Sunday, January 27, 2013

Weight Clauses and Pro Athletes

We've addressed weight clauses before in player's contracts - including for Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Derek Caracter.  Jon Schuppe of NBC News now writes on the Phillies negotiating one with Delmon Young.

There's some reason to believe weight clauses are not especially effective -- the Bulls apparently tried weight clauses with Michael Sweetney, the now 30-year-old talented power forward who hasn't played in the NBA since 2007 due to obesity (the Celtics would later bring him to training camp but his weight had gotten too much).  Weight clauses might also prove counter-productive, given that some players play well heavy (David Wells, Charles Barkley etc.).

Then again, Davis slimmed down this season for the Orlando Magic and is having his best season in the NBA.  But hard it's to know if weight is the reason or if its because he's starting and is in the prime of his career at age 27.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Egyptian soccer violence: a test of Morsi’s political savvy


(Source: Vice.com)

By James M. Dorsey

Escalating street violence in the wake of a partial verdict in the Port Said soccer brawl case pits arch enemies – militant soccer fans and Egypt’s security forces – against one another, highlighting the urgency of moves for refrom of law enforcement in a bid to end the turmoil and return the country to a path of economic growth.

The violence that has already left at least 32 people dead and 300 others wounded was sparked by the sentencing of 21 of 73 defendants charged with responsibility for the death a year ago of 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC in Port Said after a match against the Suez Canal city’s Al Masri SC.

The verdict provoked not only the ire of Port Said and frustration and mounting anger among Al Ahli fans that security officials and their political masters have yet to be held accountable for the Port Said incident. It also puts Egypt’s religious establishment in a bind. Under Egypt’s newly adopted controversial constitution, clerics at Cairo’s Al Azhar University, historically Islam’s foremost seat of learning and traditionally a rubber stamp for the government, have to ratify the death sentences.

The verdict, equally fundamentally, reflects growing popular frustration with President Mohammed Morsi’s autocratic style, the government’s failure to hold police and security officials responsible for death of more than 800 protesters since the eruption of the revolt that forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign after 30 years in office, rapid economic decline – and the lack of reform of a police and security force widely seen as the repressive arm of the Mubarak regime that has been allowed post-revolt to conduct business as usual with impudence.

A human rights report published this week by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) concluded that “the Egyptian police continue to systematically deploy violence and torture, and at times even kill. Although the January revolution was sparked in large part by police practices and vocally demanded an end to these practices, accountability for all offenders and the establishment of permanent instruments to prevent their recurrence, two years after the revolution the situation remains unchanged.”

The interior ministry, backed by the cabinet at times, continues to defend criminal police personnel by denying the facts, justifying abuses or turning a blind eye as policemen facing criminal charges pressure their victims to change their statements to undermine the case. Consecutive governments have also lacked the political will to prioritize the issue of security sector reform, and even after the election of the first civilian president. As these systematic abuses continue, policemen remain above the law and immunized from criminal accountability,” the report said.

EIPR charged that the “police, acting like a street gang, enforce vigilante justice on those who wrong them, in utter disregard for the law or professionalism.” Militant soccer fans or ultras who played a key role in the toppling of Mr. Mubarak, subsequent opposition to military rule and recent protests against Mr. Morsi lead the pack of those the police and security forces believe have wronged them.

This week’s violence that started already before Saturday’s Port Said verdict follows a pattern developed over the last two years of pitched street battles between security forces and the ultras and other youth groups who spearheaded the country’s popular revolt that has the makings of street gangs fighting it out. 

"The violence was the latest in a seemingly endless series of confrontations between the disparate forces of the revolution and the still-unreformed institutions of the Egyptian state. Skirmishes lasted for hours near the headquarters of one of those institutions: the Interior Ministry. On (Cairo’s) Yousef El-Gindi Street, where the government built a wall to keep demonstrators from approaching the ministry, the clashes settled…into a violent, halting rhythm.

