Dave Zirin pieces together circumstantial evidence and historical context in his latest column in defense of French soccer star and national hero Zinedine Zidane (or Zissou as he is known) after his violent head-butt to the chest of Italy's Marco Materazzi resulted in Zidane's red card ejection from the World Cup Final. France went on to lose the game, without Zidane, in a penalty shootout. Zirin explains:

Two recent articles highlight the role international soccer can play in promoting unity and peace. An excellent piece by Neil Stormer, who works in conflict resolution and foreign policy in Washington, DC, outlined numerous examples in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that show how large a role soccer and sports in general have played in mitigating conflict. The most recent example is from the World Cup:

In the weekly "Edge of Sports" column, Dave Zirin and John Cox address racism in international soccer and the possibility that it could rear its ugly head in a violent way at the 2006 World Cup now underway in Germany. There has been a disturbing pattern of "football racism" that "has been aggravated by the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe that has of course become de rigueur in the United States as well." Zirn and Cox add:

In his Sports Illustraded column (text) / National Public Radio commentary (audio), Frank Deford appreciate's soccer's global popularity and the World Cup's "sport in the raw ... played by ... the rock stars of sweat -- for the glory of their homeland." Deford observes:

With the 2006 FIFA World Cup fast approaching and with global sports brands cranking up their advertising to take advantage, the global poverty aid organization Oxfam International released a worker's rights report on May 24 explaining:

League of Fans

Good Sports
- Commissioner of Baseball Shows Commitment to Stopping Performance-Enhancing Drug Use

Bad Sports
- Adidas, Reebok Overstepping Commercial Bounds by Interfering with Sports


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