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Archives for August 2014

“The Chipotle of Middle Eastern Food”

August 5, 2014 by r.chowdhury1

For many years, fans have been demanding a place to sit and eat their halal food. The Halal Guys have finally listened.

The Halal Guys on “53rd and 6th”, have become a popular name in New York City. There are five carts in the city. After twenty-three years they are beginning to expand throughout United States and worldwide. Just recently they opened their first restaurant on 14th street and 2nd avenue. The Halal Guys plan to open an additional restaurant on the Columbia University campus.

The restaurant excites many customers. Cab drivers and customers from different states can now eat there. They no longer have to wait on huge lines in the sweltering summer heat or blistering winter cold.  Now customers have access to air conditioning, space, and tables.

“The line is short and the guys are friendly. Now that they opened up a place, I don’t have to wait in the sun,” said a local costumer.

The restaurant will have the typical gyro and platters that are sold at the cart. It will add a juice and smoothie bar, hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, Mediterranean salads, and yogurts. Also the falafels will now be made fresh, instead of being reheated  at the carts. The Halal Guys are trying to reach out to the vegetarian customers.

Location played a big role in deciding whether or not to expand. There is a lot going on in East Village. “Number 1 is that it’s right by the NYU Dorms,” the manager said.

There is a cart open right in front of the restaurant. The Halal Guys will have both the cart and restaurant open. The major difference will be is that the restaurant will have a huge variety of food.

Although this restaurant is beneficial to many costumers, some costumers are still not happy. The prices at the East Village outlet are somewhat higher than at the cart. They will offer two sizes, a regular for $6 and $7 for large. The restaurant will also add tax to the meal. The average platter at the Halal Guys cart is $6.

In 1990 Abdelbaset Elsayed, and Mohamed Abouelenein ran a hot dog cart. Both founders noticed there was a high demand for a full-filling halal meal for Muslim cab drivers. “Always looking for a halal meal,” according to the manager of Halal Guys. This inspired them to add more items on their menu at the time.

They get a wide range of customers. “You just look at the lines [at Halal Guys], and it’s people from all walks of life. That right there is a franchise. It’s absolutely the right time now,” according to the Daily News paper.

The Halal Guy’s next goal is to open a larger place at Amsterdam Avenue and 95th street, then they hope to expand all throughout the business world. Abouelenein and Elsayed are working with the Fransmart franchise company to open restaurants in L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Houston. In addition, they hope to expand in Canada, the Middle East, and Europe. Fransmart is the same franchise company that expanded Five Guys.

“It’s going to be the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food,” Dan Rowe, Fransmart’s chief executive, said according to New York Times.

The Halal Guys Brand has become strong. It attracts many tourists and have imitators of the brand. There is something special about their meat and white sauce that attracts many people.

“When you’re working at your pushcart, you keep working and you don’t follow what’s happening about your name. And then (I discovered) all this demand. The name ‘Halal Guys’ had spread all over the world — and I didn’t even know it,” Abouelenein says according to the daily newspaper.

Filed Under: Lifestyles Tagged With: 14th street, 53rd and 6th, cart, chicken, chipotle, expand, food, gyro, halal food, lamb, white sauce

Investigative Journalist Adapts to Modern Research

August 5, 2014 by ZOOBIA BHATTI

Known as a man who asks a million questions by his colleagues, Michael

Grabell certainly worked hard to gain a reputation in the world of journalism.

He developed an interest in this field during his college years. He applied for

multiple internships and continuously called local newspapers until one eventually

allowed him to write obituaries on the weekends. While he gained some knowledge

from writing the eulogies, he continued to look for more work.

Things began to look good when he landed an internship in New Orleans. By

this time, he believes, he had made a lot of connections with the press. From there

he did some freelance work, until he began interning at a Dallas newspaper. The

internship slowly evolved into a full-time job, which he kept for five years, before he

moved onto an investigating job at the Dallas Morning News.

His resume had become so impressive by this point that ProPublica, an

independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism, hired

him as a reporter.

The reason behind his success, he believes, is that he asks many questions.

He thinks the best way to learn is to ask as many questions as you can.

At ProPublica, he has the liberty to pick which issues he covers. After he has

chosen a topic, he begins researching. He almost always starts with a round of

phone calls with experts, who have an array of knowledge on the topic, and then

looks at data.

