Stadium Seating at the Arab Spring

For people living under the rule Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak, there were few places where large groups could assemble. One of those places was the Cairo soccer stadium, where, during matches, working class fans of the perennial underdog Al Ahly club waged class warfare with supporters of Zamalek—the darling of Mubarak and his generals. But when widespread discontent erupted into insurrection across the Middle East, both Ultra groups joined forces to lead the charge into Tahrir Square. “Stadium Seating at the Arab Spring” revisits the Egyptian revolution through the eyes of the players, coaches, and fans who helped fuel it, and charts the course of their hopes and disappointments.

The Daughters of Title IX

On June 23, 1972, the U.S. Congress passed Title IX—an amendment that prohibited gender discrimination in financial aid, instruction and most significantly, in athletics. The legislation changed the landscape of school sports, and created the first generation of U.S. women sport pioneers. Today, the daughters of these women are playing high school and college sports. “The Daughters of Title IX” visits locker rooms, boardrooms and bedrooms to ask whether 40+ years of equal access to sport has helped lead America’s women to the promised land of parity.

A Plague in the Stands

Hitler and Mussolini were defeated more than 70 years ago. But their ugly spirit somehow survives in soccer. Fans in the stands at Lazio of Rome sport swaztikas and celtic crosses, and greet their favorite players with stiff-armed “roman salutes.” NeoNazi groups recruit disaffected German youth at stadiums in Dortmund and Dresden. Recently, the Ultras have formed HoGeSa—a national alliance against the perceived “islamization” of Europe. “A Plague in the Stands” looks at the sinister alliance between fascism and soccer, and asks whether the sport is doing enough to defeat it.

On One Foot: Loss and Redemption in Sierra Leone

Every Saturday, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, people gather to watch amputees play soccer on Aberdeen beach. The most visible victims of a brutal 10-year civil war, Freetown’s Single Leg Amputee Soccer Club is also the most viable symbol of Sierra Leone’s painful recovery. In “On One Foot,” we meet Jabati Mambu, the goaltender on the Sierra Leone Single Leg Soccer Club. We visit his corrugated metal home in a Freetown shantytown. We’ll make the rough overland trip to the diamond mines in Bo and Kenema that were the source of the endless carnage. And we’ll visit the amputee camp where Jabati and his future teammates met the Baptist minister who would invite them to play soccer and, ultimately, redeem their lives.