A glance at a completed league table of any football league in the world (although it might be applied to other sports as well) would reveal the presence of a team at the top of the table which is the champion of that league in that particular season. However, if we scroll down towards the wrong end of the table, the part of the table in which it is likely to be analyzed and observed as meticulously as the top of the table, would reveal the presence of a team languishing at the bottom of the league table. This team, usually relegated to a lower division alongside two or three teams above them, would be considered the worst team in that league. Sometimes fans like you and me start to wonder what exactly are the reasons for that team to be the one which is the worst team in the division and has to contend with the proverbial “Wooden Spoon Award” in the league.
Just like any other phenomena in this world, in which there is/are causes and precursors, there are reasons and triggers that make a team worst in their league. I would categorize those reasons into two categories and that would be financial reasons, which constitutes a very large chunk of why a team is the worst in their league as well as the club's personnel's abilities as well as others. Although it seems that the reasons that will be listed in the following paragraphs seem to be standing on its own, each of them is not mutually exclusive and they might apply concurrently in a football team.
The first and arguably one huge aspect which makes a team worst in their league is the financial aspects of the team, and the importance of this is amplified many-folds in the modern game whereby business is increasingly more and more intersected with football compared to politics unlike in the past whereby the latter dominates football much more than business. But now, it is so different, as the financial aspect of a team is almost the sole yardstick to measure how the team would perform in a league or any other competitions. Football, just like any other sports is supposed to be one of the rare avenues to at least momentarily escape from the harsh reality of life, at least for 90 minutes at a time, but just like how politics have been so close do dominate football, business have clung on the same manner to football. Football clubs have become more of a business tools for conglomerates out there and we have seen how many top football clubs nowadays are being led and operated by figures who have little or nothing to do with football at all. Sometimes clubs are being taken over to increase the profile of the club by pumping millions and even billions, and even unlimited budget such as what Manchester City are enjoying right now, and they might look to sell the club on when the sale value as well as the reputation of the club has skyrocketed.
The above is actually another debate for another occasion, but the point here is that not every team in a league enjoys such financial concessions such as what have been highlighted above. For every Manchester City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Internazionale, there are Messina, West Brom, Tenerife, and recently Portsmouth. In other words, there is some kind of financial disparity existing between the haves and the have-not in a football league, and the phenomenon of foreign conglomerate ownership of top teams as stated above have served to widen the financial gap. Players, who are the most crucial human resources of a football team, are being increasingly bought for astronomical amount of money, such as how Real Madrid broke the record for most expensive transfer twice in just a few days when they bought Kaka for 65m Euros and then Cristiano Ronaldo for 80m Euros. This, together with the massive bidding campaigns of players from the wealthiest of the wealthy clubs inadvertently and perhaps unavoidably inflate the prices of players in the transfer market. Clubs that do not enjoy the massive financial backings would suffer since they might not be able to afford the prices as well as the kind of wage demands of the players who are capable of carrying the small clubs up to the next level.
Even if the small clubs possess good players or young players with potential, and that they are able to become some sort of a “selling club” to the big spenders (eg. West Ham, Sporting Lisbon), it is unlikely that the huge amount of money earned would be able to carry them on to the next level as they have to frantically sign another player as a replacement or that season will be a jeopardy, and there will not be a sufficient time to unearth a replacement from within in such a short time. Some small clubs might not even have the luxury of spending the money earned from the transfer as they have to pad up their precarious financial state and thus they go from bad to worse. Basically, the team that is the poorest (ie. With the lowest bank balance), as well as the team that fails to churn out promising players to be sold off to the big clubs who are willing to pay good money for them will be the worst in the league.
