By
Bryan Rosenbaum
Arizona Daily Wildcat
As the news flashed along ESPN2's The Bottom Line Monday night, I couldn't hide my shock- or was it laughter?
Soccer has been nominated for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
Now before you revert to your, "Okay, here comes another anti-soccer column from the Wildcat" opinion, let me tell you that I worked for D.C. United, follow World and European soccer religiously and even play Yahoo! Fantasy Premier League Soccer. How many people do that?
I like nothing more than catching a weekend game on Telemundo or annoying the Wildcat newsroom by agonizing over a European Champions League game on a Wednesday afternoon.
But soccer? Peace? C'mon!
Granted, the sport has come a long way since the 1970s and 80s. Most soccer fans don't have to worry about the "No ticket? No problem!" disease or sections of stadiums burning down. Mothers don't have nightmares about their children coming home with stab wounds after the game too much anymore.
Soccer fans aren't exactly model citizens, either.
The problems are still there - German fans beat a French World Cup security guard into a coma during the 1998 World Cup. Dutch fans still organize riots via cell phone and e-mail.
Even this past weekend, a River Plate-Boca Juniors match in Buenos Aires was suspended midway through the game after unruly crowd trouble.
Certainly the players aren't setting any better examples - West Ham's Paolo DiCanio flat-out headbutting a referee during the game stands out among many disgusting incidents.
This is a sport where fans throw balloons full of urine and fireworks at players on the field, players punch referees and fans throw rocks and try to tip over their own team's bus after a poor performance.
Of course, these are isolated, very publicized incidents that have given the sport a bad name. But, as a sport, is it worthy of a Nobel Prize? Just picture Albert Einstein - a former prize winner - peeing into a balloon.
Just yesterday - when this was brought up during my European History class - it seemed as if the entire class was disgusted. One person even said, "I hope to God it doesn't win."
But as I thought about it more, why shouldn't it? Soccer is an incredible game which unites people of all backgrounds, from all parts of the world.
The world is a messed-up place, and sometimes people use the sport as a vice.
The Olympics aren't tagged with negative connotations after somebody bombed Atlanta in 1996 or when Palestinians took Israeli athletes as prisoners and shot them in Munich in 1972, are they?
That's a little more serious than some organized gang activity at a soccer match in impoverished Rio de Janeiro.
The problem isn't soccer or FIFA, the game's international governing body. It's the lack of organization at the local level of many countries that has caused the most problems.
FIFA is working hard to promote the safety of the game with improved stadiums and match organization, and it is being rewarded by the Nobel Peace Prize nomination for its work.
By increasing awareness "that multi-cultural societies do not always engender racial harmony," FIFA is working to combat all the negatives in its sport. Does Major League Baseball promote harmony? How about the National Basketball Association? Probably not.
Of course, the project has a long way to go, but it's encouraging to see positive steps being taken at the moment.
Soccer isn't worried about how Americans stereotype it, it's concerned about making a difference on and off the field.
For that reason, soccer's nomination is completely justified.
Hopefully, some other world organizations can follow FIFA's lead in improving the world we live in.