Depending on the issue, he looks for resources such as lawsuits. Once he has

enough background knowledge, he begins interviewing people to gain further

insight. One question that he asks people during interviews is “walk me on a day of

your life.” He believes that is a good way to get information about a person.

However, he says, interviewing people is becoming problematic as people

begin to rely more on social media. How does he deal with this growing trend? He

mentioned that he heavily relies on social media websites to approach people and

manages to use it to his advantage. By embracing this trend, he is able to connect

and gain information on people quickly and effectively.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: adapt, investigative journalist, modern research

“I Think It is Fun to Watch Bad Movies”

August 5, 2014 by SAN CHEN

“I do take notes in the dark”, says Rafer Guzman.

Rafer Guzman is the film critic for Newsday, a daily newspaper that is primarily written for people living in Long Island. Guzman started out as a freelancer in San Francisco, but later in his career began writing music reviews, sometimes for free. He started at a small publication and over the years went into bigger publications.

As for education, Guzman has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and he graduated with a master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. “I’m still paying off my loans,” he says.

Before Guzman became the film critic for Newsday, he was a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal. There he covered travel and tourism for about four years. He said that it was “fun”, but it was not really what he wanted to do.

In 2002, Guzman became the rock critic for Newsday. He said that being a rock critic was exhausting and tiring. “With music, I got sick of it”, he says.

As a rock critic, he sometimes wrote only “one film review every other month”. However, after the whole Newsday film department quit by taking money in a buyout, Guzman became a full- time film critic.

Guzman now has to review about three to five movies a week. Guzman watches every wide release movies that comes out. “I see it all”, he says. Unlike with music, Guzman does not get sick of watching movies.

Guzman has to view movies ahead of time and most of the time he views movies in private screening rooms, which are mainly in midtown Manhattan, but he lives in Brooklyn.

His favorite movie genre is action and his favorite director is Stanley Kubrick. His favorite Disney movies are Beauty and the Beast and Frozen.

Guzman enjoys his job even if he has to watch bad movies. “I think it is fun to watch bad movies because you can figure out why a bad movie is bad”, he says. Guzman has been a film critic for Newsday for around seven years now and he is happy with his job.

Filed Under: Culture and Entertainment, News

How Companies Are Trying to Conquer Your Web

August 5, 2014 by MALCOLM COLSON

The Internet is not perfect. It has its problems, such as trolls who get everyone steaming mad, connection failures that mess up your day, harassment, fraud and many other complications.

However, it’s still an interesting and fun place to be with many perks, since you can watch shows, movies, etc and have discussions with people thousands of miles away, just to name a few. But an all-new issue may threaten your Internet experience. Companies like Verizon and Comcast want to abolish Net Neutrality, which would change how everyone enjoys and uses the Internet.

Net Neutrality is a complex subject that many people don’t understand. Simply put, Net Neutrality is the practice of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) treating all data equally. The ISP can’t discriminate based on the website or its content. They have to send out the data regardless of its origin. But without Net Neutrality, companies can pay the ISP an extra fee to have their data put on a “fast lane” while others have to have their content delivered slowly. This means that big corporations can crush small businesses who can’t pay the extra price of having their content delivered at a reasonable rate.

So, who will ultimately decide whether or not the Internet will remain open for all? Who has the power? The Federal Communications Commission regulates business over the Internet, radio, TV, cable and satellite throughout the United States, run by Chairman Tom Wheeler. The FCC will ultimately decide the fate of our Internet.

But, the common man is not without power to change the course of this issue. Hundreds of thousands of Americans used the Electronic Comment Filing System to voice your opposition to or support of the preservation of Net Neutrality until midnight July 17th, 2014. On the 15th, the FCC received “around 780,000 comments – which goes to show the strength of feeling over the issue” (Woollacot, Forbes) so much so that the site crashed. Most of those comments are in favor of Net Neutrality.

One of the arguments opponents of Net Neutrality use is that ISP could use the extra money to develop more advanced networks to improve Internet quality for everyone. John Thorne, the senior vice president of Verizon, said the company has no reason to develop advanced networks if it can’t charge companies who would want to use them. While that is certainly possible, the question is: Will they do that? They say they will do that, but after Net Neutrality is gone, will anyone be able to keep them to that claim?

