Rev. Danny Fisher

The Wall Street Journal brings us a story about soccer from Burma today:

Public displays of emotion are uncommon in Myanmar, a secretive police state. It’s technically illegal for more than five people to gather in one place, and while the rule is selectively enforced, many residents live in fear they’re being watched by military intelligence.

But little of that seems to matter on game days of the Myanmar National League, the country’s first professional soccer league and a rare local experiment in free expression. Launched in May, it features eight teams, players from as far as the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Argentina, and the ever-present watchful eye of Myanmar’s military machine.

[...]

Intellectuals dismiss the new league as a ploy by the junta to distract people from Myanmar’s deepening economic and political problems, including the ongoing trial of [democratically-elected Prime Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi], a Nobel laureate. The U.S. suspects Myanmar is about to receive a weapons shipment from a North Korean ship now being monitored by the U.S. Navy. Foreign diplomats and others say teams are controlled by oligarchs with ties to the military.

According to local media reports and the Myanmar Football Federation, the owner of Yangon United is Tay Za, a tycoon whose empire has ranged from gems trading to a local airline; the U.S. blacklisted Mr. Tay Za and family members in 2007 and froze their assets because of ties to the junta. Attempts to reach Mr. Tay Za were unsuccessful, but he has denied allegations against him in the past, including a posting on his airline’s Web site in which he says he has been unfairly targeted by a “surging stream of damaging misinformation.”

Read the article in full here.

[Photo by Wall Street Journal. "The MNL soccer match on May 30 was closely watched by the police."]