Word: soccers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...could no longer host professional football games. Sorry, Cheese-heads, but extreme cold is dangerous and unfair to visiting teams. Now envision Wisconsin's reaction, enlarge it to a national scale, and you'll have some idea of the sentiment in Bolivia since last Sunday. That's when the soccer's world governing body, FIFA, announced a ban on staging international matches at altitudes higher than 2,500 meters (about 8,200 ft.) because of the health risks posed to players unaccustomed to the altitude. The decree rules out home games in at least five stadiums in Bolivia...
...Absurd!"; "Degrading!"; "An attack on our people and way of life," are just some of the responses heard in La Paz from President Evo Morales and local soccer officials all the way down to street vendors. Within hours of the ruling, Bolivia had mobilized, holding emergency cabinet meetings and press conferences, and launching mass letter-writing campaigns...
...cabinet members and former Bolivian pros who often join him in friendly matches against local teams in rural villages) played a quadruple-header, including three games in the 11,735-ft.-high national stadium. Many of the spectators sported a T-shirt depicting a victorious Morales standing on a soccer field above the words "Bolivia is Soccer"; on the back, "No to the Veto; Yes to Sports...
...High-altitude international soccer competition has never caused a player serious health problems and it certainly has never killed anyone," notes Bolivian sports medicine specialist Dr. Guillermo Aponte. "On the contrary, high heat and humidity has cost several lives. If FIFA really wanted to protect players they wouldn't be focusing on altitude...
...political priority, resuscitating the international Committee in Defense of the Altitude (first created in 1996 when FIFA tried to ban games above 3,000 meters but revoked the decision because of mass protest). And it's not a lost cause: FIFA has allowed that if the Latin American regional soccer federation can, before the June 15 FIFA executive committee meeting, produce medical evidence proving that high-altitude play is not a health risk, the decision will be repealed...