One of the great elements of fandom is having a nemesis – the force that works constantly to derail the positive achievements of the team and/or player you support. Through my life, my sporting history has been defined as much by nemeses as the teams I loved. As a boy I left the American football team I loved, but have held tightly to the unadulterated disdain I have for the team that always beat them - Shitsburgh I say!
Other teams I learned to dislike. The New York Yankees, and teams of their ilk make up the list. They are mega teams that win a lot by buying up players just to keep them off the rosters of their competitors. They employ bully tactics and are anti-competitive. Sport loses much of its luster when the outcomes are solely determined by who has the biggest bank roll.
It's not Big Bank Hank (from the Sugar Hill Gang). It's the Big Bank FC. That list is composed of: the Yankees, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Chelsea, and newly minted Manchester City - the nuevo riche of the crew, that’s snatched up any player with a pulse since it was purchased by Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyansugar a couple years ago. A (dis)honorable mention go to Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and F1 racing imprisario Bernie Ecclestone - co-owners of Queens Park Rangers. They have a combined wealth of $23 billion - the same net worth of the Man City sheikh. Look for QPR to rise up and flex its monetary muscle in the coming years.
More frightening is the cross-sport conglomeration trend that is building momentum – particularly stateside. Several US pro sport owners have looked to Europe – and the UK specifically – to turn their sport interest into a global conern. ManU owners - Malcolm Glazer and sons – also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette also have/had interests in the NHL, NASCAR, and MLB. All of them are largely despised by supporters of their footie clubs for their heavily leveraged purchase of the clubs.
Then there’s Randy Lerner - who owns the NFL Cleveland Browns and England’s Aston Villa - and Stan Kroenke – who owns teams in the NBA, MLB and MLS, and is the largest shareholder of Arsenal FC. While the fan vote on Kroenke remains out, Lerner is largely loved by Villa supporters. He puts money in, has hired good staff, and stays out of the way.
Now the Footie Prof is a free market kind of guy, and I’d much rather see high profile clubs run by American sport pimps than say Uzbekistan Jabbas, but the Steinbrenners should be placed in sport ownership isolation, lest their style of greedy imposition start a new American outbreak in international football.
At the very least, they should be sent away for a period of reflection, like the Dutch priest who decked his church out in oranje for a pre-World Cup service, and conducted the service as a goalkeeper while a parishioner dribbled a ball down the aisle.
And speaking of period of reflection, that’s where FIFA’s goal-line technology discussion has been banished. You may recall that the Footie Prof suggested that FIFA King Sepp Blatter’s admission that the introduction of technology would be discussed this month was merely a ploy to distract and pacify. Well, FIFA now says any discussion will have to wait until October… 2791!
In other news, UEFA’s annual U-19 tournament has kicked off – but is not being televised! You’ll recall that this is the tournament where some of the world’s greatest talents are first noticed. How’d Spain win Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010? The same players won the UEFA U-19 in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2007. FYI, ze Germans (playing the tournament in the Czech Republic) won in 2008 and the Ukraine (playing in the Ukraine) won in 2009. Spain won its four away from home.
Also being played now is the FIFA Women’s U-20 World Cup in Germany. Many matches are showing up on ESPN2 and ESPNU!
AND, if you’re lucky enough to NOT have Time Warner and do have DirecTV, you’ll be able to get you UEFA Champions League on, as the preliminary rounds of play between clubs like Litex and Sheriff start being televised this week – only on DirecTV’s exclusive UEFA channels! Just tomorrow you’ve got:
10:30am Renova vs Omonia
12:00pm Dinamo Tirana vs Sheriff
12:00pm HB vs Salzburg
2:00pm TNS vs Bohemians
2:15pm Koper vs Dinamo Zagreb
2:30pm Rudar vs Litex
That’ll do for now class. And now, your footie anecdote:
“I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted.”
- Northern Ireland 1960s-70s football icon George Best
CLASS DISMISSED
World Cup in Qatar http://yhoo.it/cIqted ? CBT is going to have a field day with this one!
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