Inside North Korean football.

[TightEnd]

A fascinating long read

long reads are unfashinable these days

but this writer went to Pyongyang. It was quite eventful. He saw the national team play Lebanon. Visited the country's leading academy. Stood next to Kim il Sung's embalmed body. Oh, and an H-bomb went off...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2746418-inside-the-secret-world-of-football-in-north-korea

[Longines]

Thanks for posting, fascinating.

[TheDazzler]

I was in North Korea in 2012 during the London Olympics, fascinating place.

I was also in Sri Lanka on holiday in 2010 and the AFC Challenge Cup (which North Korea won) was on so I went to a thrilling double header of;
India vs Kyrgyzstan
Turkmenistan vs North Korea

The North Korean players did an interesting thing on direct free kicks just outside the box. This was before the shaving cream that refs use to stop encroaching (what a wonderful and simple rule change that was!) and a couple of North Koreans would kneel in front of the wall, presumably to stop the opposition encroaching.