A small soccer team in Italy has an offbeat and very desperate way of boosting the fighting spirit of its team. According to The Washington Times, a team from Carioca amateur league has enhanced its uniform by adding the logo design of Hezbollah, a leading Islamic fundamentalist group in Lebanon responsible for more than 200 attacks since the early 80s.
Translated in English as “Party of God”, this logo features a green clenched fist holding a rifle gun. Criticized heavily by conservative groups, the team defended this decision was not politically motivated but an absurd tactic to frighten the competing teams.
Notorious for changing its name very often, the team is now called “Zassbollah”, a combination of Hezbollah and surname of its team captain Luigi Zasso. A certain Davide Volponi defends this decision:
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.
Regardless of their reasons, I do not think we should condone the use of such logos for it misleads people, particularly the youth, that idolizing extremist groups is alright. Perhaps a little creativity and a bit of research are enough to find a more appropriate symbol on soccer uniforms.
via Gateway Pundit
Leave a Reply