I found it interesting how everyone agreed that football should not be run solely for profit and fans need to have a say in how clubs are run.
It United both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
But applying the same sentiment to corporations seems controversial.
US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
11–20 of 234 posts
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#12IDK about the rest of Europe but in Spain soccer is highly tied to local cities/towns and lesser cathegory leagues, as if the big soccer teams were built up from the smallest grounds. Trying to convert that into a "Hollywood" soccer kind with "fireworks", elitism and expensive/luxury consumerdom/PPV like is the recipe for a disaster and to dis-joint the huge regional fandom of each team. On major events such as final…
also, regional fandom is usually tied with local feuds.
European football is community for many people, especially on the local level. The amount of dedication for a club and the community around it is enourmous.
For instance, ultra's defending their stadium and city/town against looters during recent riots in the netherlands[0][1], with members the club willing to "take the hit" in terms of getting fined/arrested.
[0]:https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/voetbalsupporters-als-buurtwach...
[1] https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5211010/vo...
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#13They also understood that two big things in Europe are: Sucking it up to the man - UEFA and being jealous.
I can't wait for the Russkies to invade this wretched continent.
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#14I found it interesting how everyone agreed that football should not be run solely for profit and fans need to have a say in how clubs are run. It United both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. But applying the same sentiment to corporations seems controversial.
Yes because the analogy doesn’t make sense. Can you explain how the two things are equivalent?
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#15I found it interesting how everyone agreed that football should not be run solely for profit and fans need to have a say in how clubs are run. It United both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. But applying the same sentiment to corporations seems controversial.
Yes because the analogy doesn’t make sense. Can you explain how the two things are equivalent?
Football club - a collective enterprise rooted in a society run in the service of collective goals.
A large corporation - a collective enterprise rooted in a society run in the service of collective goals.
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#16I found it interesting how everyone agreed that football should not be run solely for profit and fans need to have a say in how clubs are run. It United both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. But applying the same sentiment to corporations seems controversial.
Playing the devil's advocate:
Football has its roots in amateur and local associations with little or nothing to do with profit.
In fact, only in the 1990s (with the explosion of cable TV and sports channels) did it started becoming a huge industry.
Corporations do not share the same pedigree, so they aren't "betraying" their roots.
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#17Lots of people have talked eloquantly about the monetary greed the Super League entailed, but I think it misses the wider point, Kronke (et al) have long been pushing for a _redistribution of power_ in football, away from the 'leagues' (e.g. the Premier League, La Liga, UEFA) to the clubs and owners themselves. Which is the now the canonical model for US sports, where they're most comfortable.
Another example of this is last year's "Project Big Picture"[0] in the Premier League, which was mostly led by the same owners with the same motivations.
As an illustrive example, take the NFL where Roger Goodell's purpose is to serve the leagues owners. He's an instrument of their will and so's steered the NFL in a direction that benefits them the most (e.g. Goodell will always pick the path that gets them the most money). The Premier League on the other hand takes decisions that are seen by big club owners as precisely _against_ their interests (e.g. distributing TV money from foreign TV deals equally to all clubs when they claim >80% of matches watched outside the UK are of the 5-6 big clubs, the classic but reductive 'No one in Malaysia wants to watch Bolton play')
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#18It's funny how they jump to blaming the Americans. Last I checked the Spanish clubs in this scheme weren't run by Americans.
The Spanish club Real Madrid is mentioned:
> But Kroenke, Henry and the Glazers, believed to be the ringleaders of the Super League fiasco along with Real Madrid’s Florentino Perez, badly miscalculated.
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#19“They’re trying to commercialise the sacred game of football that I already pay £1200 a year to watch on television”
Said in a muppet voice.
Edit: I guess ultimately it’s the weakness of being a fanatic about anything that isn’t yourself or your loved ones. Some smart business people realised thirty years ago that there was a massive consumer surplus in football fandom and set about capturing it.
Judging by the way fans vote with their hard earned money I’d say there’s still more to be captured. But the idea that the current FIFA governed world of football is some sort of pristine old-growth forest threatened by commerce is just ludicrous.
Re: US owners find greed doesn't play well in European soccer
#20I found it interesting how everyone agreed that football should not be run solely for profit and fans need to have a say in how clubs are run. It United both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn. But applying the same sentiment to corporations seems controversial.
Equally I could say that football is, and should remain, a private activity, which governments should leave well alone.
If fans want to buy or create and run football clubs they are free to do so. If private investors want to invest in football and buy or create and run football clubs they are free to do so.
I don't think there should a way football 'should' be run, again I think this is a private activity that may be organised and run however people like within the law.
The same goes for corporations in general.