycat to place ontop of his b movie mantle piece along with ‘Grindhouse’, ‘Jackie Brown’ and his Kill Bill series. New films like ‘Bitch Slap’ are reviving the old genre and even restoring it too its former glory.

Sleeze is back. Embrace and enjoy it.

 And the 2009 release “Bitch Slap”:

Steven Gerrard, Jonny Wilkinson, Alistair Cook, Barry Middleton. Sorry who? Who can actually claim they know who Barry Middleton is, or the Mantell brothers – Simon and Richard, Ashley Jackson, James Fair or Glen Kirkham. To most people these are just names, but to hockey players nationwide they are an inspiration. Just on Saturday England beat India 3-2 to progress to the semi-finals of the Hockey World Cup 2010, the first time that they have ever reached the world cup semi-finals away from home. They beat Australia last Saturday for the first time in 25 years and have also secured victories against South Africa and Pakistan so far in the competition; now only three games stand between England and the prestigious World Cup trophy, with one pool game remaining against Spain today. That is more than can be said for many other of England’s national sports. Football, rugby and cricket are most often considered to be England’s national sport, but we’re not actually terribly good at any of them! We have only reached the semi-finals of the football world cup twice, and yet every year the hype is that this year it’s our year, and football is coming home. We are marginally more successful at rugby, what with the results of the last two world cups, and the ashes win of last summer did us some favours in the cricket department – but since then things have been pretty much all downhill again.

Hockey however is another story. England men were crowned European Champions in August 2009 and the women were placed a notable 3rd, and this crucial victory in the group stages of the men’s World Cup has booked a place in the semi-finals of the second big tournament in just over 6 months for the men.
Hockey is the one of the fastest growing sports amongst youngsters in England today and surely this achievement that our boys have made, progressing into the final four of a tournament when they are ranked 6th in the world currently, having beaten the tournament favourites already, will only do more to encourage the young people of the nation to take up this emerging sport! All those who are in favour of replacing England’s national sport with hockey raise your right hands now, for hockey is the future, and it’s about time our boys went out and won something, and the nation actually heard about it!

England’s final group game vs. Spain can be viewed live at 11.05am 8/03/10 (Monday) at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/hockey/7300697/Hockey-World-Cup-2010-Watch-England-live.html.

Young Norwegian Daniel Forlandsaas may not be hitting the headlines for footballing reasons, but he is sending ripples around the football community.

Many of you will know of Ebbsfleet United, the world’s first and only web-community owned football club. It charges £15.00 a quarter to vote on all key decisions from team selection to financial budgets.

Daniel Forlandsaas

 But this is different. Investors can pay 2,000 Euros annually for a 10% share in the 20-year-old and will profit from any subsequent transfer fees. The most important fact here being that ”Investors” can be anyone from you to me. It’s like your own fantasy premiership, a strange fusion between the Sims and reality. Forlandsaas offers a unique opportunity to become involved in the football world, it certainly is an exciting time to be a fan.

 So what next? We often hear of names such as Randy Lerner and the Glazer family and associate them with another land across a large economic chasm. Now is the chance to close that gap. Buying shares is only the start, imagine a world where we all owned a little bit of the commercial parts of a club. The programme? The new signing? I’m sure there are means to enscribe your name on a plastic seat. You may be reading this with a sense of wonder about just why anyone would care enough to own a one in 30,000 piece of plastic - that’s why football is unique. Only in football can people spend their well earned income on such a small piece of malleable material. Malleable, that’s exactly what this market is, and could come down as quickly as Leeds on a Saturday afternoon.

There has been a huge rise in football related violence recently, particularly in mainland Europe – specifically in Italy – however, there have been some (admittedly relatively small) signs that football hooliganism may be rearing its’ ugly head in Britain once again.   

Whilst the news from the rest of Europe may be far worse than our own woes, take Italy for example: during AC Milan’s thumping 4-0 win over title rivals Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin last weekend, the fourth goal went almost unnoticed by the thousands of fans watching both in the stadium and on TV. Why? Not because it was a poor goal but because the pitch was covered in the smoke streaming from the Juventus end which their fans had turned into a virtual bonfire in response to their teams’ poor showing.

Hooligans at the West Ham vs Millwall FA cup game.

Many argue that this was merely an isolated incident, however there have been far too many similar occassions in recent years for this to be the case: in 2005 the 2^nd leg of the Champions League semi final between inter city rivals Ac and Inter Milan had to be cancelled after Dida, the AC goalkeeper, was struck by a flare. Whilst in 2007, all football in Italy was suspended for a week after a policeman was killed at the serie A match between Palermo and Catania.                                    

