My TIFO discusses the possible transfer of a top young American player who could potentially transfer from AS Roma to Toronto FC. This would be absurd 3-4 years ago, now after Clint Dempsey transferred to MLS last year for $36 Million it seems the next step of MLS making money by brining in young and American talent.
This short article and video shows how players were traded between countries between 1900 and 2013. The video shows little to no trading from 1900 to around 1950 where trades begin to increase substantially.
There is a further increase in the 1970s and a massive number of transfers in the past two decades. Throughout the video it is clear the majority of player transfers involve Europe.
In Peter Swain and Adrian Harvey’s article on the origins of modern football, they explain how football’s origins center around a rudimentary rule system that is almost completely different from any of the rules we know now.
In this early form, football and rugby were very similar in their rules and styles of play. It wasn’t until Sheffield FA’s football culture improved to the point where they were able to host their own cup competition.
This first football cup was sponsored by a local businessman who even contributed a trophy to the winner of the 12 team competition.
Because of this influence, Sheffield FA was able to prevent the disbandment of the FA. These early games were not commercial pursuits, rather presided over by amateurs. But as interest in these games increased, the clubs began charging admission to the games as they were now played in commercial gardens and enclosed public house fields.
“During the Third Republic conscripts were required to undergo military service, which was often carried out in regiments far from the Seine De´partement. As soon as Parisian players arrived in their regiment, they almost always got together a football team and, insofar as sport did not figure on the athletics programme of French military training, encouraged practice of it by, among other things, requesting that their home teams sent footballs.
TIFOs (“Things I Found Online”) are brief pieces in which students post the link to an article, a video, photo or other types of documents they found online that address a theme each student chose to follow during the course.
Sheffield (England) Football Club, 1890s [Source: Wikipedia Commons]
Student TIFOs are usually related to the themes each student will explore in his or her final paper.
For example, in the case of the photo that appears above, while obtained from the Wikipedia Commons as public domain, the original image appears to have come from an article on Sheffield F.C. (football club) and the origins of “association football” in England in the mid-nineteenth century that was published in the BBC News website published in 2007.
The Sheffield F.C. is considered the oldest football club in the world. The article by the BBC provides more details about its origin and the role it played in the origins of modern “association” football in the mid-nineteenth century.
While this incident occurred over two years ago, this is simply a prime example of blatant racism in the footballing world.
Djibril Cisse was the victim of racial abuse during the 2011 season in the Greek football league and claimed that racism was an issue throughout the entire league. Players even stormed the field after a game and attacked him.
Cisse insisted, “I was their target. Some of them hit me and I retaliated to defend myself. It’s a disgrace”.
This article shows how German players are reaching the pinnacle of their careers just as the World Cup is coming around again. Neurer’s upsetting of Spanish icon Iker Casillas’s five year reign over the award demonstrates how Spain’s aging national team is losing its grip on the world stage.
This TIFO focuses on Football Against Racism in Europe or the FARE Network. The FARE network is a dedicated group of NGOs, player Unions and Leagues which act to erase racism from soccer through campaigning and events throughout Europe. FARE focuses many of its efforts in Central and Eastern European countries where racism at football events has become an increasingly prevalent issue.
Here is the article, “More than ever, Barca more than club for Catalans.”
I chose this article because I want explore the tensions between the distinct regions of Spain, specifically Cataluña and Paìs Vasco, and the central government as seen through soccer. This article does a great job of explaining the history of the Barcelona football club and the relationship it has had with nationalistic tendencies for the Catalans. In the past, it has been used as a catalyst of the Catalan movement, like how they used the stadium as a place to speak Catalan while under the regime of Franco. It’s really cool to see that this relationship has continued, as seen through this quote from the article, “tens of thousands of Catalans in the city at the heart of their separatist movement chanted in unison: “Independence!”” (AP)
Soccer is sport, at the international level, dominated by men. Male international tournaments receives far more attention and investment than do those for women. On that same note, high-accomplishing women in soccer are dramatically less acclaimed than are men. Marta, a Brazilian women soccer player, emerge fantastically as a female who succeeds despite the tendencies in global football to accolade men more illustriously. Developing her talents by playing street games, she often faced exclusion and was forced to practice techniques using a ball of plastic bags as an improvised soccer ball. She has since risen to fame as ardent advocate for the advancement of women in football and received FIFA’s World Player of the Year five consecutive times beginning in 2006. I felt, as this is my first TIFO, a small biography of her is appropriate given that she is incontrovertibly the most celebrated and skilled female soccer player at this time.