The second reason would be mismanagement of the club. I mentioned about Portsmouth, and it is well known that the English club recently faced a series of devastating financial problems that almost resulted in the historical club being forced to cease its long existence. The financial problems that they got themselves into actually resulted in a mismanagement of the club's finances in which to keep things simple, they simply “spend beyond their means” with artificial budget sired from debts. Actually, mismanagement is commonly tied up to the finances of a club, although there will be more on other types of “mismanagement” later on, and debts is the primary component of mismanagement occurring in the footballing sphere. As I mentioned above, top teams and even mediocre teams especially in the English Premier League are constantly being taken over by foreign investors whether for business purposes for otherwise, and most of the time, they would implement a policy of “spend spend spend” to make their way to the top of the footballing universe. However, and this is funnily coincides with the fact that more and more of those foreign owners hail from the USA, and it is well known worldwide that Americans sometimes have a motto of “spend now, pay later” and these big spending football clubs adhere to that mentality as well. While they finance their way to the top by buying players, they are mortgaging, and I dare say gambling the future of these clubs away by spending now with debts, and just hope that the team does well to clinch titles or at least the UEFA Champions League regularly to continue on financing the debts incurred to artificially finance the club in what I would dub an overdrive financial mode.
Things would go relatively well as long as they are able to maintain the good on-pitch form such as how Manchester United are able to continue on to win titles and to finance the club comfortably despite a well known massive debt surrounding the club. However, not all clubs are as lucky as them. In 2002, Leeds United were massively and artificially financed with debts, and when they failed to preserve their life support by missing out on regular Champions League qualification, they became embroiled in spiraling debt culminating in their relegation in 2004, and they have not been since in the Premier League up to the time of writing, almost a decade later! Same goes for Portsmouth in which they looked like a big club around 2007 and 2008, culminating in their FA Cup victory and their first ever season in Europe in the season afterward, but they were not able to build on that success to sustain themselves, debt spiraled, and the rest is history, and even if they managed to avoid extinction, they are still in turmoil right now, and they might even get relegated again in the lower division. Another club embroiled in troubles due to mismanagement would be Newcastle United under the Mike Ashley regime. He tried to implement some kind of “continental system” in which a Director of Football is to collaborate with the manager of the club and the result was disastrous with disastrous signings of inept players and they were relegated from the EPL. Leeds, Portsmouth, and Newcastle ended up becoming the worst team in their league (EPL) on the days of their respective relegation due to mismanagement of the club.
If we want to take the definition of “worst in their league” a bit further and be more specific, I would mention teams like Real Madrid and Manchester City who have not been really at the top compared to their fellow wealthy and prestigious clubs around. Many of the wealthy owners of the top football clubs around the world have been accused by many sections of the footballing universe as business people who do not really understand how to manage football clubs, and indeed there have been mismanagement going on, and although in the league table per se they are relatively well off, but considering how wealthy and big they are, as well as compared to the other clubs of a similar stature, they can be considered one of the worst. For Real Madrid, it was proven in the first Galactico Era on how quite a few mismanagement caused them many years of trophy drought despite spending obscene amount of money for superstars, but they only bought attackers such as Zidane,Beckham, and Figo, while forgetting and perhaps underestimating the importance of defense, as they sacked Fernando Hierro and then unceremoniously sold Claude Makelele to Chelsea, and not mentioning the plethora of managers they hired and sack during those years. Even until now, despite improvements such as purchasing world class defenders, they still finished last season empty handed and despite the promising appointment of Jose Mourinho as a manager, many are still skeptical, and despite the huge reputation augmented by wealth, they are still worst compared to their counterparts such as Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, and of course Barcelona.
As for Manchester City, we know that they also failed to qualify for the Champions League last season despite their massive investments on players in which they bought mostly strikers and thus they failed to enhance their reputation to attract even bigger names in football such as how their embarrassing bid for Kaka turned out to be indicated how badly they need an enhancement of reputation to rival Manchester United as the premier club in Manchester and the whole world. Thus, considering their unlimited budget, they are still the worst team out of the wealthiest clubs in Europe. It remains to be seen whether they would improve for the upcoming new season.
For mismanagement at the highest level, no one could forget Juventus of course who were caught trying to cheat by bribing referees to decide games in their favor in which to cut the story short, is known as the Calciopoli in 2006. This resulted in a few of their Serie A titles unceremoniously stripped of them, and their key players leaving the team, as well as relegated to Serie B for the 2006-07 season. Even though they were relegated to Serie B while they finished as Serie A champions in 2006, they were still the worst team in the league for that season.
