Minority Man

Pig-ball (click to enlarge)

We all know that West Ham United has just been promoted to the English Premier League. I think this news story from Russia will cause some confusion.

The Man-of-the-Match was David Beck-HAM. And this other player was sent-off for violent play: Notorious P.I.G.


'Pig-Ball' Soccer Championships Staged in Russia, With Piglets Playing Five-On-Five Match
The Associated Press

Jun. 5, 2005 - In this game, everyone stinks and hogging the ball is to be expected. Ten squealing, wriggling piglets pushed (and licked) a soccer ball around a small caged pen Sunday in what organizers said was Russia's first-ever "pig-ball" championships.

The event, staged as part of an agricultural exhibition on Moscow's outskirts, is set up like soccer, with two teams of five piglets. Instead of goals, the teams try to move the ball into painted, half-circles located at the pen's corners. To move things along, the ball is slathered in mashed carrots.

Whether there's any athletic skill involved aside from aggressive licking is an open question.

"Why pigs?" said Nariner Bagmanyan, one of the event's organizers. "It's more interesting and you know, this kind of thing doesn't happen anywhere."

Cheered on by dozens spectators, the winning piglets got a trophy for their efforts and a trough of mashed carrots.

Organizers, along with the newly formed Federation of Sport Pig Breeding, said next year they planned to recruit pig-ball teams from around Russia.

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