Liiga Ploki Bet On Playoff Victory With New MVP

The world isn’t a very fair place, but the sports field should be, so why are we allowing it to slip the other way in our choices of viewing?

Sexism pervades our planet like an addiction we haven’t been able to kick despite knowing just how ghastly it is. Oh certainly in some nations huge strides have been made to provide a more equal footing for the genders, not that it’s been awfully successful, but at least they’re trying, whilst in others it would seem as if time has stood still, women are subjugated under the fearful paranoia of men gambling news of equality would signal a lessening of themselves rather than a lifting of others.

Mercy Moim Wins MVP
• 27 year old Kenyan voted Most Valuable
• Instrumental at Liiga Ploki this season
• Team is in the playoffs this weekend

Despite the efforts to further the cause of feminism in the west, there are many women around the world who are treated abominably and are seemingly unlikely ever to achieve equality with men. The reporting of their treatment in the western media, unfortunately, sandwiched between a story about Lindsay Lohan’s new pubic hairstyle and a news report on exam results featuring a nice picture of Samantha from Essex, aged 16. The hypocrisy just a mite too obvious to bear comment perhaps?

Western nations love to laud themselves for being so liberal and forward thinking and yet even in the most enlightened women still don’t comprise 50% of their political representatives, don’t make up half of the board memberships of the companies and corporations that exist in those counties, and certainly don’t earn as much as a gender in total as their male counterparts do. The legal and social barriers might have in theory been cast aside, but the results speak for themselves.

The west’s claim to the moral high ground is entirely based on the progress it has made, and completely ignores all that still needs to be done. The objectification of women by the advertising, media and culture industries, for instance, continues in everything from the news reports I mentioned to television programs we watch and the movies we go to see. Oh they try to pretend otherwise, but the old adage “sex sells” keeps them going back to the trough for more regardless of their rhetoric.

Sex Still Sells Somewhat Sadly

“More” is the salient word there because the corporations that make money out of this sexist portrayal and representation of women, are always on the look out for more ways to exploit the situation, a situation they ensure is perpetuated. Lamentably sport has fallen prey to this pernicious projection of the patriarchy, and there is no more stark and obvious example of this than in the small corner of the sporting world that is volleyball.

Volleyball has been around since the mid-1890s, invented in the US by a YMCA physical education director called William G. Morgan just ten miles from where basketball had been created, and entered the Olympics in 1924, but oddly enough, speak to most people these days and they are of the belief the sport of Volleyball consists of two pairs of women in skimpy bikinis jumping about and grunting a lot in what is, with the audience around it, just a sandpit.

That beach volleyball has managed to completely eclipse its more traditional variant both in terms of media coverage and popularity speaks volumes for the state of gender relations in the world and particularly the west. The veiled excuses to oogle still keeping certain attitudes in vogue if not in mind. Some point out that volleyball has always lent itself to this voyeuristic inclination, citing its popularity amongst nudists, however I do think that just a little self-serving and almost proves my point.

This is all somewhat of a shame since the more traditional, shall we say original, variety of volleyball is a fast paced exciting sport that not only showcases physical prowess and teamwork, but also the skills of deception, misdirection and ambush. What might appear at first glance like a team badminton tournament that’s lost its equipment but found a football, is actually a very complex and strategic game of skill that is almost slighted by the popularity of its more glamorous cousin on the beach.

Finland Votes For MVP

People who like to bet on sports in Finland have known this for quite sometime now with sites like Come On! Sportsbook and its ilk providing ample opportunity to wager on this high-action quotient event, with the Miesten Liga matches attracting quite some action each and every game. The popularity of the sport in Finland is such that its leagues attract fans and players from around the world, one of which just won MVP.

Mercy Moim was voted the award having been a driving force at Liiga Ploki since her arrival last year scoring 442 points in just 22 league matches, helping the team to playoff qualification, finishing fifth in the league. The 27 year old Kenyan, who plays successfully for her country as an attacker, told the media it was a good morale boost for her ahead of the weekend’s big game, dedicating her award to her late mother who passed away in February 2014.

“I am so excited and honored to be recognized in such a competitive league.” Said the mother of one, adding, “I am just speechless, but I thank god for everything.”

The move from Kenya Prisons to Liiga Ploki in 2014 has allowed her game to develop and this much was recognized in the award although whether her team can make it through the playoffs is still very much in question as the competition is particularly fierce this year. You can expect thrill a minute games right the way to the final as teams try to slam their way to the finals, and we finally see who gets to be champions of the 2014/15 season.

Of course they’ll only be the women’s champions, and who knows how long we’ll have to wait until finally men and women get to compete together in more than just a few “mixed doubles” sports, true equality still quite far off. Until then you get the choice of which gender to wager upon and despite Finnish gambling laws lagging behind the times (and EU regulations) more than a few people will, I suspect, be putting some Euros on Liiga Ploki to take the trophy, however optimistic that might prove to be.