Another mismanagement would be how the manager fails to put the right men at the right places. A recent example was how Cameroon, the African country expected to progress the furthest in World Cup 2010 among the other African participants. But a series of gaffe decisions such as stripping the captaincy from the long time captain Rigobert Song and then to play the new captain Samuel Eto'o on the right wing position, totally isolated from his natural position among other wrong decisions culminated in the team becoming the first African nation to be knocked out from the competition, and in the final official standing, they were the second worst team in the competition, just above North Korea.
The other reason for a team being the worst in their league would be due to the promotion-relegation system existing in most leagues in the world. There are a lot of examples on how promoted clubs from the lower division are actually too strong for that division, but they are simply too weak for the new division, and thus over the years, they continue on to go up and down the divisions, and they are nicknamed “Yo-yo clubs”. A very classic example especially in this decade in English football of such a club would be West Bromwich Albion (WBA) in which they have always been changing divisions almost annually. Thus, these clubs, as well as other clubs who clinched promotion especially through the playoff system are deemed to be too weak for the division and are likely to be the worst team in the new and upper division and thus they will immediately go back down the division and whether they comeback again like the yo-yo clubs are not relevant. The point is, a newly promoted team might be too weak for the upper division and thus they become the worst team in that division.
The last reason and perhaps the most logical of all would simply be the fact that football leagues and competitions, as well as other sports are simply competing to be the best, competing to win the competition. It is the unchangeable nature of any competitions that when there's a winner, there will always be the losers, and this applies to the leagues and competitions. All these while, I have been talking about disparities between teams, mismanagement, being too weak etc. but even in a totally competitive league, such as if a Super League consisting of the strongest teams in the whole world is to be created, there will be a team finishing at the very bottom of the league table and thus becoming the worst team in that league at the end of the season. Thus, yet another reason and it might be the reason which hit the nail in the head would be that it is simply an inevitable fact and nature of a league or competition that cannot be escaped. No matter how competitive or closely fought a league is, there will always be the worst out off the competing bunch, full stop.
Thus, despite the plethora of reasons that could be stated for a team to be worst in their league such as financial strength and well being, the competency of those managing the team, how the team operates, and so on, and after all those lengthy explanations about each one of them, at the end of the day, even if all those problems do not exist at all, it is safe to conclude that no matter what, in any league/competition, there will be a team that is the worst out of the bunch, and thus any team in any league would only fight to become the winners, while avoiding the losers' spots at all costs, but there will be competing teams who will fill those positions, including one team that has to brave the tag of “the worst team in the league”.
Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Why Soccer is Good for Kids
Soccer is undoubtedly the biggest and most famous sport in the whole world. Its popularity exceeds all other sports with billions watching and/or playing the game worldwide. Its governing body, FIFA has the most number of member nations, and the World Cup, its flagship competition is universally considered as the biggest sporting event on the planet, eclipsing even the Olympic Games. To cut a very long story short, it is a very simple but yet very famous sport and every country, even the USA which is so resistant towards the sport have started to openly embrace the sport as one of their own. This sport is also being played by a huge number of people around the globe, and that includes kids/children all over the world, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, and social status. In the actual fact, the activity of playing soccer among kids, including random kickabouts whether on a proper soccer field, a makeshift one, a Futsal arena, or even on the streets like how many superstars such as Carlos Tevez and Thierry Henry started out when they were kids themselves are considered so normal, so widespread, that kids, and even their parents, are likely to not realize the plethora of benefits that they stand to gain, ranging from their physical well being, emotional well being, to the possibility to reach a dizzying height in life just from casually playing soccer with other kids on a good day.
Many people call soccer as a male dominated sport, and the more extreme ones would even declare that this sport should be out of bounds to the more feminine gender. However, since we live in the increasing era of emancipation between the genders, and also the increasing popularity and standard of the womens' soccer worldwide, and as the title suggests, since this is only talking about kids in general, the benefits highlighted in the following paragraphs will be applicable for boys as well as for girls.
