Can football make a difference?

Drogba told how football helped stop the civil war in Ivory Coast

"Footballers are the pop stars of this generation". That is the verdict of Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher.

With their global profiles and stratospheric salaries, it is hard to dispute his assessment.

However, if that is the case, is football missing a trick when it comes to what the game could do for wider society?

If Robin van Persie really is the new Van Morrison and Phil Jagielka the new Mick Jagger,where is football's equivalent of Live Aid?

Have the deep bonds that once tied our clubs to their communities been eroded to such an extent that all concerns revolve around making money, rather than making a difference?

Or does the charity and community work done by clubs and players up and down the country go under the radar, with footballers taking their social responsibilities far more seriously than they are ever given credit for?

As part of aBBC Radio 5live sport special program to be broadcast this Wednesday, I set out to investigate these questions, speaking to a whole host of people that ranged from superstars such as Carragher, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, Patrick Vieira of Manchester City, and AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf to a former London gangster. I also got the views of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The footballers told me the stories of their upbringings and spoke about issues I'd never heard players discuss. Bootle-born Carragher gave me his searingly honest and impassioned opinions on the void that football fills in areas of urban deprivation, while Seedorf reminisced about how he turned his back on the gun-wielding gangsters he grew up with.

In the wake of the riots that engulfed our cities over the summer, Tottenham MP David Lammy stressed the need for clubs to strengthen their community links and remember their foundations, a view that was echoed by Manchester City executive Vieira.

A young man who had been involved with gang-life in south-east London gave me a different perspective, explaining the allure that gangs can hold for talented but troubled teenagers, tempting them away from pursuing a career in football.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, Drogba gave me a compelling insight into the unifying power of football if harnessed in the right way, citing the example of how football helped stop the civil war in his native Ivory Coast.

He also personified the breed of footballer I had encountered: eloquent, intelligent, and engaged.

Forget being the pop stars of this era. Players have the potential to wield a far-reaching influence that most politicians can only envy. If they are so inclined, they could become the spokesmen of future generations.

Iranian Official Threatens Military Drill Sealing Off the Strait of Hormuz Read more

April 2010: An Iranian warship and speed boats take part in a naval war game in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, southern Iran.


A high-ranking Iranian official has said Iran's military will practice sealing off the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transport channel, in a provocative move that illustrates Iran's capability of disrupting the world’s oil supply.

The announcement Monday by Parviz Sarvari sent oil prices up about $3 to $100 a barrel based on the speculation of a disruption during the military drills, Bloomberg reported.

“Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz,” Sarvari, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee, said in a statement reported by Reuters. “If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”

Iran has long used the threat of disrupting oil production as a main military deterrent, a sort of economic missile in its silo.

Although Sarvari did not name a specific country making the region insecure, though diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been on the rise recently over the U.S. drone that went down in Iran.

Pentagon Spokesman Doug Wilson responded by saying although he has no information on the exercises, the United States government is committed to the free and safe passage in international waters and anything that interferes with that would be "detrimental."

The report of the planned exercise in the Strait of Hormuz is the latest example of Iranian provocation. In September, Iran’s navy laid out plans to move naval vessels out of the Persian Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean “near maritime borders of the United States,” the Tehran Times reported.

Iran also has faced international pressure for it's nuclear program. Iran insists the program is for peaceful uses, but in November, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report that Tehran has conducted secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of atomic weapons. Iran denies that charge.

About 15.5 million barrels of oil a day, about a sixth of global consumption, flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported, citing the U.S. Department of Energy.

Premier League table snapshot

Premier League table snapshot

As it stood on 10 Dec 2011 23:59 UK

Position	Team	P	GD	PTS
1	Man City	14	35	38
2	Man Utd	15	21	36
3	Tottenham	13	13	31
4	Arsenal	15	8	29
5	Chelsea	14	14	28
6	Liverpool	15	5	26
7	Newcastle	15	2	26
8	Aston Villa	15	-1	19
9	Norwich	15	-4	19
10	Stoke	14	-9	18
11	Swansea	15	-4	17
12	Everton	14	-3	16
13	QPR	15	-11	16
14	Fulham	15	-2	15
15	West Brom	15	-9	15
16	Wolves	15	-12	14
17	Wigan	15	-15	12
18	Sunderland	14	-1	11
19	Blackburn	14	-11	10
20	Bolton	15	-16	9

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Man Utd 4 - 1 Wolverhampton

Rooney's strike partnership with Welbeck is starting to blossom for United

Wayne Rooney and Nani both scored twice as Manchester United gave the perfect response to their Champions League exit with a commanding win over Wolves.

