Doesn't soccer usually incite violence?

It's a better idea compared to...umm...paper birds! (see last paragraph)

From Reuters but edited.

Thais hope English soccer will calm Muslim unrest

BANGKOK - Thailand is dishing out free cable TV in its restive Muslim south in the hope that sports such as English Premiership soccer will calm tensions in a region plagued by violence.

Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana said an initial batch of 500 televisions would installed at village tea shops so those who can't afford cable TV can watch their favourite sports together. "Televisions and sports will help liven up the region," said Kongsak, the fourth interior minister in less than two years to be faced with ending the unrest in which more than 800 people have been killed since January, 2004.

Buddhist Thailand has tried a range of measures to curb the violence in its three southernmost, Muslim-majority provinces, including promises of development aid, martial law, and an airdrop of millions of paper birds. None of them appear to have had any effect.