Another argument is as the Internet gets more advanced and more data is transmitted, the companies will need more money from investments to ease the strain on the network. Companies won’t be able to handle all the new data they have to distribute by keeping Net Neutrality. As a result, many vital aspects of our lives will be affected such as security, education and communications. This is definitely a valid argument but we should find a way to increase the capabilities of networks without giving companies control of what quality they can provide.

The abolition of Net Neutrality is just another way for industries to establish monopolies in modern age by eliminating their competition. Not only small businesses, but even other major companies will lose money because of people’s unwillingness to wait for long buffering times. Despite what one may think, this is not completely a conflict between people and corporations. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google are all companies that oppose the abolition.

Ultimately, the fate of the Internet will be determined soon and we will have to fight for what we believe in. Today, a country like China, which doesn’t have Net Neutrality, has a government that is able to repress public opinion because the government can control how information gets to the people by using surveillance and regulation. Do we want to follow suit and live in a society where the people in charge can censor us? Companies like Verizon and Comcast will take over if we, as Internet users, let them.

Filed Under: Commentary, News

The New York Knicks: Nowhere to Go But Up

August 5, 2014 by LEANDRO RIBEIRO

After earning 11 championship rings as an NBA coach, Phil Jackson has confronted a new obstacle, achieving a championship with the New York Knicks as an executive — one of his biggest challenges yet. On Tuesday, March 18th, 2014, the New York Knicks announced Jackson as their new president of Basketball operations.

Jackson, age 68, has thirteen rings, thirteen more than every current Knicks player combined. He will not have much to work with, and has to clean up the team that went 37-45  last season. A poor season for what seemed like a promising roster ended without the Knicks making the playoffs.

Acquiring Jackson was clearly a positive move for the Knicks. He has already made serious changes to this lackluster roster and staff by getting rid of coach Mike Woodson, whose poor coaching made the Knicks miss the playoffs for the first time in three years. To replace Woodson, Jackson hired former point guard Derek Fisher as head coach. Jackson will be taking Fisher under his coaching wing after leading him to five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

After hiring Fisher, Jackson suggested he wear all five of his rings when first sitting with the Knicks’ ringless best player, Carmelo Anthony. This small detail was one of many tactics used to seal the deal and keep Carmelo on the Knicks. Carmelo is changing and proving himself as a team player, taking $5 million off of his contract to help the Knicks pick up better players and formulate a more solid roster.

The New York Knicks are already looking like a better squad than they were last year, with Jackson making moves to promote chemistry that was certainly lacking last season. Jackson told ESPN he picked up on that, “Watching them play I saw guys that looked at each other like, ‘You didn’t back me up, you weren’t here when I needed help.’ There just wasn’t the right combination or feel (where) it felt like everybody was in sync all the time,” he said.

Jackson traded center Tyson Chandler and point guard Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks. In return for these two, the Knicks obtained guards Jose Calderon, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington, and center Samuel Dalembert. He also acquired two second-round draft picks used to obtain Clean Early and Thanasis Antetokounmpo. Losing one of the most overpaid centers and worst guards in the league for a six solid players was clearly favorable for the Knicks.

Newly hired coach Derek Fisher also has high hopes for the Knicks, stating in a press conference “My opinion is, based on our roster and who we’re going to become, we can compete for playing in the playoffs and playing for a championship in the Eastern Conference…When that happens, putting dates on it, that’s not my job.” Fisher has good reason to feel positive about the Knicks, considering the fact that one of basketball’s most intelligent men is spearheading their operations.

With Phil Jackson’s extensive basketball I.Q. and 13 championships under his belt, the Knicks are bound to be a championship contender in the coming years.

Filed Under: Sports

Choosing an Art Career? Ask School of Visual Arts

August 5, 2014 by ALLISON LEUNG

sva

Artists contemplate whether they should earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at an art college or an academic degree at a typical university because some worry about the hardship of finding a job that requires having a BFA.  School of Visual Arts (SVA), ranked #12 on Business Insider’s “World’s 25 Best Design Schools’’, wants students to realize that there are a variety of professional careers in the art field.

Students at SVA can earn a BFA in film and video, interior design photography, etc.  The professors at SVA support these students’ journeys in pursuing an art career.

SVA’s mission is to provide its students with “undergraduate degree programs in art and design that prepare [them] for entry into an array of professional fields in or related to the visual arts, while also equipping [them] with the skills necessary to become productive and thoughtful members of society”

SVA provides its students the resources to become the artists that invent the world we live in.  People take the creative world we live in for granted and don’t realize the artists who create it.

