Soccer head gets red card
By JIM KERNAGHAN -- London Free Press
Count venerable Canadian soccer star Charmaine Hooper among those women who'd enjoy giving Sepp Blatter a kick in the pants over hot pants.
The global chief of world soccer suggested female players would look better in sexier uniforms. A lot of players -- a lot of women, for that matter -- would love to splatter Blatter.
"His comment doesn't need my comment at all," said the ageless scoring star and head table guest for last night's London Sports Celebrity Dinner and Auction. "Everyone knows what to think of it."
Not much, apparently.
Blatter, whose official title is president of the Federation Internationale de Football Associations (FIFA), spoke of "more feminine uniforms" adding "tighter shorts, for example."
Female soccer players worldwide were prepared to line up for a corner kick. That is to say, kicking Blatter into a corner.
Canadian national team wunderkind Kara Lang was to the point on the matter.
"I can think of a number of players who wouldn't be caught dead in hot pants on the field," the 17-year-old Oakville resident said.
Hooper, considered the queen of Canadian soccer, has more important things on her mind than football fashion. No. 1 is the Olympic Games next summer in Athens.
It would mark the crowning achievement in her distinguished 17-year career although, at 35, the super-fit goal-scorer with more than 100 international games for Canada has not set a timetable for retirement. "It would be a first for Canadian women's soccer. We've never been in the Olympics before."
The Canadian women, a growing force on the international scene, first must qualify in a tournament next month in Costa Rica involving teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean. Two advance and the favourites are Canada and the U.S.
"But we want to win, not just become one of two teams advancing," Hooper said. "We CAN win."
Hooper, who lives in Chicago, has been training for a four nations tournament in China. But the SARS scare in that country has pretty well scuttled it.
Hooper, who has played professionally in Japan, Norway and the U.S., credits coach Even Pellerud as the main reason Canada's women have become more competitive than any time in their history.
"He's really smart tactically," she said. "He's been there. He coached Norway to the World Cup title."
The development of young players is another reason, she says. Prime among them is Lang, who became the youngest person to play in the World Cup last year.
"She's only 17, but she's not your average 17-year-old," Hooper said of the hard-shooting youngster. "She's been playing senior soccer."
Good coaching, player identification and the experienced head of Hooper has Canadian women's soccer in a promising position but barriers remain.
For all the advances, there's been a nagging negative more or less underlined by the head honcho of the game. Blatter's opinion that sex appeal might help sell the game flies in the face of facts. It's been selling itself based on the action.
Hooper will be the first to tell you that despite the team's successes, sexism is not far away. A few years ago, she put the verbal boots to the Canadian Soccer Association, claiming it was not as committed to the women's program as it was to the men's.
She didn't back off those comments yesterday, merely adding another culprit.
"There's definitely more money (for the women's program), but we're still way behind," she said. "It's not just the CSA, it's FIFA. When we qualify, we get nothing. When the men qualify, their programs get millions from FIFA."
Actually FIFA provides advice on their ensembles, which is worse than nothing.
