This TIFO continues the theme from my last TIFO about racism fears leading up to the Euro 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine. Several weeks before the events the BBC released a short documentary highlighting racist and Neo-Nazi fans from several Polish and Ukraine teams. The documentary questions what will happen when British and European fans, many of whom are non-white, will enter Polish and Ukrainian stadiums.
I think the author does an interesting job of trying to show the similarities between Cataluña and Madrid, but I’m not sure if this actually is true. The Catalans prove that they are not okay being under Madrid’s power by setting up movements using their large big money maker the article mentions, FC Barcelona.
This article show why I disagree with the other article.
The players that the article mention are pretty meaningful in terms of symbolism of soccer for Spain. The Catalans have proved that they are equal, if not better, as seen through both articles talking about how many Catalans are on the national team.
A really interesting quote from the second article on the Spanish take on football from their national teams head coach:
“The Spain coach also looked ahead to the 2014 World Cup finals, admitting that even though Spain were defending champions, “The normal thing is for us not to win it and that is a good thing…” [and] “We need that insecurity against our rivals, who are all good (Spain will face Holland, Chile and eAustralia in the group stage). In the past nobody expected us to get past the quarter finals and now everyone expects us to win. We need to measure our optimism and that is not easy,” he said.
Recently in a U-21 game with Serbia and England spiraled out of control upon Serbian fans chanting racist remarks, not an uncommon occurrence during Serbian matches but certainly a first on the global stage. These acts of racism being a prevalent feature in Serbian soccer establishes the “systematic failures of the Serbian political leadership”, not to mention the racial intolerance of many other Eastern European countries.
My PCQ deals with the notion of unity in World football. The reading starts off by saying;
“The desire to unite the nation culturally and politically promoted the regime’s restructuring of Calcio, 1926, after which it symbolized Fascism’s new-found confidence and desire to spread its new identity among the masses.” (51).
The fascists in Italy had a number or uses for football that proved to be advantageous to their political goals. One the referee crisis gave them an opportunity to step in and restore order during the dispute which made the government look like it had a handle on the situation. After this established a precedent of government involvement in soccer the government attempted to regulate the leagues according to fascist ideals such as removing foreign players and coach’s despite the detrimental effect this had on the quality of teams. To counteract this loss of talent the government declared any descendants of Italians living abroad could play for Italian teams.
Another aspect of this chapter that I found interesting was despite the fascist hopes of unifying the country through soccer the structure of the games threatened to lead to the development of regionalism which ran counter to and threatened the fascist ideals.
I chose this article because it shows the salaries paid by US teams vs European teams, an area USA drastically needs to improve.
This article discusses a star player in Malawi moving to play in Mozambique. The player was the top scorer for his club and the article reports how the Malawi Football association complained that the player had not filled out all the paperwork required to leave for another team. The article shows how smaller and less rich clubs try to use bureaucratic procedure to keep strong players being recruited by bigger clubs.
I am posting this link because it related to some of the topics we were briefly discussing in class. This article talks about the possibility of Michael Bradley coming back to the MLS instead of going to Europe as a possible sign that things are beginning to change for the better in the MLS. Bradley’s decision to play in the MLS could lead to more high profile players choosing to play in the MLS over European teams.
This article discusses the ways Italy wanted to restructure its approach to the game of football. The government sought to use football as a way to unite the nation through the cultural bond of sport, while also recognizing football as a vehicle for political cohesion. Football in Italy after 1926 not only represented physical dominance over other teams, but also was publicly viewed as fascism’s way of displaying its confidence.
This section talks about some of the difficulties faced when the popularity of football or calico began to rapidly increase. Teams began to see their number of fans steadily increase and also fans began to travel to games just to further support their home teams. Teams made it easy for such devoted teams to travel through travel aids that allowed for larger groups to afford the trip. The popularity of football led to the idea of traveling to see teams play to be a common and widely accepted means of spending leisure time. Continue reading
It’s fascinating to see how the Fascist government used soccer to manipulate the people. The article says, “The introduction of cup competitions was Fascism’s attempt to protect both big and small teams, while bringing the composite pieces of the puzzle closer towards an integrated national picture that would further develop the Italian game.” (Pg. 60) It was used to galvanize the people and contribute positively to the Fascist Regime, which used the game to change the cultural identities of the people. The article continues “It was an argument often employed during the Fascist era, whereby the roots of football were attributed to the ancient sport of calcio Fiorentino or calcio storico, a traditional folk game of the Middle Ages, which was also restored to prominence by the regime.82 (Pg 66) This is an example of how they used soccer to build a new national identity, by creating the game as a past time with cultural values that they could build. Then once they began having success with football and “as II Bargello was proud to proclaim in 1931: ‘even in sport, Fascism is teaching the old Europe and showing its greatest export.’ (pg. 72) It’s really cool to see how the government built this and compare it to how Spain, thanks to Isabelle and Fernando, united their nation through Christianity and the newly reformed language of Castellano.