Art students are given rigorous curriculum focusing in the arts and other classes pertaining to their major.  For a BFA in, specifically, fine arts, students must complete 72 credits in studio art, 30 credits in humanities & sciences and 18 credits in art history.   Each year students are required to take several types of fine art classes.

Some artists worry that a BFA wouldn’t get them a stable job after they graduate, but there are a lot of opportunities that require having a BFA.

Art student Alexandra Marguerite said, “There are numerous careers in the arts such as advertising, animation and graphic design and SVA helps students pursue their careers.”

Co-creator of Spiderman Steve Ditko, fine artist Keith Haring, and director of Ice Age and Rio Carlos Saldanha are some of the many notable former students who attended SVA and have prosperous careers.

According to Labor Department’s 2012 Occupational Outlook Handbook, there are more than 400,000 jobs in the arts, and most of them require having a BFA.  Art careers such as art directors can make as much as $80,000.

SVA’s Office of Career Development helps its students and alumni find jobs; it provides them with resources they need to build professional networks and succeed as creative professionals.  Students have the opportunity to attend career counseling and job fairs that link them to recruiters within the art industry.

SVA helps its students earn a professional degree in the arts and have a career after they graduate.  Art students at SVA will have the skills ready for a creative profession and learn to put their talent to good use. SVA wants these artists who are considered outsiders in our world to become more recognized through many artistic opportunities.

Filed Under: Culture and Entertainment

The C Doesn’t Stand for Clean

August 4, 2014 by CAMERON SMALL

Most New Yorkers would probably agree that if there was a cleaner alternative to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) train system, they’d take it in a heartbeat.  Anyone who has taken public transportation in New York have had the experience of riding in a filthy train. Unfortunately, this occurrence is a much greater issue than we thought. And it brings up an important question: Should riders have to pay what they do to ride in unsanitary conditions?

There have been numerous reports of cleanliness decreasing among train lines. According to the Straphangers Campaign’s surveys, 42 percent of trains checked in 2013 were clean, which is a ten percent decrease from the 2011 survey.  The worst of the lines was the D train, where a mere 17 percent of people considered it clean.

The MTA and the Straphangers Campaign both claimed that this was a result of fewer cleaning workers because of budget constraints.  In addition to fewer cleaners, Straphangers Campaign’s field organizer Jason Chin-Fatt believes that lack of cleanliness is due to increased ridership.  When approached by Metro News he said, “When ridership goes up, there’s more opportunities for people to spill coffee and food.”

The D train isn’t the worst of it.  The C train wins the award for worst overall service.  It was ranked last in the 15th annual State of the Subways Report Card.  It doesn’t stop there.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the C train “has finished dead last in the ranking six times since the rankings were first issued, the most of any line in the subway system.” Riders agree as well. “I live closer to the C but I take the Q. It’s faster and less crowded, and it comes more often,” said Roy Gabay, 48 years old, of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, who was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The C train service is so terrible that Straphangers Campaign ranked the value of a C-train ride at 85 cents, which is much lower than the $2.50 base fare set by the MTA.

The London Underground is one of the oldest subways in the world, yet it’s regarded as one of the best metro systems to date. Opened in 1863, the London Underground, (also known as “The Tube”) has air-conditioned cars and is fairly cheap in the expensive country.  It also has an 83% approval rating by the Straphangers Campaign compared to the New York Subway, which has a 75% approval rating. If London can keep a great metro system for over a century, why can’t the MTA?

London Underground subway car interior
London Underground subway car interior

The City Council pitched a proposal to fix our stinky subway problems back in 2012. “Let me make a suggestion to the MTA: We grade the restaurants, right? A, B, C. So we should grade all the stations in the MTA system,” said Councilman Peter Koo at a budget hearing.

As it turns out, the MTA does grade the stations on cleanliness, but does not share this information to the public. However, they have stated on their website that they plan on improving cleaning in several stations. According to the 2014-2017 MTA Financial Plan, it lists “Additional improved station cleaning at 10 heavily used stations/complexes in each borough” as one of their service quality improvements. Although its only 50 out of the 468 stations the MTA has in total, it’s a good place to start.

