"Eduardo Galeano Author, Uruguay There is a tendency to confuse "culture" with the production of books, which is my trade, with the theatre, or with works of art that hang in museums." "These are part of culture, but above all culture is a system of symbols that people develop to communicate and to identify themselves." "And football forms part of this system of symbols." "I have always been amazed that when a history of the 20th century is written, it does not mention football." "Football is rarely cited in the history of the 20th century, yet football is a fundamental protagonist." "Narrated by Terence Stamp" "When we started playing football, we were not using boots." "We were playing barefooted." "Edward Aggrey Fynn Ghanaian International And when we started using football boots, you know what?" "We'd play in the boots the first half, the second half we felt uncomfortable." "and we threw the boots away." "Kwabena Yeboah Journalist, Ghana" "Wilberforce Mfum Ghanaian International" "Osei Kofi Ghanaian International" "Abedi Pele Ghanaian International" "Rick Skirvin Soccer Official" "Clive Toye Former Cosmos President" "Dr Henry Kissinger US Stntesmnn" "Lamar Hunt NASL Founder" "Werner Roth Cosmos  USA" "Phil Woosnam Former_ NASL Commissioner" "Pelé Cosmos I decided to go to the United States because I had the opportunity to study sports marketing, and it was a chance for my children to learn English" "Another important thing was that the season in America was only five or six months, so I didn't have the kind of pressure that there was in Europe, or here in Brazil." "In the beginning I suffered a lot with Cosmos." "We were constantly losing because the team was made up of very young college kids." "Today soccer is one of the major sports among the youth in the United States, and I'm very proud of having contributed to it." "Ebrahim Afhshar Journalist." "Iran When football came over, the local folk of Tehran, who had never seen people dressed in shorts chasing a round thing, were very surprised, and for them this was a sacrilegious game." "At the beginning, football was considered as a major sin." "He played football, and our old veteran players used to tell us stories of their weekly games against the palace team." "They were not allowed to dribble or to get too close to the Shah, certainly not to tackle him, and sometimes not allowed to score a goal." "In Iran. none of the challenges we made would have led to penalties." "It was the first time we realised what was considered a penalty in the outside world." "Ghafoor Jahani Iranian International It wasn't because we were weak in defence, or were nervous." "We were used to playing in this way." "Iranian referees lacked the training to communicate the rules used by foreign referees to us, the players." "The revolution considered football as one of the negative manifestations of the Shah's regime." "As soon as the revolution happened, everyone became openly hostile towards football," "They all thought that perhaps the Shah had placed too much emphasis on it, and it led people away from their destiny." "The negative opinion based on football as being the opium of the masses once again crept into the speeches and sermons of many speakers." "Nasser Hejazi Iranian International The war was more of a priority than sport." "We had to defend our soil, we had to prevent the enemy coming onto our soil, we had to fight." "It didn't matter that there wasn't any sport." "We had to fight." "Bill Clinton Speaking in 1998" "Now football is no longer the opium of the masses, or deemed as preventing people from seeking their goals." "As the most popular mode of entertainment in the world, football has even appeased the officials of the Islamic regime to look anew at this sport, a sport that even in their opinion has the power to bring people together and to unify," "not as the opium of society." "Jorge Valdano Renl Madrid  Argentina Spain is a complex country, formed by the combination of various regions that have different personalities and ways of life," "and that is reflected in football, too." "Spain doesn't have its unique style." "This is the first problem." "The second problem is that because each region has its own team that represents them, the kids dream more of wearing the shirt of their city, their team, than the shirt of the national team, which has yet to develop its own personality." "José Angel Iribar Athletic Billbao , Spain Well, that was normal in the beginning, but recently has come to be regarded as peculiar." "We should bear in mind that from day one," "Athletic built very good teams with its own players, and that with this policy it has won many championships." "This has turned the current situation into tradition." "The Basque team has been playing once a year at Christmas for ten years." "There is a really nice atmosphere around these games, and I do believe that there is a will to get some kind of official status for a Basque team to play within Europe." "Charly Rexach Barcelona  Spain It's linked with the history of Catalonia." "Catalonia was on the verge of becoming independent on many occasions." "In fact, many Catalans regard Catalonia as a country." "During the years Franco was in power, it was as if Catalonia was against the rest of Spain." "Barcelona was a means of expressing people's feelings." "In my time. when players were selected for the national team they would even say "I'm not going."" "Or four or five players would be called and only two of them would show up." "There's never been a strong feeling towards a national team as in other countries." "It was the most brilliant moment." "For us to play at Wembley was something mythical." "Andoni Zubizarreta Barcelona  Spain the culmination of our history." "To watch Alexanco picking up the European Cup, it was putting the missing cherry on top of the cake." "Francisco Gento Real Madeid  Spain With Santiago Bernabeu great players began to arrive, like Di Stefano, Kopa, Puskas, Santamaria, Rial." "That's when Real Madrid began to rise - with those great players." "Normally Madrid had always only had Spanish players, but the arrival of Di Stefano was amazing." "I did not play a single match." "nor did I sign any contract." "It was a problem between their directors." "Alfredo Di Stefano Real Madrid  Spain So they made the situation, and I had to go to Madrid." "And I was glad to, all I wanted to do was play football." "I did not mind playing either for Madrid or for Barcelona," "But it was them that told me white or black" " I couldn't choose." "I got the white team." "The Madrid team of our era was 20 years ahead of its time." "While other teams used five forwards, we played counterattacking football, breaking from the midfield, because we had so much speed in the team." "Franco was more into hunting - he didn't like football." "We were the ambassadors of Spain because we were a state dictatorship, and so we weren't liked in the rest of Europe as a country." "But we were liked very much as a team, because we played great football." "And we were ambassadors, because we were the only people allowed to go to Europe." "The thing is that Franco - and I never got involved in politics, never will - took advantage of our successes to make himself known, not us using the government." "Still some of the public were saying "So this is how Madrid keep winning."" "No." "Madrid won with class." "We had a great team because Di Stefano, who had been naturalised, was playing." "So was Kubala, I was playing - it was a great national side." "Luis Suàrez Spanish International We won everywhere we went, and we always won by four or five goals, even away from home." "We reached the semi-finals and we were drawn to play Russia." "But that year," "Franco had no diplomatic relations with Russia." "For political reasons we were left unable to play when we had a great chance to win the trophy." "We were very disappointed." "That was the only match that Franco came to." "For him. it was something important that Spain win." "For the political situation in Spain it was important, because it was something positive, something better." "For the players it was important too, because it was the first title that Spain had won at international level." "But neither I nor my team-mates thought that it was going to become so very important afterwards, because, unfortunately for Spanish football, it became more and more important as time went on, because Spain has never won anything since." "It's the only title that we have," "José Camacho Renl Madrid  Spain Regionalism?" "That's just talk for the sake of talk, by people who know absolutely nothing." "An opponent comes and proves that he's better than you, like Italy or Germany have done sometimes." "It has nothing to do with who's more regionalist. it'snjust who's better." "In Spain, there has never been a spirit of a nation, so to speak." "In every other country, the national team comes first, then the local clubs." "ln Brazil, every player's dream is to play for his country, and the same goes for France or Italy." "Here, because of historical problems." "this has never been the case." "It's a pity." "Spain are supposed to win playing beautiful football." "If we won as Italy or Germany have sometimes won," "I'm sure that it would be a big polemic issue in this country." "We'd wonder if it is worth reaching a final playing bad football." "In this country, we argue about everything, and football is a very good excuse for an argument." "ENGLISH"