The crowd of mostly young men and teenagers would approach the government wall blocking access to the ministry and hurl stones and the occasional Molotov cocktail at the riot police positioned on the other side of the wall. Then, tear gas canisters would come streaming in from the other side of the wall, sending the protesters scrambling, hacking, and red-faced with pain... Police in riot gear appeared on a rooftop behind the wall, hurling rocks and debris down at the demonstrators. Fires were lit in the street… The Ultras arrived with a roar, shooting flame throwers and beaming green laser pointers at the government troops on the opposite side of the wall,” wrote Jared Malsin on Vice.com.

In a new development, this week’s protests also marked the emergence of the Black Block, a group of protesters reminiscent of soccer hooligans in Europe and Latin America believed to largely consist of ultras who dress in black and whose faces are concealed by black masks, a tactic used by the fans during the revolt against Mr. Mubarak. The group vowed on its Facebook page to protect demonstrators against the security forces and what they termed ruling Muslim Brotherhood thugs, a sentiment that ultras repeatedly express. They say that years of abuse in Egypt’s stadiums by law enforcement have made them intolerant of police brutality.

The emergence of the group reflects an escalation in the mushrooming confrontation with the police and security forces that underlies much of Egypt’s post-Mubarak violent protests and symbolizes the ultras’ battle for karama or dignity. Their dignity is vested in their ability to stand up to the dakhliya or interior ministry.

That dignity is unlikely to be restored until the police and security forces have been reformed – a task Mr. Morsi’s government has so far largely shied away from. While reforming law enforcement is no mean fete, EIPR, in its report has proposed a series of measures that the Morsi government could implement and that would likely go a long way to break the cycle of violence Egypt is caught up in.

The measures include legislation that would guarantee the independence of public prosecutors and separate them from investigative authorities, establish an independent commission that would investigate cases of death and serious injury caused by police personnel, create an independent commission to monitor detention facilities and grant civil rights groups access to detention facilities, and amend laws that regulate the use of force and firearms by police and security forces.

Saturday’s court verdict and the escalating violence puts the ball in Mr. Morsi’s court. A first stab at reforming law enforcement alongside greater transparency and moves to reach out to the government’s critics would open the road to reducing political volatility and creating conditions for economic recovery.

The question is whether Mr. Morsi is up for the task. A man formed in a group that was clandestine for much of its 80-year history and in recent years operated in a legal nether land who now occupies the seat of power, Mr. Morsi has yet to demonstrate the politically savvy needed to draw Egypt back from the abyss.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Alles kleine Fische - JMD on Deutschlandfunk


Bei Ausschreitungen im ägyptischen Port Said kamen mehr als 70 Menschen ums Leben. (Bild: picture alliance / dpa / Stringer)Bei Ausschreitungen im ägyptischen Port Said kamen mehr als 70 Menschen ums Leben. (Bild: picture alliance / dpa / Stringer)

"Alles kleine Fische"

Die Verurteilten im Prozess um die Ausschreitungen von Port Said sind einfache Fußballfans

James Dorsey im Gespräch mit Philipp May

Rund ein Jahr nach der Tragödie im Fußballstadion von Port Said sind 21 Menschen zum Tode verurteilt worden. "Alles kleine Fische", sagt James Dorsey, Co-Direktor des Instituts für Fankultur der Uni Würzburg. Die wirklich Verantwortlichen seien nicht belangt worden, so Dorsey.
Hinweis: Das Gespräch können Sie bis mindestens 26. Juni 2013 als Audio-on-demand abrufen.

Justice races at the old ballgame

The Washington Nationals hold the Presidents Race in the middle of the fourth inning, between giant heads of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore. One running story had been Teddy Roosevelt's losing streak, which finally ended last season.

The Nats today introduced a fifth president for the races--William Howard Taft. As explained here, Taft's size (i.e., girth) and facial hair could make him a fan favorite (although the photos show he is not that much Washington-nationals-racing-presidents-with-taft larger than the other president heads. There also is the potential for a fun rivalry, given the political rift between Roosevelt and Taft.

More importantly, every race now can be part of an off-shoot event--Justice Races. No matter how Taft does against the other presidents, he always will be the fastest justice.