Nani cut inside from the left and blasted the opener into the corner before Rooney made it 2-0 with a low drive from the edge of the area.

Steven Fletcher gave Wolves a lifeline with a header just after half-time.

But United hit back with Antonio Valencia setting up Nani for a tap-in and crossing for Rooney to rifle home.

United put their miserable surrender in Basel behind them in a display brimming with positive intent and attacking verve.

And in the week when Rooney's three-match England ban was reduced to two by European football's governing body Uefa, the striker ended an eight-game Premier League goal drought with two authoritative finishes.

While Wolves boss Mick McCarthy's decision to field an attacking 4-4-2 formation merely played into United's hands, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson's tactics paid off, as he made four changes to the side that lost 2-1 in Switzerland.

Phil Jones produced a confident attacking performance alongside Michael Carrick in midfield and Valencia - brought in at Ashley Young's expense - proved a constant threat on the right wing.

The victory ensured United closed the gap on Premier League leaders Manchester City to two points, with Roberto Mancini's side heading to Chelsea on Monday.

The game might have taken a different course had Fletcher not sliced wide after being teed up in space on the edge of the box in the first minute.

But United soon settled into their rhythm, with Valencia enjoying plenty of space down the right and crossing for Carrick, whose diving header flew just over the bar.

Carrick then played a ball inside right-back Ronald Zubar for Rooney, whose shot from a tight angle was sharply saved by Wayne Hennessey.

Moments later, Nani cut in from the left-hand side before unleashing a powerful shot into the corner from 20 yards.

The second goal arrived in similar fashion, with Rooney this time darting across the edge of the box and smashing a shot through a crowd of players past an unsighted Hennessey.

Wolves got themselves back in the game shortly after half-time as Matt Jarvis crossed from the left for Fletcher to head his 11th goal in 16 games into the roof of the net.

The goal only served to reawaken United, who re-established their two-goal lead when Jones threaded a pass to Valencia, who crossed low for Nani to convert from six yards.

Valencia rounded off a fine afternoon's work with the assist for the fourth goal as his cross picked out Rooney to beat Hennessey with a powerful low shot on the turn.

Another marauding run from Jones almost produced a fifth goal but Hennessey did well to foil Federico Macheda at the near post.

Wolves' sixth away league defeat in eight games leaves them just three points clear of the relegation zone.

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Japan: Looking to the past for answers

Survivors of Japan's worst natural disaster in decades may be forced to re-consider an old code of self-preservation.

The great Tohoku earthquake of March 2011 resulted in the most devastating tsunami to hit Japan for generations, forcing people in coastal communities to question how they prepare for future disasters. Many looked to the past for answers.

"I did not plan to let go of my grandfather's hand, I just did it. I was pulling him, but he was too slow and I felt the huge wave bearing down so I let go of him and ran up the hill. I didn’t look back," says 39-year-old Akiko Yorozu, recalling her escape from the massive tsunami that devastated her hometown.

Shortly after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off Japan's northeastern coast, a colossal body of sea water smashed onto land and, within minutes, hundreds of towns and villages were swamped. It was the largest tsunami seen for generations and with the official death toll over 20,000, Naoto Kan, the then Japanese prime minister, called it the worst natural disaster to affect the country since the end of World War II.

Many, like Yorozu, faced split second choices that decided their fate.

“At that point, I thought, I had to get to higher ground or I would drown. You have to save yourself first. It may seem cold hearted but it is really the only way.”

Yorozu was practicing Tendenko, a code of tsunami survival that teaches people to ignore others and save themselves. It appears to be a starkly selfish ethos, but if practiced across an entire community, it is a simple and effective way to ensure that the highest numbers survive.

“As children we were taught, if the earthquake strikes you should not try to come home or look for parents, you have to save yourself, otherwise the tsunami will wash you away” says Yorozu, who now has two children of her own.

The communities living on Japan’s north east, or Sanriku, coast have always been at the mercy of massive and destructive geological forces. Lying directly along the fault line created by the shifting Pacific and Eurasia plates, it is an area of intense seismic ferment. Earthquakes under the sea produce frequent tsunamis - some only a few inches high that result in nothing more than official warnings from authorities relayed by loud speakers along the fishing ports and harbours that dot the inlets and bays of this scenic coastline.

