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Soccer, The Normal-Sized Player's Game

Futbol Club Barcelona's Neymar da Silva Santos pours champagne over Adriano as their team won the final match against River Plate at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Dec. 20.
Shuji Kajiyama
/
AP
Futbol Club Barcelona's Neymar da Silva Santos pours champagne over Adriano as their team won the final match against River Plate at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Dec. 20.

Much as we talk about certain financial institutions that may be too big to fail, you can be absolutely certain that the one organization in the whole wide world that truly fits that definition is FIFA, the grubby behemoth that runs soccer. Too many international sports associations are rife with corruption, but the graft exposed at FIFA beggars the imagination.

Americans, of course, have virtually no interest in FIFA, for most of us are athletic aliens, caring not a whit for Earth's game. Sorry, but I must count myself among those who do not find soccer as entertaining as our own favored sports. I've always thought it was perfectly idiotic to call an exercise that you perform with your feet "the beautiful game."

Click the audio to hear more of what Frank Deford has to say about soccer.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Frank Deford died on Sunday, May 28, at his home in Florida. Remembrances of Frank's life and work can be found in All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and on NPR.org.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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