This week the football world was shocked by the suicide of Hannover 96 goalkeeper Robert Enke. Seemingly at the top of his career Enke was firmly established as the first choice stopper at one of Germany’s most respected clubs, and looked the favorite to be his country’s number one heading into the World Cup next summer in South Africa. That was before depression claimed his life after just thirty-two years.

It’s thought that Enke never fully recovered from the shock dealt to him by the death of his two-year-old daughter, Lara, due to complications from a heart defect. I’m not a parent, so out of respect to the Enke family I won’t even pretend to know that I understand what Robert was going through, I don’t. But that’s not what this piece is about.

Enke’s tragic death once again brings to light the issue of depression among sportsmen. No illness is fashionable, but especially not depression, and especially not among men. Men are supposed to be strong and tough, capable of handling anything. This is particularly true of athletes, as Mike Messner, professor of Gender Studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles explains in this fine piece written last year by the always excellent Dave Zirin: “Superman isn’t supposed to get depressed.”

I’m not accusing Enke of falling into this trap, a quiet family man and animal rights activist, he actually seemed quite the opposite, but this is a good time to discuss a problem that faces our society everyday.

North Americans will remember last year when it was reported that Vince Young mentioned suicide before disappearing for a night, reportedly in possession of a firearm. Young and his club, the NFL’s Tennessee Titans were quick to dismiss reports of depression as the media blowing things out of proportion. Whether or not Young was suffering from depression, we as a society missed an opportunity for a discussion about the illness which quietly claims many lives every year through suicide.

I’m a male, a male with depression. It took me awhile to admit my problem, I didn’t want to be seen as weak or feeble, like many men, I wanted to put up a facade of strength and masculinity. Since coming to terms with my depression I’ve found myself to be a lot more rational, and much more stable, something which has probably saved my life. Bouts with depression can leave you feeling useless, and if you don’t make your loved ones aware of what you’re dealing with it becomes impossible for them to assist you, and that assistance and moral support is vital to the fragile psyche of a depressed individual.

The difficulties of admitting to depression are magnified for professional athletes, in a world where bravado and hyper-masculinity can mean money, fame, endorsements and women, it becomes nearly impossible to admit to what many perceive as a weakness without realizing the courage it takes for a man to admit he has a problem.

For evidence that professional sports still has a long ways to go before claiming that it has an understanding of the disease, one has to look no further than NFL player Shawn Andrews, who the Philadelphia Eagles fined Andrews $15,000 for each day of practice he missed while suffering with the illness. Though the fans and media largely supported Andrews, it still showing a glaring misunderstanding of a potentially deadly disease among our sports teams.

Bayern Muinch – as polarizing a club as any – to their eternal credit seem to understand depression, and did their best to make sure that their formr midfield man Sebastian Deisler was able to get help in his battle with the disease. Ultimately, recurrent depression brought an end to Deisler’s career, but the awareness of the depression may have saved his life.

It’s important for us to remember Robert Enke as a husband, father, animal lover, and fan favorite, but we mustn’t forget what claimed his life, and we must use this as an opportunity to wage a battle against one of mankind’s biggest, and most silent killers.

The World Games Stadium was designed by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito. The stadium, which has a legacy capacity of 40,000 and opened in May, is notable for the fact that it’s snaking roof — meant to invoke images of a dragon — is completely covered in solar panels that generate enough energy to not only power the stadium, but allow the stadium to sell excess power back to Kaohsiung.

Kaohsiung World Games Stadium

While I am delighted by the idea behind the stadium I can’t help but scratch my head and ask, “Why didn’t anyone else think of this?” Of course, Basel’s St-Jakob Park does have some solar panels, but not nearly enough to power the entire stadium, let alone create an excess that can be sold off or given to the municipality.

St. Jakob Park, Basel. Courtest ahdigital on Flickr.

In the West we have been searching for ways to make our cities more efficient and find better use of our land — why has it taken so long for environmentally-friendly stadia to be constructed over here?  Stadia in the United States surely take up more resources than anywhere else, as many of our cities have domed stadiums with vast roofs that serve only to keep out weather but take up tremendous amounts of space.

It must be said, however, that the World Games Stadium isn’t the first completely “green” stadium in the world: it’s just the most noticeable. In November of 2006 Dartford FC, a modest club from Kent playing in the Ryman League, opened their 4,100-capacity Princes Park, built by the Dartford Council. Princes Park was named “Best New Non-League Ground” by Groundtastic magazine in 2006.

