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Silvio

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The AP reported that Haiti will host Brazil in a friendly exhibition match in August, and spectators will be “invited to swap firearms for tickets” as part of an effort to disarm rival factions in Haiti (AP, 6/30).

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http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-haiti&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Peace is the goal in Brazil-Haiti match

By Andrew Hay

BRASILIA, Brazil, June 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's legendary soccer team will kick off a bid to disarm Haiti's warring factions by playing a match where spectators will have to swap their guns for entry tickets.

ABrazil's Ronaldo and Ronaldinho are among superstars who may play Haiti's national side at home in August to help Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops rebuild the poverty-stricken nation as it recovers from a bloody revolt.

"Ronaldo insists on being there, Parreira (Brazilian national coach) insists on going," Ricardo Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, told reporters. "All of us in Brazil have to do our bit to end the years of fighting."

The guns-for-soccer diplomacy was first suggested by Haitian interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. He said a few Brazilian soccer idols could do more to disarm warring militias than thousands of peacekeeping troops.

Football is hugely popular in Haiti and five-times world champions Brazil are the nation's favorite foreign side.

Years of political turmoil in the poorest nation in the Americas has sapped funding for the Haitian team.

The national soccer stadium is badly run down and security concerns prompted the international soccer federation FIFA to ban official matches in the country.

Rebels will be able to swap guns for tickets a week before the Brazil-Haiti game, slated for Aug. 18, which Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hopes to attend, Teixeira said.

"We don't want any trouble at the game," he said.

FOOTBALL DIPLOMACY

It will not be the first time Brazilians have tried to spread the "make goals, not war" message.

Soccer great Pele is credited with stopping conflicts in Africa when his Brazilian club Santos played local teams.

Rebels in the former Belgian Congo put down their weapons in 1969 when Santos visited the cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Fighting resumed once the Brazilians left.

Lula has offered Brazil's biggest ever U.N. force of 1,200 to lead the U.N. mission that entered Haiti in June. He hopes to attract international funds to rebuild the nation and boost Brazil's role as a regional conflict mediator.

The U.N. mission took over from a U.S.-led force sent to halt open warfare in the former French colony that resulted in President Jean Bertrand Aristide being ousted in February. More than 200 people were killed in the fighting.

Lula sent Haiti 1,000 footballs and white football shirts along with his blue-helmeted troops.

Now Haitians are clamoring for Brazil's iconic yellow and green strip. Some 5,000 shirts are on their way to the nation for the August match, Brazil's sports minister said.

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I just hope that when they bring the guns to the ticket offices for the purposes of obtaining tickets, they don't think of simply holding up the ticket office with the guns to get the tickets instead. :)

After all, wouldn't it be better to have the guns and the tickets? And who's going to argue with the guy who's got a gun? :)

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I just hope that when they bring the guns to the ticket offices for the purposes of obtaining tickets, they don't think of simply holding up the ticket office with the guns to get the tickets instead. :)

After all, wouldn't it be better to have the guns and the tickets? And who's going to argue with the guy who's got a gun? :)

Unless they a criminally stupid, they'd've considered this and will probably have armed peacekeepers providing security.

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quote:Originally posted by devioustrevor

Unless they a criminally stupid, they'd've considered this and will probably have armed peacekeepers providing security.

But then what happens when the armed peacekeepers trade in their weapons for scalper's tickets? :D

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