Allen Houston wins defamation lawsuit with help from Sports Law Blog's Alan Milstein

Kudos to Cynthia Arato and our own Alan Milstein, who has authored some of the best posts on our blog. Cynthia and Alan successfully represented the New York Knicks and the team's assistant general manager and former NBA all-star Allen Houston in a $7.5 million slander and interference case.

The lawsuit was brought by Arthur Rondeau, a basketball coach who previously worked with noted motivational speaker Anthony Robbins.  Rondeau claimed he was instrumental in helping Houston become a better NBA player and that Houston promised him help landing a coaching job with the Knicks or another NBA team. In a recent bench-decision, New York state judge Charles Ramos rejected as too vague Rondeau's assertion that Houston interfered with Rondeau's coaching aspirations or reneged on an actionable contract. The judge also did not find support for Rondeau's contention that Houston slandered him by allegedly telling others in the NBA that Rondeau was black mailing him. Additional details of the decision can be found in this Law360 article (subscription only).

Soccer violence puts Egyptian president Morsi between a rock and a hard place


Protesters outside Port Said's prison (Source: CNN)

By James M. Dorsey

Egypt’s initial post-revolt military rulers and their elected successor, President Mohammed Morsi, were caught between a rock and a hard place as soon as a politically loaded soccer brawl a year ago in the Suez Canal city of Port Said got out of hand, killing 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC.

Mr. Morsi’s dilemma was evident when a Cairo court on Saturday sentenced 21 of 73 people that include nine mid-level security officials, to death on charges of responsibility for the brawl. The incident, the worst in Egyptian sporting history, is widely seen as an effort that got out of control to teach a lesson to militant soccer fans or ultras who played a key role in the toppling two years ago of president Hosni Mubarak, subsequent opposition to military rule and protests against Mr. Morsi’s authoritarian style of government and failure to address a worsening economic crisis.

The 21 death row defendants are all lower class supporters of Al Masri SC, the Port Said club in whose stadium the Al Ahli fans died. The court said it would rule on the 51 remaining defendants, including the security officials, on March 9. It was not immediately clear why a decision in their cases was postponed. Egyptian Prosecutor General Tal’at Abdallah earlier this week submitted to the court what he called new evidence.

The court’s verdict broadcast live on state television was certain to anger the Al Ahli fans if it did not respond to their demand for justice in the form of a harsh sentence or the Al Masri fans if they were held responsible. The question was never whether violence would erupt as soon as the verdict was announced but whether it would be in Cairo or in Port Said.

Ultimately, it was Port Said where 17 people, including two police officers, were killed at the time of this writing in clashes with security forces across the city including an attempt by demonstrators to storm the prison where the death row inmates are being held as well as the city’s main court building and police stations. The government dispatched army units to Port Said in a bid to regain control of the situation. By contrast, Al Ahli fans demonstrated in joy in Cairo in front of their club’s headquarters.

Despite the deep-seated hostility between Al Masri and Al Ahli fans, both groups agree that the court has yet to address the question of who was behind the brawl, although the court may still do so in its written justification of Saturday’s death sentences or when it rules again on March 9. Both groups believe that most of those sentenced on Saturday and those that are still on trial were at best pawns in a larger battle.

Al Ahli fans believe that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that was in power at the time of the Port Said incident and the ultras’ arch enemy, the police and security forces, the most despised institutions in Egypt because they are seen as the repressive arm of the former Mubarak regime, were responsible for the death of their brethren.

The Al Masri fans and a wide swath of public opinion in Port Said are convinced that they and their city have been made scapegoats. Port Said expressed its conviction on Saturday by taking the Egyptian flag from government offices; some residents went as far as calling for the city to declare itself independent. “We need to know who is provoking the rift between Port Said and Cairo,” said an Al Masri supporter before the verdict was announced.

Port Said’s sense of being thrown to the wolves by the government is long standing. “We call on Egypt’s intellectuals and faithful media personnel to stand up against the tendentious campaign to drive a wedge between the residents of Port Said and Cairo and completely isolate Port Said…. The Port Said residents are leading calls for the punishment of the culprits. However, they fully reject any attempts to wipe out the name of Masry from Egyptian football. Accordingly, we will not accept any excessive sanctions that will be considered as a collective punishment for the city and the club,” Port Said representatives in parliament said in a joint statement last year.