Rendering of Princes Park, Dartford

Noteworthy features of the ground are a water reclamation system, which allows the club to use rain water to water the pitch, solar panels which provide heat, and a living roof. Manchester City have also made an effort towards installing wind turbine power at the City of Manchester stadium.

But there is still a long way to go: all you have to do is look at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, a long shot hopeful to host World Cup matches should the United States bid be successful for its 2018 or 2022 bids, to see an example of grossly misused space.

Edward Jones Stadium, St. Louis

It remains to be seen what the World Games Stadium will be used for in the future. Taiwan is very much a baseball country and the stadium is meant to host football and athletics. The national football league, the modest Intercity Football League, rarely plays before large crowds, and is certainly unlikely to fill a 40,000-seat venue. Kaohsiung itself is home to three teams in the top division, one is owned by Taipower, Taiwan’s national utility. Hopefully the stadium will serve as an example to those looking to build new venues, particularly municipally owned venues, in the future.

While a good majority of the negative attention surrounding relocation of football clubs is aimed at McDons (Milton Keynes Dons, the franchise that replaced Wimbledon F.C.), and with good reason, many tend to forget that they were not the first in Britain.  In Scotland, what is now Livingston FC did the same thing in 1995 when they, then known as Meadowbank Thistle, abandoned  Edinburgh in favor of a new stadium in the new town of Livingston, West Lothian.

Originally a works team called Ferranti Thistle founded in 1943, the club adopted the Meadowbank moniker in 1974 when they were accepted into the league as the SFL had regulations against the corporate naming of clubs. Meadowbank were Edinburgh’s third league club after the famous Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian and never achieved anywhere near the success or popularity of their city rivals, though they did have passionate supporters. Meadowbank played their home matches across the street from Hibernian’s Easter Road at the soulless and cold but aptly named Meadowbank Stadium, the main venue for the 1970 Commonwealth Games.

Meadowbank’s luck was hardly the best: they were once denied promotion to the Premier Division after the league decided to realign and reduce the number of top flight clubs and later would suffer an even more cruel fate as they finished mid-table and got relegated as the league again decided to realign and reduce the number of clubs in every division. Club management, lead by Bill Hunter, claimed that this, combined with a second successful relegation the following season, ruined Meadowbank financially and the club was on the verge of being closed. However, many Meadowbank supporters rebuke this claim, and despite their impassioned protest the club was moved to the Almondvale Stadium in West Lothian and renamed Livingston Football Club.

Unlike McDons, which was forced by the Football Supporters’ Federation to transfer all of Wimbledon FC’s history to the London Borough of Merton — the spiritual home of the Wombles — Livingston FC still claims all of Meadowbank’s history which includes a Scottish Qualifying Cup in 1974 and a Scottish Second Division title in 1985/1986. While the history may not be illustrious, it belongs in Edinburgh, not Livingston.

Life as Livingston has been eventful to say the least. The club has been in the UEFA Cup following a third place finish in the SPL, has won a Scottish League Cup, has been relegated and has been in administration during a period in which they were hilariously sponsored by a company called “Intelligent Finance”.

In its 14 years since the move to West Lothian the club has employed no less than fifteen managers, including two spells by Dunfermline legend Jim Leishman. Yes, Livingston’s mad boardroom, which changes as often as the managers, seems to think they are Real Madrid Scotland. The current chairman is Italian Angelo Massone who recently refused to pay the light bill at the Almondvale Stadium to show fans who had been critical of him what happens when he doesn’t put his own money into the club. The problem is, nobody seemed to care. It wasn’t really their club to begin with. To many in Livingston, it was fun while it lasted, but Manchester United are on television every weekend.

On June 30th, 2009 the West Lothian Council, who ironically helped bait the team to Livingston, announced they would sue the club for rent arrears: LFC owes the council £300,000 or nearly $500,000. This could see the club enter administration once again, and more than likely see its doors closed for the final time. The council seem willing to make a deal with Massone, who has stated he is making arrangements to pay a higher monthly fee, but if he couldn’t pay the original fee, how will he pay the new one? Not to mention the fact that the club may owe six figures in unpaid taxes.

There is a saying, “what comes around, goes around”, and it really does seem to be coming back around for Livingston. Bill Hunter may no longer be at the helm, but the spector of that day still looms large over the empty yellow seats in West Lothian. Fittingly, if Livingston go bust, one of the candidates to replace them may well be Edinburgh City, who call Meadowbank home.