 Innovative Minds © 2010. All Rights Reserved. www.inminds.co.uk | |
|
[Lebanon] Italian Soccer Team Adopts Hizbullah Logo to boost "Fighting Spirit"Al-Manar TV  Italian football team adopts Hizbullah logo
We chose this name because we were influenced by the strong fighting spirit, and by the spirit of resistance.
Davide Volponi, Italian soccer player Voice of reporters: Yes, this is the Hizbullah logo. But what is it doing on the jerseys of these players? The Italian soccer player Davide Volponi knows the answer. Volponi and his friends form a soccer team, which for 15 years has been participating in the Carioca amateur league. The team changes its name every year. In an attempt to boost the morale of his comrades, Volponi suggested naming the team "Zassbollah" this year – combining the name of the team captain, Zasso, with the word "Hizbullah." Where did this idea come from, and what is its purpose? Davide Volponi, on the phone: The idea to name the team "Zassbollah" came from the situation in Lebanon. We chose this name not as an expression of any political position, but because we were influenced by the strong fighting spirit, and by the spirit of resistance. Therefore, this is not a political matter, because we observe things from afar, but on the field, we must put up resistance and fight the opponents.  Zassbollah Voice of reporter: The Zassbollah team was in need of this boost to their morale, because the rival team included international player Gianfranco Zola, who used to play on the Italian national team, and now coaches the Italian national youth team. Last Saturday at noon, at the Amiscora stadium in Sardinia, Italy – although in a different language and a different style - the Hizbullah resistance scored yet another goal into the net of those who doubt its morality, having become a source of inspiration for soccer players admired by millions throughout the world. Source: Al-Manar TV transcript Soccer team's Hezbollah-like logo riles criticsJohn Phillips, The Washington Times ROME — An Italian soccer team has set off a furor by adopting the green assault rifle logo of the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on its players' shirts "so that we can frighten our adversaries." Conservative critics said the action fits in with the center-left Italian government's policy of encouraging Middle Eastern radicals. They recalled the criticism faced by another team that tried to include the cross in its logo. "Hezbollah is a war machine, but until now, we thought it was confined to Lebanon," the Milan daily Il Giornale said. "Wrong, now the Shi'ite guerrillas have made converts ... in a soccer club of Sardinia."  The newspaper reported that the Carioca amateur league team's decision to use the logo of the "Party of God" — an assault rifle in a green clenched fist — became public knowledge after Hezbollah's television station, Al Manar, praised the players in a dispatch picked up by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute. The team has changed its name frequently in its 15 years of existence on the rugged Italian island. This season it called itself "Zassbollah," a combination of Hezbollah and the family name of the team's captain, Luigi Zasso. "In this way, we will be more frightening to our adversaries who will understand how we are ready to fight as you have against Israel," Il Giornale quoted team player Davide Volponi as telling Al Manar. Mr. Volponi subsequently sought to play down the inspiration from Hezbollah, listed by the United States and several other countries as a terrorist organization because of its avowed aim of destroying Israel. "Everything started in a spirit of fun that has been manipulated," he told the Italian news agency ANSA. "We were referring only to our state of 'fighting fitness' on the soccer pitch." Source: http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080112/FOREIGN/745854928/1003   Related ArticlesAlso Of InterestPage URL: http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10221
|
|
Boycott Israel Campaign  Support Us
If you agree with our work then please support us.INMINDS Facebook Live Feed Palestinian Prisoners Campaign Group  Featured Video's
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.
 [all videos (over 200)..] Latest News..
 Alert - Protest Outside Parliament in Solidarity with Imprisoned Palestinian MPs and Hunger StrikersSpecial Additions
 Boycott Motorola Boycott Timberland Boycott McDonald's Carmel Agrexco Valentines Demo Counter-Demo Against Zionist Rally Open Gaza Border - Demo Egyptian Embassy End Gaza Slaughter - Demo Israeli Embassy Lebanon Resistance and Liberation Day 2008 Boycott Israeli Dates Al-Sadr Movement - Sheikh Zargani World Against War - London Rally End Siege of Gaza IHRC 10th Anniv.Featured MP3 Podcast  "[Deportation at the airport] We saw the injured [Turkish] men going through.. a lot had a leg cut out of their trousers or an arm cut out of their top. It had been cut out to treat their wounds.. they were covered in blood, blood that had been there for three days, and some of them had wounds that were still bleeding.. What upset me most was seeing the dozen men, one after another, hobbling across the terminal, with a bandaged foot. I couldn't ask them why so many of them had a bandaged foot, I couldn't ask them what had happened, because if they spoke or if any of us spoke to them the Israelis beat the injured person.. We later found out that they had these injuries on the tops of their feet from when the troops came down from the helicopter on the Mavi Marmara, and they came down firing - they had been shot from above. Some of the men that were killed were shot at close range - head and chest, but a dozen of the men who were shot, among 59 people who were shot, they were shot at the tops of their feet - the bullets were coming down.. They weren't given a wheelchair or a pair of crutches, and if any of the other passengers stood up and tried to offer [help].. that person was dragged away and smacked by these Israelis. The Israeli soldiers sat on the floor, laughed and sniggered and made every one of these Turkish men hobble and hop all the way across, some 200 metres, everyone of them, one by one, made to do that purely for the sick amusement of the Israeli soldiers." Survivor of the flotilla massacre speaks candidly of her experience Ratstar Centre London, 22 July 2010 [46min / 42Mb] [need flash]
 [all podcasts..] Newsletter Feedback Recent Popular Downloads 1. Dr. Majed Nassar - Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment [mp3]    2. George Galloway Qudsday 2007 [mp3] 3. Sr.Yvonne Ridley - Qudsday 2006 [mp3] 4. Massoud Shadjareh - Qudsday 2006 [mp3] 5. Imam Achmad Cassiem - IHRC 10th Anniv [mp3] 6. Cehl Fakeemeeah - IHRC 10th Anniv [mp3] 7. Haniyeh - Enough Occupation Demo 2007.06.09 [mp3] 8. Tonge - Enough Occupation Demo 2007.06.09 [mp3] 9. Pilger: Invisible Government [mp3] 10. Shephard - Enough Occupation Demo 2007.06.09 [mp3] 11. Qudsday 2007 Chants 3 [mp3] 12. Norman Finkelstein - How to help the Palestinians pt1 [mp3] 13. Raza Kazim - IHRC 10th Anniv [mp3] 14. Machover - Enough Occupation Demo 2007.06.09 [mp3] 15. Tamimi - Enough Occupation Demo 2007.06.09 [mp3] |
Palestinians call for a boycott of Israeli diamonds
 |
 |