The first benefit for the kids from playing soccer is obviously the fact that the game helps each kid to build a sense of team-work, and to constantly expose them in a team based environment. We know that soccer is one of the most team oriented sports in the world. Many people might argue that other sports such as baseball and basketball are also team oriented sports, but if we are able to quantify/measure the level of “team elements” then soccer will definitely be ranked up there relative to other sports. To cite a real life example, just look the excitement within and surrounding the NBA team Miami Heat when they managed to sign James le Bron, one of the hottest names in basketball in recent times. Just because of the acquisition of this one player, Miami Heat has been touted as the next NBA champions for the next season. This is reminiscence to a few years ago when the same team signed Shaq O'Neal from LA Lakers. Just because of him, they did win the following season's NBA championship. While the same certainly cannot be said for soccer. When a team signs one player, that one player will not be able to carry the team forward all on his own. He has to adapt to his new surroundings, his new club's tactical set-up, as well as his new team mates' style of play. The transition of the one newly transferred player will not be as smooth as the ones observable in NBA such as illustrated above. Even when a player has been successfully integrated into a team and/or a whole newly assembled squad has successfully earned a decent amount of team chemistry, one player could not do it all. Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Leo Messi, Maradona, you name it. No player on earth will not be able to do everything on his own for the team.
The lengthy explanation above only serves to highlight how soccer is a very team oriented sport. Thus, when kids play soccer, they would learn how to work in a team. In a soccer team, each and every player has his own duties, and it is imperative that every one of them adheres to their own set rules all the time. There's no “I” in a soccer team, everyone has to work together to make the whole team functional. When there's even only one player in the team who is out of sync with his/her team mates on the pitch, the team's structure and general well-being will be in jeopardy, and the team will not function as it should be. This will definitely drill into the kids' minds that it is crucial that they think about others and not only themselves. In my opinion, this is especially important for only children in the world. Only children have always been labeled as kids who are not able to integrate well into the society when they reach adulthood, and they are also perceived to be destined as individualistic and egoistic individuals with no sense of team work at all as they supposedly have been getting whatever they want from their over-parenting parents and that they don't need to share their belongings with anybody since they do not have anybody to share anything with in the first place. Even though these harsh stereotypes and labellings have been dismissed by other groups of scholars, there are some truths in those stereotypes and soccer can help compensate the lack of sharing opportunities at home due to the absence of siblings, as these kids would learn how to work and operate in a team through the soccer matches that they participate in, and they would also learn that they cannot always get anything they want anytime, for example, they need to fight and jostle for the ball, try their best to beat the defenders or stop the strikers, and so on.
As they learn more about the game, and as these kids start caring more about winning trophies and competitions, they will learn some selfless traits from soccer. For example, when kid A has the ball around the right flank and he is surrounded by four defenders, then kid B, his team mate is waiting in the penalty area and he is minimally marked at best. Kid A has two choices, firstly, to be an egoistical hero and try to beat those defenders and to score the goal himself which he is likely to fail or secondly, to just send a pass to kid B for kid B to score a goal and win the match for his team. This is especially important in the working life as increasingly people need to work in a team, and that sometimes or even more often than how people perceive it to be, the harsh life often expects people to sacrifice their personal gains for the best of the team. Soccer prepares these kids to be those team players in an amazingly perfect, amazing, and of course fun manner.
This is also tied to the second benefit for those kids from playing soccer. It is no longer a secret that modern life is increasingly identical in meaning to “sedentary lifestyle” and that obesity and of course the problems associated with it such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke just to name three have officially been considered as epidemics, especially in the developed countries in which most of the time spent by people, and for kids as well, are simply between the keyboard and the chair. The all important physical exercise is increasingly considered as an activity not worth doing and that it is just a waste of time. The bare minimum exercise of an average of 30 minutes a day are considered by many, especially kids to be useless and pointless chores and that the time supposedly used for the physical exercise is better off in their minds to be spent on supposedly more productive activities such as studying for the kids. However, they fail to realize the sheer importance and necessity of doing physical exercise regularly and not only they will regret it much later in their lives when they have to gripe with a Pandora Box full of problems such as the various illnesses associated with the modern sedentary lifestyle such as diabetes and heart diseases to the various social stigma in the society against obese people.
