© 2026
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scam Advisory: We have been made aware that an online entity is posing as Joe Donahue to invite authors and other creatives onto our radio shows. The scammers then attempt to charge guests an appearance fee for exposure/publicity.
Please note: WAMC does not charge guests to appear on the station and any email about appearing on a WAMC program will come from a wamc.org email address.

Soccer, The Normal-Sized Player's Game

Futbol Club Barcelona's Neymar da Silva Santos pours champagne over Adriano as their team won the final match against River Plate at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Dec. 20.
Shuji Kajiyama
/
AP
Futbol Club Barcelona's Neymar da Silva Santos pours champagne over Adriano as their team won the final match against River Plate at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Dec. 20.

Much as we talk about certain financial institutions that may be too big to fail, you can be absolutely certain that the one organization in the whole wide world that truly fits that definition is FIFA, the grubby behemoth that runs soccer. Too many international sports associations are rife with corruption, but the graft exposed at FIFA beggars the imagination.

Americans, of course, have virtually no interest in FIFA, for most of us are athletic aliens, caring not a whit for Earth's game. Sorry, but I must count myself among those who do not find soccer as entertaining as our own favored sports. I've always thought it was perfectly idiotic to call an exercise that you perform with your feet "the beautiful game."

Click the audio to hear more of what Frank Deford has to say about soccer.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Frank Deford died on Sunday, May 28, at his home in Florida. Remembrances of Frank's life and work can be found in All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and on NPR.org.