In that environment, Saturday’s ruling gives the government little to work with in putting the Port Said incident behind it. Protests in Port Said are likely to continue and harden resentment against the government in the city. The ruling satisfies Al Ahli fans’ immediate emotions and to some degree demands for justice but leaves unaddressed their clamor that those responsible for what they see as a conspiracy also be held accountable.

Neither the ruling nor government policy to date addresses an equally fundamental demand that both Al Masri and Al Ahli fans share: the need for a thorough reform of the police and security forces.

The riots in the wake of the court verdict constitute the peak of an iceberg of growing discontent in Egypt with the government’s failure to hold accountable police and security forces believed to be responsible for the death of more than 800 protesters since mass demonstrations erupted two years ago against the Mubarak regime and to address the country’s economic decline as well as Mr. Morsi’s rushing through of a controversial new constitution.

That discontent manifested in mass protests in recent days across Egypt in which scores of people were killed exactly two years after Mr. Mubrak was forced to resign after 30 years in office gave the Al Ahli demonstrations in recent days in demand of a harsh sentence and the eruption of violence in Port Said on Saturday an even more political dimension than they already had.

Mr. Morsi is left with a worsening political situation and growing public discontent and anger that he will only be able to resolve by embracing popular demands for more transparent government, reform and greater accountability of the police and security forces and a focus on turning around the country’s troubled economy. That is a tall order but one that has become all the more urgent with the court verdict, the ensuing violence and the deepening of discontent produced by the failure to provide answers to questions about what really happened in Port Said and why.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog


Friday, January 25, 2013

FIFA reviews Qatar’s World Cup bid




By James M. Dorsey

World soccer body FIFA has opened an inquiry into potential wrongdoing in Qatar’s successful but controversial bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

“As has been publicly announced, certain allegations regarding events surrounding the bidding for the World Cup 2018 and 2022 were referred to the ethics committee by FIFA following media reports. We intend to conduct a thorough review of those allegations, including the evidentiary basis for and credibility of any allegations of individual misconduct,” said FIFA ethic investigator Michael J. Garcia in a statement.

In an email in response to this posting, FIFA drew in an email a distinction between a review of allegations and an investigation. It said the review was intended to determine whether there were grounds for an investigation.

The outcome of the review will be widely seen as a test of FIFA's willingness to thoroughly investigate allegations and truly tackle fundamental governance issues against a widely held perception that the soccer body has yet to demonstrate real sincerity. Few believe that FIFA, which will also look at Russia’s winning of the right to host the 2018 tournament, would want to risk a either country being deprived of the honor.

FIFA's effort would have to further address the worst albeit politically loaded corruption scandal in the history of world soccer in which the bids are inextricably meshed as part of its undertaking to convince its critics.

The review comes after more than a year of legal and political battle that late last year led to the final demise of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the highest placed Qatari national who was ultimately stripped of his membership in FIFA’s executive council as well as his presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and banned for life by FIFA from involvement in soccer.  

The allegations of corruption and bribery against Mr. Bin Hammam raise questions about the degree and nature of his involvement in the Qatari bid.

Qatar has so far successfully denied allegations that its bid may have involved corrupt practices. And to be fair, much of the Qatari efforts, including funding facilities in home countries of FIFA executive committee members and friendlies of some of their national teams, do not violate the world soccer body’s bid rules, but raise questions about the integrity of those guidelines.

Qatar has consistently denied that Mr. Bin Hammam was involved in its World Cup bid. While it seems strange that the highest Qatari soccer official in world soccer who enjoyed the backing of Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani at least until he announced that he would challenge FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the group’s presidential election, that may be true for the final phase of the Qatari bid. Mr. Bin Hammam’s presidential challenge sparked the allegations that ultimately led to his downfall.

To some degree, the interests of Qatar and Mr. Bin Hammam diverged with the announcement of his presidential bid. Mr. Bin Hammam is believed to have felt that an almost simultaneous Qatari winning of World Cup hosting rights and the FIFA presidency may have been too much for world soccer to stomach. As a result, he may have not been really involved in the final phases of the Qatari bid.

