Evo Morales and the beautiful game

[Judi Lynn]

Evo Morales and the beautiful game
Bolivia's president took time out from the international climate summit to play football – and engage in some local retail politics

Joseph Huff-Hannon guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 22 April 2010 20.00 BST

At nine o'clock sharp on Wednesday morning, Bolivian president, Evo Morales, could be found sharing some of his signature straightforward opinions on global politics with a room full of journalists.

"I've become convinced that here in Bolivia it's better for us to govern without the IMF and the US," Morales said, on the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which has attracted over 20,000 indigenous activists, environmental and climate scientists and journalists from all around the world. "If we don't stop this climate crisis, even for transnational companies with all of the money in the world, it won't be worth anything if we leave the earth uninhabitable."

A few hours later the president and a few randomly selected conference attendees from Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia were engaged in a battle at times more cut-throat than geopolitics – a football match organised for the inaugural celebration of a new government funded sports stadium in the small mountain town of Colomi, close to where Morales started his career as the sports secretary of the Coca growers Union. Beyond the obvious local good cheer that the presidential football match drummed up, it also couldn't hurt to shift attention away from some much-publicised spicy culinary advice Morales dished out the previous day.

The vans ferrying press to the new stadium in Colomi, an hour outside of Cochabamba, seemed to be running unabashedly on "Bolivian time", finally pulling out two hours after the close of the press conference. In the town of Colomi we parked and followed the sounds of a brass band and a cheering crowd, hiking up the side of a hill and under a broken barbed wire fence to arrive at the new indoor Colomi Coliseum just in time to see the kick-off. On one side, President Morales in green shorts, tennis shoes, and a white football jersey with the number 10 and "Evo" emblazoned on the back, with four other players. They faced off against another small team with a decidedly non-presidential advantage, as thousands of people from the town lined the rafters, watching the match with rapt attention.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/22/evo-morales-bolivia-football