I am taking some holidays right now. I will be back posting as of end of August. If you are on holidays, enjoy, and if you are not, well…enjoy as well!
Football is the universal sport because it is the closest to human nature. read more »
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Since Maracanazo is about all aspects of football, I invited a guest author who contacted me to write about the specific injury known as TBI that can come about when playing football.
Chelsea Travers is an outreach representative of CareMeridian Las Vegas Nursing Home, a subacute and skilled nursing/rehabilitation facility located throughout the Western United States for patients suffering from traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or medical complexities such as neuromuscular or congenital anomalies.
Soccer (football) and American football are fast paced games that require a great deal of speed and athleticism from its participants. Due to the physical nature of the game, injuries are common on the field. One injury that can cause great distress to a player is a traumatic brain injury, also known as a TBI. A TBI occurs when the head, brain or skull experiences force or trauma. TBI affects the function of the brain and can also change the personality and mental capabilities of an individual. The condition may also require decade’s worth of rehabilitation from special care facilities. Even then, there are no guarantees that an individual will fully recover.
American football is one of the toughest and most physically tasking games played. A football players head risks contact with the ground, or another players head, hand, shoulder, arm, or leg with just about every block or tackle that takes place. That is just a result of how the game is played. Due to the number of injuries that were being sustained, football took a precautionary measure and instituted a rule that requires all players to wear protective helmets to prevent head injuries. They also implemented rules on how a player can be tackled or blocked to further prohibit blows to the head. There is also no advantage that a player gains from using their head to block or tackle a player, thus discouraging them from purposefully using it to make contact. Unfortunately, even with the rules in place, accidents do happen and head injuries are still a problem. However, the NFL has at least made an attempt to protect players and players are fully aware of the risk of injury. Soccer, on the other hand, has no such rules in place and risk of injury is a lot less apparent.
Arguably the most popular sport in the world, soccer is also one of the most dangerous due to the risk of TBI. Soccer is supposed to require finesse, design and patience and a lot less of the physical punishment that people have come to expect in football. However, concussions make up 2-3% of all injuries in soccer. This number doesn’t seem significant but it happens to be the same rate as football. The obvious explanation for the concussion rate is that soccer requires the use of a players head in order to control or redirect the ball. Using your head is actually encouraged because doing so can give you an advantage over another player. Therefore, concussions almost become a requirement of the job. In fact, injuries to the head or neck account for between 4% and 22% of all injuries in soccer. A study taken of Division I soccer players in Norway showed that 35% of 69% players had abnormal EEG patterns, which was twice the number of control subjects.
Injuries occur in every sport, but heading the ball in a soccer game is not generally thought of as physical punishment and serious injury is not generally associated with the sport. Since using your head in soccer is thought of as “part of the game”, most players don’t consider it to be a risk factor and the consequences of doing so are rarely considered. The lack of precaution that a soccer player takes to protect their head puts them at high risk of suffering a TBI. The inability of a soccer player to notice the symptoms of a TBI and their failure to seek immediate treatment causes the injury to be much more serious. If players are educated about TBI’s and what can be done to prevent them we can reduce the incidence of this injury exponentially. While the intent is not for soccer to end by increasing awareness about TBI, at the very least, a soccer player may pay more attention to heading the ball properly and will have a better idea of when they might be suffering a TBI and seek immediate treatment.
Maracanazos seek to inform readers.
Maracanazos are interested in all aspects of their favourite sport and this includes finding football equipment. This could be for different purposes:
- For your own needs
- To offer as gifts to your kids, family, friends
- To equip your local team
I came across SoccerPro some weeks ago and decided to do a review on them. SoccerPro started out in 2004 in Missouri with a retail store and now has extensive coverage mainly in the US. Their online shop has about everything you can imagine that has to do with football.
Here are the plus factors of their shop:
- Easy to use menu on the left with a very comprehensive list of categories (for example it includes field equipment)
- Many items per category, have a look at the soccer jerseys for example
- A selection per brand, size, gender/age and price (although the latter didn’t provide a drop down of price brackets)
- Innovative categories like “Shop by Color“
- A clear central section on the home page with popular searches, highlight on World Cup related gear and recommended sections
- A straightfoward shopping cart with a Contact Us toll free number which is clearly visible
- Good initiative with the charity project with SoccerGrow
I would have the following suggestions for the site:
- It should be made clear why having an account is useful. It doesn’t say when you go the My Account page why it is useful to sign up for an account.
- I find the font and colors of the site too aggressive and the home feels like it is packed with information. Perhaps they could have a look how Zappos do their web design.
- The blog isn’t updated since September 09, might as well drop it since it isn’t a source of information
- They have a free 999 days return guarantee, that should be highlighted on the home since it is a good point instead of being communicated only on the store policies page
Maracanazos enjoy online shopping.
When you think of the millions of euros or other currencies which football generates, it seems strange that one of the key actors, the referee, gets such a small slice of it. With all the recent controversy on the role of the referee and the different ways to help lower the margin of error, I haven’t read much about the referee’s compensation. Professional football has seen player salaries go through the roof, sponsorships skyrocket and club budgets (and deficits) inflate like never before. But what about referees? With so much money at stake, I would attract better and more people to become referees by adapting their financial benefits to be in line with the other constituencies.
Let’s take the example of the monthly revenues of first division games in a major European championship:
- 30 000 spectators at an average ticket price of €60 x 8 games per month = €14,4 million
- 22 players at an average monthly salary of €40 000 = €880 000
- 1 referee at a monthly “retainer” of about €3750
When you think about the sums generated by 30 000 spectators and paid to 22 players (not to mention the broadcasting rights which I haven’t estimated), it is unbelievable that the referee which is such a central piece of the game gets such a small part of the cake. I think that part of the refereeing problem would be solved if football associations and clubs thought about attracting higher quality candidates with much more attractive packages for full-time referee positions.
Maracanazos try to find solutions.
If I were to choose between the following, here are my picks:
- Maradona or Pele : Pele
- Milan AC or Inter Milan : Milan AC
- Real Madrid or Barça : Barça
- Lippi or Capello : Lippi
- Penarol Montevideo or Nacional Montevideo : Penarol
- Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo : Messi
- 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 (or 4-5-1) or 4-4-2 : 4-3-3
- Stade de France or Parc des Princes : Parc des Princes
- Juventus or Torino : Juventus
- Lazio or AS Roma : AS Roma
- Cruyff or Beckenbauer : Cruyff
- Chelsea or Arsenal : Arsenal
- Liverpool or Man United : Liverpool
- Maradona or Platini : Platini
What are your choices?
Following a 17-year “drought”, legendary Flamengo wins it all! Fla, as all Brazilian fans nickname the club, is one of the most popular clubs in Brazil. Its last Brazilian championship title goes back to 1982, an eternity! Flamengo has now won 6 national championship titles and 31 carioca ones, the local championship between all Rio area clubs. That’s one more title than their eternal rival Fluminense. So who will the next clasico Fla-Flu?
Here is the extract of Flamengo’s 2 to 1 win over Gremio that clinches the title.