Comments on: Cricket Moves Against Mugabe … Should Football Follow?

By: tamim

tamim — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:58:45 +0000

hey, today egypt u21 will be playing with zimbabwe….what should we do…. boycott??!!!!!!!

By: Tamim

Tamim — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:57:41 +0000

hey, today egypt u21 will be playing with zimbabwe, what should we do….. boycott!!!!!???????

By: Foreverzidane

Foreverzidane — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:07:15 +0000

How about boycotting the U.S national team for the atrocities their government committing in IRAQ?

By: tito

tito — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:47:15 +0000

Let’s keep politics out of sports.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:42:17 +0000

‘Hurt the ordinary people of Zimbabwe’?!

The clubs, fists, machetes and pistols of ZANU-PF hurt the people of Zimbabwe. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s murdered 90 plus MDC supporters.

And saying the authorities in Harare won’t care at all is hardly an excuse for inaction. If we went off that logic then Zimbabwe would be utterly ignored.

I absolutley agree with the ICC’s decision and I wish FIFA would do the same.

By: Wes

Wes — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:05:26 +0000

This will not be right. This will hurt the ordinary people of Zimbabwe who follow football to get something to cheer about in very difficult circumstances. After all the authorities in Harare wont care at all and therefore serves no purpose.

By: Sooz

Sooz — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:39:27 +0000

If I was a Mother in Zimbabwe, and my children had the chance to play football on any level at all, and that chance was taken away from them, any hope I had for them or myself would also go. Pressuring a government through a sport has often has the same result as food sanctions – it affects the people who are already on their last threads of hope and survival, and does not even touch on the hearts of the mad men in power. Let them play and give them that small amount of happiness and pride in the midst of such devastating and inhumane situations. To take that from people who are crying out to the world is assisting with the present situation of oppression. During the war, my RAF Father was in many oppressed countries with his Welsh buddies, and wherever they went, they taught and played rugby with the boys and men in the villages. They would form a ball out of any material they had, many times from just bound up rope. The sport was free, the happiness was free, and at the end of the day, in areas of the world that was leveled from bombing and people had little or no food, the hope of humanity still thrived, even a little, through sports and games. I take a page from his book of kindness in my approach to sanctions against countries and using sports as leverage. To be able to “play on” is an act of being above the junta, in defiance of it, and not in support of it.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:16:31 +0000

Pity to punish the players. Unfortunately there are few options available to punish/eliminate the (illegitimate) government and not end up punishing/harming innocent Zimbabwean citizens.

If Mugabe doesn’t step down, the only end I see to this is enough Zimbabweans rising up and having the numbers to revolt, violently if necessary.