Marine Lieutenant Erin Kelly, a former soccer player at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey and the US Naval Academy, is in her second tour of duty in Iraq and looked forward to watching the World Cup.
But when word came last week that FIFA's media representative would not make a deal with the Defense Department's American Forces Network, she wrote in an e-mail message to her father, John, "Can you believe this?"
Her message, which was provided by her father, was prompted by one sent by a serviceman to her and other military personnel that said: "It is a sad day indeed. AFN will not carry any World Cup matches. Not even US games."
The network is part of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
Kelly, her father said, is friends with Tim Howard, the goalkeeper who played at North Brunswick High School and is on the US World Cup team and Manchester United.
"This would have been pretty big for them over there," John Kelly said. "They don't have much else."
Commander Greg Kicks, a Pentagon spokesman, said that although the major sports leagues in the US provided free coverage of their games, the Switzerland-based Infront Sports and Media, which distributes World Cup rights for FIFA, sought a rights fee.
Kicks said that the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service was not budgeted to purchase sports programming.
"We rely on the generosity of many organizations to support our military members by providing sports programming free of charge," he said.
He said that many US military personnel based overseas would be able to watch the World Cup on commercial cable or other outlets. But those, like Kelly, who are stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and aboard ships are largely dependent on the network's satellite.
"It's disappointing and it's unfortunate," he said. About 1 million military personnel and their families watch the network in 177 countries.
E-mail messages to FIFA were not returned.
Scott Sandahl, a master sergeant at the Yokota Air Base in Japan, who is also a soccer referee, said on Monday in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes: "It's sad that money has dictated that military service members won't see the World Cup. This is the biggest sport in the world. For people stationed overseas, it's a big part of the culture all around us."
"This is the big-money rights holders saying they don't care, that the US military isn't worth donating or giving it at a fraction of the cost to AFN," Sandahl said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later