 

Filed Under: Commentary, News Tagged With: MTA, NYC, Transportation

Aftermath: Closed Street, Open Campus

August 4, 2014 by CHARLES MOURNET

A lady in her early 20’s lies sprawled on a bright pink lawn chair, catching up on her summer reading– in the middle of a New York City Street.

The Department of Transportation approved Baruch College’s proposal to close down East 25th street between 3rd and Lexington Avenues in late 2012. Two months later, in late February of 2013, Baruch College held a ribbon cutting in celebration of their campus’s newest addition. The new plaza had many doubters, but continues to prove to be successful as time passes.

 “The closed street lets me enjoy the break between my classes,” remarked Baruch College sophomore Jill Barclay, the owner of the pink lawn chair. The new plaza has ensured a place for students to gather after long, stressful hours of class. Freshman Daniel Dornbaum built on the idea explaining how “the plaza serves as a community center.”

Baruch president Mitchel Wallerstein commented in a New York Times article that the plaza is a “win-win” arrangement for the community. The community district is noted for having very limited outdoor space, so Baruch’s plaza not only serves students, but also the surrounding citizens.

According to DNAInfo.com, prior to the closing, the street was reportedly crossed an estimated 20,000 times a day– sometimes illegally. The jaywalkers, in a crunch to get to class, cut across the street submitting themselves to possible dangers. Since the plaza has been created, the possible dangers are no more. Students can now safely cross the street without checking for oncoming traffic.

Along with the newfound safety, students also have developed more school comradery. Baruch College has already taken advantage of the street turning it into a playground for a day, completed with a bounce house, for their annual spring fling.

The students can also be found doing collegiate activities across the plaza. With a simple  glance around one could find students digging into a book or getting homework done before class.

The plaza is just one of Baruch College’s many plans to modernize and and update their New York City campus. Facing the issues of space like most small commuter colleges, Baruch’s administration has shown promise in adapting to limitations and making the most out of small benefits.

The closed street allows for Baruch students, like Jill Barclay, and surrounding members of the community to be at peace in a mesmerizingly fast paced society.

Filed Under: News

FIFA: A History of Corruption

August 4, 2014 by MARTIN SCHNEIDER

As of June 2014, the 2014 World Cup is Facebook’s most popular event ever, generating 3 billion interactions on Facebook, according to the Mail Online. Even Americans, notorious for their indifferent attitude towards soccer, got into the World Cup madness. “Average U.S. viewership for all this year’s World Cup games was up by 39 per cent on 2010 games”, with “17.3 million viewers on ABC, 9.2 million on Univision and 750,000 people online,” the Mail said.

This worldwide enthusiasm has been great for the World Cup’s governing body, FIFA as it generated 2.36 billion dollars in 2014, according to Business Insider. But the increased attention has also comes with unforeseen consequences. Since the 2014 games, people are much more aware of FIFA’s gross and unethical practices.

Before the 2014 games, Brazil’s slums erupted in violence with police over Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup. Many Brazilians were furious over the government’s decision to spend 13.3 billion dollars on the games while around 1/3 0f Brazil’s population lives in poverty.

Included in the 13.3 billion is a 260 million dollar stadium in the town of Manaus, deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Due to the harsh jungle terrain the stadium was both expensive to build and almost impossible to use now that the World Cup is over. According to ABC News, the next use of the stadium will be on July 20th between two local teams and despite the 40,000 seats, “officials are hoping for 4,000 fans.”

Contrary to popular belief, Brazil will make very little money from their hosting of the World Cup. As reported in The Guardian’s article World Cup 2014: who’s cashing in, “ratings agency Moody’s estimated that the lasting effect of the World Cup on Brazil’s economy would be, approximately, nothing.” This raises the question, if Brazil isn’t going to benefit from the hosting the World Cup, is it worth it? For many countries, it is.

For many countries with developing economies, like Brazil, FIFA’s promises of economic benefits for hosting the games is extremely enticing. Unfortunately, these promises blind these countries leaders and often lead to exploitation.

In 2003, Brazil’s government passed legislation prohibiting the sale of all alcoholic beverages in football arenas. For years, Brazilian football games were plagued with extremely high death rates among fans. According to the BBC, “the ban was introduced as part of measures to tackle violence among rival fans and hooliganism.” But this potentially life saving legislation was changed in 2014, removing all mention of alcohol sales, just before the World Cup due to pressure from FIFA. Why? Wouldn’t FIFA want the World Cup to be as safe as possible? As always safety takes a backseat to profits.