However, once every so often (on average every 100 to 150 years) a massive wave is sent pulsing towards the land. One such tsunami hit in 1896, killing 22,000 people and destroying thousands of homes. In 1933, another large tsunami killed 3,000 in the same region - in one town alone 98 per cent of homes were lost.

The practice of Tendenko emerged from these repeated disasters. A local Sanriku folk wisdom, it urges individuals to forget everyone else and save themselves. In some senses this Darwinian-like survival instinct should come naturally to anyone sensing their life is in danger. But in Japan acts of individualistic self-preservation do not come easily to a society firmly rooted in putting others before yourself.

“It may seem obvious to say ‘save yourself first’, but actually most people in Japan don’t,” says Professor Toshitaka Katada of Gunma University, a social engineer who specialises in disaster management and tsunami survival.

For the past eight years Katada has been re-introducing Tendenko to schools in Yorozu's home town, Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture. “What actually happens is that people do not run even though they know a tsunami is coming. Instead they seek out family members and they all end up dying - they die together because they thought they could save each other. This happened repeatedly in this region and so Tendenko arose from this. It teaches you to resist that impulse and to act immediately and do whatever it takes to save yourself. And if everyone does this then more people survive. So it is also about trust, trusting that others will do the same. It does not mean that you cannot help others around you, but your own survival is your first priority.” More than any other country in the world, Japan is well prepared in the event of a tsunami: huge imposing sea walls on land and out at sea are there to protect the towns and villages against the waves, whilst countless safety and evacuation drills are rehearsed in communities and schools across the country, in case the water ever breaches these forward defences. In a land where earthquakes and tsunamis are a constant threat not much was left to chance, but the sheer size of the March 11 tsunami meant many of Japan’s well-planned precautions proved inadequate. The sea walls built at huge public cost were overwhelmed by the wave while evacuation centres and muster points were inundated, often with tragic consequences. There is a growing debate in Japan as to how best to plan for future tsunamis, with many now asking why the existing preparations proved inadequate. Katada believes that the teaching of Tendenko is essential to help at risk communities to radically change their thinking.  It prepares people, particularly children, to rely on themselves and to always expect the worse. “These communities are experiencing small and medium-sized earthquakes and tsunamis quite often, and this breeds a kind of complacency. I found too that because there were periods of several generations between the ‘large tsunami’ like the one that hit in March 2011, the folk memory of their power and destructiveness fades - so too does the idea of self-reliance and an individualistic approach to escaping. People rely too much on a single fixed evacuation plan,’ says Katada, who claims that the teaching in Kamaishi helped save many lives. According to the figures, in Iwate prefecture where Katada has been teaching, only 27 pupils died out of a total number of 3,423 deaths; a rate of less than 1 per cent. Neighbouring Miyagi prefecture had a rate of more than 3 per cent. Some now believe that infrastructure like sea walls give a false sense of security. Many people died because, despite the approaching wave, they opted to stay in their homes, such was their faith in concrete barriers. At the same time, the fixed safety drills that direct people to gather in designated muster points, where they wait for further instruction from the team leader, also failed in many instances. In the town of Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, 31 out of the 80 evacuation sites were hit by the massive wave. At the Unosumai disaster evacuation centre in Kamaishi - opened just last year - of the approximately 200 people who sought refuge there, less than 30 were found alive after the building was overwhelmed by the surging waters. In contrast to this, Katada cites the example of school children in the town, where nearly all of the 2,900 pupils survived. School was finishing for the day and pupils were starting to make their way home or to clubs when the quake struck. In one case, children from Higashi Junior High and the neighbouring elementary school began running up the hill away from the school and stared in horror as the wave smashed onto their school - even ramming a car into the third floor, where only minutes before they had been gathered. And still the wave continued to surge towards them. Taking the initiative the pupils ran further up the hill - from that vantage they watched as moments later the evacuation point itself was engulfed. “We had felt the earthquake  - the tremors were huge and cracks opened up in the ground, I was pretty frightened by that,” says Shingo Yorozu. “I don't know what started it but we all began running out thinking we better just in case a tsunami came. There was no guidance from the teachers, I am glad we did run because there’s not much left of our school.” Japan is just beginning the long process of rebuilding the towns and villages along the devastated coast, and people are slowly starting to rebuild their lives. Many in those communities have been forced to change their perception of tsunamis and as people prepare themselves and their children for a time when they will face another huge tsunami, many are learning from the past so that they might have a future.