So what has been happening in Britain? Quite apart from the storming of the pitch by both West Ham and Millwall fans after their recent Carling Cup tie which resulted in the FA issuing a £115,000 fine against West Ham for failing to control their supporters, there was also trouble at a match between Man Utd and Barnsley in October last year where 10 fans were arrested after violent clashes with stewards at half time.

Although these incidents may appear almost insignificant when compared to the violence of the ‘ultra’ culture which prevades in Italy, if indeed they do indicate a re-emergence of hooliganism in England then it is the duty of not only the police, but also of those ordinary people who wish to watch football matches in peace. They must ensure that those attempting to upset the balance of the English game are given no tolerance whatsoever.

The Barclays Premier League is fast becoming more than just a group of 20 football teams, but a brand viewed by billions of people worldwide. Football is now the most popular sport in the world and the Barclays Premier League is arguably the largest football league in the world. There are examples of the globalisation of the Premier League in countries such as China, India and many Arab, Asian and African nations. Supporters of clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are found in all of these countries and many more. In fact you could go to any country in the world and they’ll be someone willing to talk about English Football (I remember once finding an Aston Villa fan in the small settlement of Resolute, northern Canada in the Arctic Circle). Stories abound of people watching football on small screens in deserts or jungles and Premier League teams are starting to cash in on this lucrative fortune.

I was recently watched Chelsea vs. Fulham at Stamford Bridge. During a stoppage in play, probably because Didier Drogba was receiving treatment from the medical team, I noticed an advert for an online shopping sale at chelseafc.com flash up on the advertising boards. Suddenly the same advert included Chinese lettering instead of English. So why was there a Chinese advert in London, 5000 miles from Beijing? The reason comes from what I mentioned earlier. The Chelsea fanatics in China probably have the match streamed to them live or would watch highlights and see the adverts during the game. The same goes for an advert about the Chelsea Megastore USA during the same match and probably many other adverts across the Premier League.

Ji-Sung Park attracts equal advertising pulling power as Tiger Woods and co.

However, English football clubs are using other techniques to unlock the potential in foreign markets. For example, most clubs have pre-season tours overseas, e.g. Chelsea have toured the USA for the last three summers and Liverpool were in Asia this summer, though most profits come from club merchandise and TV rights. During the 2007/08 season, Premier League clubs generated the greatest revenue of any other league in the world (£1.9 billion) followed by Germany, Spain and Italy (£1.1 billion). It also regained the title of the most profitable league in the world.

Manchester United have probably made the most marketable and profitable transfer in recent history by signing Park Ji Sung. Park is a household name in Korea and many parts of Asia (and not a bad footballer either). Manchester United signed him for the measly sum of £4 million in 2005. However, his transfer is likely to have produced a large revenue for the club, because Asia now has a rapidly growing fan base (partly owing to Park’s transfer and also a recent tour to the continent). There are many other Premier League clubs that have signed foreign players and most clubs have more overseas players than ‘home-grown’ ones. An extreme example of this was in the recent Premier League match between Portsmouth and Arsenal where the 22 players who started the match represented 16 different countries, but none of them were English.

 But who else has benefited from the popularity of the Barclays Premier League? Well Barclays Bank, the sponsor, has described the deal as ‘very successful’ and has subsequently renewed the sponsorship until the 2012/13 season for an estimated £82.25 million. The greatest gainers have been the players. In 2007/08, Premier League wages increased by 23% to reach a total of £1.2 billion.

To conclude, you can understand why the fight for promotion to the Premier League is so important and competitive, all clubs which are part of it are in the position to exploit the global football market and create large profits. Many of the larger clubs have succeeded in doing so already and it’s only a matter of time until other established clubs start to realise their potential.

By Hugh Wolton

The Ivory coast (or Côte d’Ivoire) have something that no European team will never have. While Ireland argue with France and Spain tussle with Portugal, the whole of Africa are gathering to get behind their best team.

As the African Cup of Nations come around once again, we are reminded of the miriad of talent that comes from that continent. Almost every premiership team will have to struggle on without a key player with Chelsea and Portsmouth (God help them) the worst hit.

Who are my bet? Ivory Coast of course. With a back three that includes Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Abdoulaye Meite, they are solid as any premiership team. Midfielders featuring Didier Zokora, Yaya Toure of Barcelona and Salomon Kalou. They’re spearheaded by the infallible and “world’s best striker” Didier Drogba.

I am backing them to safely navigate their way past the group of death. It includes a Portugal team that stumbled through qualification and are ripe for the picking. However they are mistakenly dubbed as underdogs, there is certainly one Drog who will be reluctant to take this title on.