According to FIFA’s website, Budweiser, one of the world’s largest beer companies is the official sponsor of the 2014 World Cup. Budweiser’s money, not the health and wellbeing of fans prompted FIFA’s General Secretary, Jerome Valcke  to address the Brazilian Congress, telling them,” Alcoholic drinks are part of the FIFA World Cup, so we’re going to have them. Excuse me if I sound a bit arrogant but that’s something we won’t negotiate.”

Despite calls from Health Minister Alexandre Padilha and other members of Congress to keep the law, FIFA’s lies of jumpstart to Brazil’s economy were too good to refuse. The law was passed by Congress and signed by President Rousseff.

For most Westerners, living in nations with strong stable economies, it’s hard to imagine an organization like FIFA exploiting a nation like the United States or England. But for developing nations, this happens all the time.

For the past two games, FIFA has held the World Cup the developing nations of South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014. FIFA forces these nations to spend money they don’t have on stadiums they don’t need in return for money that they never receive. When June ends and the games finish, FIFA leaves and takes the money with them.

 

Filed Under: Commentary, Sports Tagged With: For decades the world's football organization has operated without a moral compass

The Third Rate Game

August 4, 2014 by DAVID SACK

roben-dutch_2967371b-1
Dutch player Arjen Robben wants the third place playoff to be abolished.

          This past Saturday in Brasilia, the Netherlands defeated Brazil in the third place playoff at the World Cup. Although the players were 468 miles away from where they wanted to be — in Rio de Janeiro for the final — they undoubtedly felt worlds away.

           As is usually the case with these games that closely resemble exhibition games, the players and coaches had no interest in the match. There are exceptions to this, such as in 1994 when a fired up Swedish team easily defeated Bulgaria 4-0. But lets face it, Brazil, the country that has won more World Cups than any other country and paid millions of dollars to win a title on its home soil, and the Netherlands, who yet again came close to winning its first World Cup but fell short, had zero interest in 90 more minutes of football.

            If you don’t believe me, just listen to Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal, who is eager to get started coaching Manchester United and Dutch player Arjen Robben. “I think this match should never be played,” Van Gaal said. He went on to say, “After a tournament in which you’ve played so marvelously well, you go home as a loser just because you’ve lost the last two matches. This has got nothing whatsoever to do with sport.”

Robben was equally unexcited for the opportunity to claim third, “They can keep it. Only one prize counts and that is becoming world champion.”

 The only thing in common between Brazil’s humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany and the Netherlands’ crushing Penalty Kick shootout defeat by Argentina was the aftermath. Players on both sides were crying and probably wanted to think about anything other than soccer.

 The men’s basketball NCAA Tournament did away with its consolation game, and so did the NFL. The Euro Cup no longer has one. So why is FIFA so insistent in having this game? Many will tell you that it is tradition. But let’s not forget that FIFA really is just a business.

The third place play-off is one last marketing opportunity for FIFA. According to Soccernomics, a book written by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, the Third Place Play-off gives a 4.9% boost to the World Cup’s television ratings. That is obviously hard to resist for FIFA.

George Black of the New Yorker magazine recently penned an article titled “The Third-Place Game Is Often The Best Game.” He cites that the games are more close and exciting than the finals.

 The problems with Black’s comments are obvious. A close game does not mean a better game if less is on the line. Most teams and their fans do not care about the match, so it may be closer statistically, but the excitement is taken away because they are playing for a meaningless prize.

FIFA constantly attempts to remind its fans that everything it does is for the better of the game. If that were true, it would get rid of a game that the players and coaches express every four years they have no interest in playing. Players can get injured and miss time with their club teams, and are less rested as well.

Right after the Dutch finished off Brazil Saturday, one look at the players involved in the game told the story. The Dutch players who had just won had smiles, but no excitement. Sure they were happy they had won, but most would have been happier had they been spending to be with their families regrouping for club action. Meanwhile, the Brazilian players were humiliated. As Van Gaal said, nobody should lose two games in a row after such a great tournament. Brazil’s awful ending to their country’s World Cup was now much worse. 

            This game needs to go and it needs to go now.

Filed Under: Commentary, Sports Tagged With: Brazil, FIFA, Netherlands, Soccer, Third Place Game, World Cup

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