Golden Ball

• Former Malian footballer Salif “Domingo” Këita, who passed away on 2 September in Bamako, embodied a crucial moment in the history of African football, helping shape its relationship with the world.
• Born on 6 December 1946, the year that the French West African Cup was created, Keïta (not to be confused with Salif Keita the musician) was also an important leader in Malian football.

Starting out

• It wasn’t easy for him to make his father, a haulage contractor by trade, understand that he preferred football to his studies, even though he eventually qualified to work as a grinder.
• Football began as an informal activity, even before he started playing in his neighbourhood team in Bamako.
• His dribbling, shooting and heading skills soon propelled him into the Real Bamako squad.

Going to France

• In September 1967, Keïta was smuggled to Liberia, then flew from there to Orly in France.
• However, the door that was initially opened to footballers from sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s had partly closed again.
• They offered African footballers harsh contracts and Keïta initially played as an amateur and not a professional, justified by the club’s managers by the fact that he was studying law in France.

Triumphs on the field

• At first, he could count on the advice of coach Albert Batteux and the assistance of Rachid Mekhloufi, an Algerian player for the Greens.
• Playing as a centre forward, Keïta scored 120 goals in 149 matches.
• In October 1969, he scored the winner against Bayern Munich in the Champions Cup Round of 16.

Taking on the world

• Spain was not yet the paragon of the beautiful game, but Keïta’s strikes kept finding the net again – until he was injured in March 1975.
• Keïta went on to win the Portuguese league as the country began making a name for itself in world football thanks to its stars of African origin – like Keïta, Eusebio and Mario Coluna.
• At the age of 31, with the club Sporting Lisbon, he finally found an environment in which he could flourish.

Back home

• His life inspired director Cheik Doukouré’s 1994 film The Golden Ball, in which he played the role of a coach.
• After the fall of Moussa Traoré, Keïta opened a football training centre in Bamako.
• He was then elected president of the Mali Football Federation, serving from 2005 until 2009.

• In this renowned international event, Unilumin Group, the global LED enterprise, provided a total area of more than 4200 square meters LED displays and integrated metasight (means the integration of light and display) solutions for seven arenas of the Asian Games and eight supporting facilities.
• In the event arenas such as Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, Xiaoshan Sports Center, Shaoxing Olympic Sports Center, Zhejiang University Campus Gymnasium, Unilumin Group offered a total of more than 1500 square meters LED products and integrated solutions including centerhung screens, ribbons and perimeter screens and other LED display products.
• Combining with naked-eye 3D, Micro LED and other cutting-edge technologies, these LED displays can bring a fantastic visual experience to competitors and audiences around the world.
• As the leading enterprise in the LED industry, Unilumin has a complete LED display, LED lighting product line in the field of sports.

• As the official designated display supplier, Unilumin Group has always actively participated in the preparation and publicity activities of the Universiade, and provided a total of 2500 square meters of LED display, lighting products and integrated solutions for 13 event venues and supporting venues such as public security and broadcasting.
• The main stadium is the Phoenix Mountain Sports Park Complex Stadium, which has 18,000 seats inside.
• In the surrounding supporting venues such as Tianfu New District National Congress Branch, Unilumin provided a total of 983 square meters displays, which can monitor the event daily and guarantee the success of the 31st Summer Universiade.
• As the leading enterprise in the LED industry, Unilumin has a complete LED display, LED lighting product line in the field of sports.

• The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off this Thursday night, the first football world cup hosted by Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Despite the persistent delusion of some that politics should be kept out of sport, it has always been suffused with political calculations and meanings.
• The major question is not whether but what kinds of politics will be played and by whom.
• In the lead up to this tournament, world football’s governing body FIFA announced a suite of eight armbands that could be chosen under its Football Unites the World program.

FIFA scandals and sports diplomacy

• FIFA has an ignoble history of corruption, exploitation and ethical malpractice – despite its professed commitment to human rights and transparency.
• The BBC podcast Powerplay: The House of Sepp Blatter excruciatingly details the disgrace of the former FIFA President.
• At the world cup, women will be unusually prominent in the sphere of sports diplomacy.

Political games

• Read more:
  Is Saudi Arabia using 'sportswashing' to simply hide its human rights abuses – or is there a bigger strategy at play?
• While this is unquestionably the case, sport’s emotional power is harnessed by all countries, liberal democratic and otherwise, to project a more positive image than is generally warranted.
• This “feel good” global publicity, though, brings intense scrutiny far beyond the football field.