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Author Archives: Jimmy Burns
The shame of Argentine Football
In the Paraguayan Capital of Asuncion , hardly an icon of historic accountability, a group of South American football executives will meet tomorrow (Tuesday) to decide when and how, if at all, the second leg of the continent’s club championship Copa Libertadores final between River Plate and Boca Juniors of Argentina will be played. This is no routine meeting. It comes after the match initially scheduled for last Saturday was cancelled twice over the weekend as a result of a violent attack in Buenos Aires on the Boca team bus …
How Catalonia is not Scotand
How Catalonia is not Scotland (First published on the 5/October/2017) I have come to visit the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, an elegant, relaxed and welcoming city of the world heritage, which has left me impressed by the tranquility and civility of the Scottish political process in comparison with the disaster that has come to characterize the Catalan issue in Spain. In the impressive and historic Edinburgh Castle, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Scotland, there is a sense of cultural identity that is …
England vs Spain Football
Nothing like being a bicultural (British-Spanish) European citizen in a rowdy pub in south London to experience the high and lows of an England-Spain football match at Wembley. Let me say from the outset that my well-known enthusiasm as an author for Spanish football had me in a minority of two in a pub that last Saturday was packed to the rafters with mainly young well tanked English males determined to drink as much beer as possible and back the home team. The pub and most of Wembley were of …
Messi’s Rites of Passage
We have grown used to Messi speaking through his football, but on Tuesday night against Nigeria he showed a less typical, for him, capacity to play the leader. While his opening goal showed the vision, touch, composure and accuracy that has marked his genius for more than a decade, as illustrative of personality was his talk to his team-mates at half time, and the celebration of Argentina’s second goal. The talk just before Argentina walked out for the second half, by all accounts, involved not a huge speech but a …
The noble Jesuit
Today marks the death in 1591 of the Jesuit saint Aloysius de Gonzaga . The first-born of a numerous Italian aristocratic family . He grew up amid the violence and brutality of the Renaissance and witnessed the murder of two of his brothers. He gave up his inherited wealth and privileged status to work in as a volunteer in Jesuit hospital i Rome among the sick and dying of a major epidemic. He became infected, and died aged 23 . The mystic Carmelite , Maria Magdalena de Pazzi had a …
Messi fails to ignite
Argentina went into their first World Cup game against Iceland rather like they invaded the Falklands, thinking it would be a walk-over. Instead they walked away with their tail between their legs, just scraping a 1-1 draw with tournament rank outsiders Iceland. Whatever the Icelanders were they were certainly not minnows. “They are Vikings”, an Argentine friend commented as we watched the game along with several of his compatriots, long-time residents of Catalonia, part of a not insignificant community along the coastal belt just south of Barcelona, which includes Leo …
The joy of Cristiano
I watched the Spain-Portugal on the sand, in my favourite beach bar in Sitges, El Chringuito Carbonell. There is something about beaches and football that make me feel happy. I kicked my first ball around on a beach in the north of Spain, organised matches on a beach in southern Spain when my daughters were still little girls and excellent players, then later enjoyed watching other potential stars of the future, young Latinos, with dancing feet and tanned torsos, from the Algarve to Copacabana. I was on a beach in …
Lourdes- we need volunteers
As I kick off with my year long presidency of the Stonyhurst Association, I need your help, and urgently. We are short of volunteers for the annual Catholic Association pilgrimage to Lourdes(August 24th to August 31), in which Stonyhurst plays such an important part, and less than a week from the extended deadline (8th June) for the receipt of applications. As per last Friday, despite getting new forms coming in, the pilgrimage remained far short of the number of volunteers we had last year (which stretched us to absolute limits). …
Spain:Time for Fresh Thinking
Whatever the outcome of Spain’s political crisis, one can safely say that the Spanish political class has not covered itself in glory. The context and manner of Mr Rayoy’s exit from the Spanish Congress after suffering a motion of no confidence by a majority of lawmakers was preceded by proven cases of corruption at the highest level of his own party, an abject failure to show statesmanship on the Catalan question, and an inability to listen to or engage with other parties , including his ad-hoc coalition partner …