Though now, in many respects, the game is becoming quite superfluous. Most top flight clubs hoard in a multibillionaire sheik who artificially inflates the club with star signings. Genuine clubs with genuine support tend to dwindle. Most of the top flight teams could hardly be called real football clubs the way they were thirty-odd years ago. Most of them are conglomerates run with cynical motives.
Tournaments then become predictable and uncompetitive. Spain is the apotheosis of all this. Barcelona and Real Madrid pocket all the money from the TV rights, leaving the rest of the clubs in limbo. It's a two-horse race, to put it politely. (I heard a supporter from Athletic Bilbao tell me that the rest of the clubs should partition themselves from the big two teams and form their own separate league.) England's tournament is also dominated by big-spending clubs. The Bundesliga and, in some respects, the French league are comparatively fairer. Montpellier won the French league a couple of years ago, the equivalent of Wigan Athletic winning the Premier League here (more about them below).
So, if we live in an age where clubs are run as such, what do we do? The answer is simple. Support genuine football clubs who run their business organically and fairly. Support your local team. If that team is false and artificial, look elsewhere and support a team with the aforementioned characteristics.
The team I supported as a child, Arturo Fernandez Vial, are down in the doldrums at the minute. Shame, as they are one of these genuine clubs. They play in Concepción, quite a small city (population of 500,000; greater Concepción comprises a million people at a push). It has three football clubs: Arturo Fernandez Vial, Deportes Concepción (Deportes Maricón - Faggots - as we call them) and Universidad de Concepción (nobody calls them anything 'cos nobody supports them).
Fernandez Vial are supported by real working people and have the largest support overall. In fact, the success of each team is conversely proportional to their amount of supporters. Fernandez Vial are in the third tier, Deportes Maricón are in the second tier and Universidad de Concepción are in the first.
In the sprawling vast country that is Chile, people generally support the three corporate conglomerate teams from the capital Santiago (thus making the league predictable and uncompetitive). Someone pathetically told me 'Here we don't support the local teams - that's a purely English phenomenon - you support your father's team.' Incidentally, as a young Chilean child - because that's what I was back then, despite my bright blond hair - my dad took me to see a game between Magallanes and Fernandez Vial, as he supported Magallanes. Being a young contrarian, I chose to support Vial. I insisted that my dad take me to see all their games and he eventually became an Aurinegro as well.
Vial's committed fan-base, the Furia Guerrera.
Vial, and even Deportes Maricón, are teams with history. Vial were founded by in 1903 and were christened after the politician who raised the wages of Concepción's railway workers. Deportes Maricón were an alliance of several regional teams dotted around Concepción. Vial are a team supported by working class people, Maricón fans are generally supported by the middle classes (who have dubious political inclinations). Universidad de Concepción were founded by the local university in 1994. Why should the university start a football club? Just think of the productive and socially constructive projects they could be funding! Think of all the scholarships they could raise for disadvantaged students! All the cultural events they could organise! Instead, they fund a football club nobody cares about! That really rankles me!
Because that club is guaranteed financial security, they prosper. Dpt. Maricón receive less funding, so they are in the tier below. Vial, meanwhile, despite their committed following, have a ramshackle and corrupt organisation. So they suffer.
I used to see them play every home game. The players weren't gifted, but they worked bloody hard. Back then, we were in the second tier and always on the verge of ascending to the first.
When I moved to England aged eleven, my interest in football lapsed for a very long time. It was only when Marcelo Bielsa was appointed Chilean manager, and managed to get Chile playing fulminating football, that rekindled my passion for the game.
When I started following the Premier League, I chose to support Wigan Athletic. Why Wigan, you may ask?
Well, their Houdini act at the tail-end of the 2010-11 season grabbed me. They were 2-0 down against West Ham during the second half and went on to mount a stunning 3-2 victory.
The way the club is run is also laudable. The owner, Dave Whelan, does not invest that much money anymore. What they do is sign obscure players, make them better, sell them and restart the process. Their previous manager, Roberto Martinez, also made them play stylish entertaining football. With limited resources, it is quite dangerous to play with three defenders. A team like Arsenal have the infrastructure and the funding to make that kind of system fairly risk-free. Wigan Athletic were, and hopefully will continue to be, courageous in opting for that kind of positive game plan.
Wigan Athletic
Another blistering Houdini act followed the next season. Last season they were unlucky, as they were blighted by a number of injuries. Three of their defenders were injured, thus making them even more vulnerable. You always knew that for every two goals they'd score, they would concede three in return. Relegation certainly is shattering.
But then, they won the FA cup! They beat Manchester City in the final - a team costing 80 million pounds vs. a team with a net value 10 million. It was the second coming.
Roberto Martínez has had offers from big clubs in the past, which he snuffed. He has departed Wigan and gone to Everton, another genuine club. They are a team with a mid-table budget who are always contending for places in Europe. They are also a very communal club, with great supporters. It was a perfect move.
There is a team that, when they play, the whole world stops for me. They are a national team - Chile.
Chile
If they play a world cup game, I pretty much have a nervous breakdown watching them. Bielsa's glorious work has fostered a great generation of players and we play scintillating stuff at our best. I grew up with the generation of Salas-Zamorano. There were flashes of greatness back then, followed by a dark age. But, when Bielsa took over, it was a real awakening. A team that used to play like donkeys can now wipe the floor with their opponents - on a good day!
In any case, it is much better to support the minnows. The reasons I gave above should rest my case. Also, when you do support a big team, you win so much that the umpteenth title hardly means anything to you. When your punitive little team wins something, it means the world to you. That's how I felt when Wigan won the FA cup and that's how I felt when Chile beat Argentina for the first time. Who knows, might I experience that when Fernandez Vial win the Copa Libertadores? A man can dream!
2 comments:
Are you watching the European championship at all? Talk about Scandinavian domination, as far as semi-finals go.
It's nothing sexist, but I don't follow women's football. Nobody does.
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