That leaves nonetheless the question open of his involvement prior to his presidential campaign against the background of multiple allegations and questions about bribery and corruption in his election campaign as well as the financial management of the AFC. While there seems little doubt that Mr. Bin Hammam violated international standards of financial good governance, his actions, with the possible exception of his negotiation on behalf of the AFC of a controversial $1 billion master rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sports Group (WSG) seem largely the result of sticking to a back-slapping way of doing business in the Gulf that is not internationally accepted rather than greed.

Whether that applies also to the WSG deal will only be clear once Mr. Bin Hammam and WSG justify the negotiation procedure for the agreement that did not involve a tender as well as payments made to Mr. Bin Hammam, according to an internal AFC audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), by a WSG shareholder in advance of the signing of the contract. WSG, which has so far refrained from commenting on much of the PwC audit, including the payments, has initiated legal proceedings against this reporter in a bid to squash reporting and intimidate sources.

While FIFA may steer clear of a renewed look at Mr. Bin Hammam’s AFC dealings in its investigation of the World Cup bids, the ball will be in the court of the AFC once it has elected in April a new executive committee that will be expected to demonstrate that it is making a clean break with the past.

Qatar has paved the ground for separating inquiries into its bid from Mr. Bin Hammam’s dealings by pressuring him late last year to give up his fight to maintain his position in world soccer. Mr. Bin Hammam’s banning by FIFA coincided with his resignation from his posts in FIFA and the AFC.

Nonetheless, the FIFA inquiry makes Qatar more vulnerable to criticism of its hosting of the world’s largest sporting tournament, including the rights and working conditions of the country’s foreign labor force, who constitute a majority of the population as well as human rights following the sentencing to life in prison in November of a poet for a poem that was critical of Sheikh Hamad and the royal family.

Qatar has in recent months demonstrated that it is not insensitive to criticism and foreign pressure. In a bid to fend off a boycott campaign of the World Cup by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which has 175 million members in 153 countries, Qatar has agreed that it would not penalize workers who form independent unions. The ITUC plans to put that promise to the test later this year.

Similarly, in a rare concession to human rights groups, Qatar recently backed away from deporting to Saudi Arabia a dissident Saudi diplomat. Instead, the diplomat, Mishal bin Zaar Hamad al-Mutiry, who accused his government of involvement in terrorism, was allowed to go into exile in Morocco.

“The spotlight shone on this case resulted in the Qatari authorities curtailing their plans to deport Mishal al-Mutiry long enough for him and his family to leave of their own accord, and the assistance of the NHRC was crucial to ensuring they could travel,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Is the “Azeri spring” starting?


Is the “Azeri spring” starting?
2013 January 25 ( Friday )  13:59:50
Русский Azərbaycan


As the riots in Azerbaijan’s northwestern Ismayilli district entered their second day after the clashes resumed between security forces and residents, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent asked the opinions of top US analysts on the developments.

“This [the Ismailli rallies], along with the events in Guba last years, provides more evidence that central government is not really in control of the regions of Azerbaijan, that there is a lot of disillusionment with corruption and arbitrary authority which is occasionally bursting to the surface”, said Thomas de Waal, a Caucasus specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in an interview with TURAN.

In the meantime, he added, “there is so little information that these events are a mystery to me, like many others…”

“The Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, is not immune to the push for greater freedom and transparency in the Middle East and North Africa”, said James Dorsey, a veteran journalist and observer that had covered ethnic and religious conflict in the Middle East and Africa.

In fact, he added, “that realization is one reason why Russia is so adamant on Syria given its concern that revolts could inspire people in its own republics”. 

“Azerbaijan has all the same characteristics that sparked the revolts in Egypt and other countries. Having said that, it is always something local that makes the bucket overflow”, he told TURAN.

There are two things that are largely responsible for motivating protests against government officials in Azerbaijan: “Opposition to corruption within the system and legitimate economic grievances,” according to another analyst Michael B. Bishku, Professor at Georgia Regents University. 

