The net is a great source for wholesale silver in all different shapes and styles Whether you are looking for wholesale silver rings, silver charms, or silver soccer charms, there is sure to be a great option for jewelry on the web!The soccer field is a place firmly rooted in the world, but also, in a sense, removed from it. The norms of behavior followed during a match could not reasonably be employed in any other situation (yelling at your boss as you do a referee cannot have positive results). Like Las Vegas, what happens on the field usually stays on the field. Nowhere is this more apparent than in application of criminal law. Punishment for misdeeds on the pitch is often non-existent (Exhibit A: Toni Schumacher) or handled by the footballing authorities themselves. It is rare that the long arm of criminal law makes its way on the field. Rare, but not unheard of.

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I’m from a town of 4,000 people. The idea that my hometown would host any kind of professional team is laughable. So I was surprised recently to find out about Gretna FC, a Scottish club from a town of 3,000. Gretna won promotion last season and will play in the Scottish Premier League for the first time ever beginning this year.

Gretna players celebrate their promotion

The town of Gretna is best known as the wedding capital of Scotland, a distinction it initially gained by catering to underage English couples looking to take advantage of the Scots’ less restrictive marriage laws. Gretna FC also has a history of eloping, as the club played until 2002 in the Northern Premier League of England. Since returning to Scottish football, the Weddingmakers, as Gretna are affectionately known, have moved quickly through the ranks and next year will play the likes of Rangers and Celtic. But Gretna, it turns out, is not the only top division team from a small town.
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English clubs are being taken over by wealthy foreigners at an alarming rate. But Thaksin Shinawatra’s bid to buy Manchester City is different from all the other takeovers. That’s because Thaksin is the former prime minister of Thailand. Not only that, the reason he is currently pursuing Manchester City is because he was ousted in a military coup last September. Part of the justification for this coup was that Thaksin had allegedly been corrupt and enriched himself and his family during his time in power.

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A few years ago, FIFA came up with a saying that was to improve refereeing around the globe: “Make common sense more common.” If the organization had hoped for more uniformity among its referees, it was to be sorely disappointed. The interpretation of soccer’s seemingly simple set of laws varies widely across countries, as do ways to break these laws, and what is in fact seen as law-breaking. Cheating, it turns out, is open to interpretation.

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Bear with me please. This post is going to deal with a fairly obscure academic theory. But before you run off, let me suggest that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is easy to understand, extremely logical, and can explain a lot about how people around the world view the game of soccer.

Edward Sapir (L) and Benjamin Whorf (R)

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American soccer fans were overjoyed this week as they read Steven Wells’s piece in the Guardian headlined Americans are soccer-savvy … and that scares little Englanders. In the article, Wells argues that Americans know more about the beautiful game than those across the Atlantic care to admit and that fear of us becoming better than the English scares them. “Why are we scared? Because as a nation we have a desperate need to feel superior to the vibrant barbarian culture that’s replaced us as top global ass-kicker.”

Alexi Lalas celebrates after scoring the second goal in the US national team’s 2-0 victory over England

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