“In a country dependent upon oil and gas revenues, there are still many people who feel the strains of economically making ends meet and are appalled by the attitudes of government officials who ignore their plight and/or take advantage of the system”, he told TURAN.

For Bishku, thre are the options in successful opposition movements against autocratic regimes: 1) bringing change through peaceful means by motivating the masses and by convincing political rulers of the futility of resistance or 2) developing an armed resistance movement that can defeat the ruling regime militarily.  

“Political circumstances usually dictate the more successful perceived course.  Let us hope that positive change can be brought about by the first course”, he emphasized.

The Azerbaijani government, he said, “will not be defeated in elections as long as they have the means to manipulate them”.  “Sustained rather than sporadic opposition and defections from government and the security forces are needed to have any hope of governmental change”.

Comparing the Ismailli events with Arab rallies, Prof. Bishku mentioned that the successful uprisings that took place in the Arab world had great impacts in capital cities as well as other important urban areas and were continuous rather than sporadic.  

Also, security forces either decided to stand aside or defect to the opposition along with dissatisfied government officials.  Sustained and effective activities in Baku and throughout the country among many segments of society will most probably indicate a true “spring” in Azerbaijan.
The West, in his opinion, “should encourage democratization through diplomatic means, but whether they are willing to do anything that might jeopardize their economic interests in Azerbaijan is something else”. --25В-

Alakbar Raufoglu
Washington, DC
01/24/2012
 

Sports Litigation Alert--Duke Lacrosse

Here are the January issues of Sports Litigation Alert and Legal Issues in College Athletics, which include my summary of last month's decision by the Fourth Circuit rejecting several constitutional claims in the Duke lacrosse players' civil suits.


Thursday, January 24, 2013

University of Würzburg: Prominent Researcher Joins the University



James M. Dorsey is a man of international standing: a scholar, journalist, blogger and resident senior fellow at the internationally-acclaimed S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.  He is joining the University of Würzburg as a non-resident visiting fellow at its Institute of Sport Science and non-resident Co-Director of the Institute for Fan Culture in Würzburg and Cologne.

Dorsey’s studies and reporting range broadly with a focus on ethnic and religious conflict in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.  He is a much sought-after speaker at international economic, military, political and sport science conference. He is widely acknowledged as an expert on global water distribution issues and deeply involved in researching the nexus between soccer, society and politics. Dorsey is a widely published author in prestigious academic and mainstream journals, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Financial Times, and was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the prestigious US award for outstanding achievement in journalism. He is currently a finalist for the European Press Prize.

Dorsey’s varied experience will benefit the University of Würzburg and the Institute of Fan Culture that was founded last year by Professor Harald Lange in cooperation with scientists from Cologne. The institute provides a platform for empirical, interdisciplinary research into soccer fan culture. It brings together sociologists, political scientists, criminologists, social psychologists, economists, legal scholars, ethnologists and historians – and last but not least, soccer fans. Dorsey’s association springs from a long exchange of academic views with Lange as well as several presentations he made at the University of Würzburg.

“This is an important step towards internationalization of the institute," Lange said. He noted that Dorsey’s association followed last year’s signing of an agreement on a cooperative research project between the institute and the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) in Qatar.

The institute is planning several third-party funded research projects in cooperation with some of the world’s foremost institutions of academic learning including RSIS that will involve international and German fan culture in soccer stadiums and focus on the relationship between sport and society.  This is a subject Dorsey discusses in detail in his popular blog "The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer" and is the theme of a book to be published late this year by Hurst Publishing Co and Oxford University Press.

Lange said Dorsey’s association would help “internationalize the institute and offer fresh perspectives and points of view in its research.” He said Dorsey would contribute to “promoting young researchers at the university” and enable it to establish a global research network.

Dorsey expressed confidence in the institute’s potential to position itself as a global center of knowledge. "The institute’s interdisciplinary approach and network coupled with the fact that it is the world’s only academic research institution focused on fan culture positions it as an international scholarly and policy institution,” Dorsey said.

For further information, plesae contact Prof. Dr. Harald Lange, T: +49 (0)931 31-80283, email: harald.lange@uni-wuerzburg.de


James Dorsey (photo: private)