Therefore, I feel that soccer really helps in an immense way to alleviate the kids from all those problems. When the kids play soccer regularly, they only realize it as playing a fun game with their friends. Even if they realize what I have mentioned above about the team bonding exercise provided by soccer, they are unlikely to realize that by playing soccer, these kids are doing themselves a great favor in each game day by exercising vigorously for the duration of the game. Assuming that thy play for at least 1 hour, we could just look at the statistics of professional football matches to see how players cover distances for up to 13 or more kilometers in one game! That is a great workout which would undoubtedly and markedly improve the fitness level of those kids as well as keeping themselves healthy physically and mentally. It has been proven that kids who exercise regularly tend to do much better in school compared to their more sedentary counterparts. Again, by playing soccer, the kids get a multitude of benefits, they get the fun, and they get healthy.
Thirdly, I would also like to elaborate more on the benefits of playing soccer for the mental health of the kids who play the game. It has been mentioned above on how students who exercise regularly tend to do better in school, but there is also one more important mental aspect which could be improved by playing soccer. Soccer is a simple game, and when simplified to its simplest form, it is just a game in which players who are playing the game are all constantly having one aim in mind, and that is to score goals, and of course to score more goals than the opponents. This is actually the macro and the more attacking side of the aim in football, and there is another more micro and defensive side of the game in which every single player on the pitch each has a defensive duty to regain possession when the opponents are with the ball. The tandem of both main aims in soccer means that the kids who play the game are having those aims constantly embedded into their minds. In the long run, the will to fight to reach the goal, the determination to overturn things when things are tough, as well as the occasions when they have to sacrifice their personal gains for the good of the team means that the kids will be stimulated to become a competitive, determined, and even tough individuals.
When these kids grow up, and when they eventually enter the workforce regardless of their fields of choice, they will take away with them from soccer the tough mentality and the sheer determination when they are striving towards their goals in life. This shows one great benefit from playing soccer in childhood (and even constantly in their lives later on) which could potentially span across almost if not all aspects of life.
Last but not least, and in fact one significant benefit, is simply the dazzling and lucrative opportunity for the kids to become professional soccer players. It has been assumed up to the above paragraph that the kids who play soccer will eventually go to the workforce and an impression seemed to be given that these kids will leave soccer for good once they have entered the workforce. However, that is not the case. We know that the professional soccer globally is a multi-billion dollars history in which one million Euros is considered “very cheap” and/or “very little amount” and that a top player could earn that amount in just approximately two months or even less. Like how I mentioned at the beginning on how top players such as Thierry Henry, Carlos Tevez, and Robinho just to name three started out playing soccer in their respective hometowns when they were kids and now they are the who's who of soccer. In other words, another and perhaps the most significant benefit that kids stand to gain by embracing and playing soccer is a glittering career in the professional scene.
The kids might just be playing casually with friends and/or representing their schools. It does not seem like a big deal at all to a casual and average observer. But in the professional scene exists people known as scouts who are employed by national team federations and football clubs (local or overseas) whose duties are to identify and pick out promising talents to be groomed into the final product and to serve the scouting team with distinction.
The obvious benefit of playing soccer professionally is of course in terms of finance. Many soccer players spent their childhoods in poverty, but soccer more often than not offer a way out of their plight. It is true that not many will get the chance to be the Ronaldos and Kakas of this world and earn millions of Euros annually, but even if they do not, soccer could at least provide an avenue of financial help at the semi-pro and/or amateur level. This is observed quite extensively in the countries in which soccer is the top sport such as the UK and France in which many people from policemen to binmen ply their trades in soccer on a part time basis. They could yet find their way to the top rung of soccer ladder from this route, such as how Steve Savidan, the somewhat legendary French player (who was a binman himself) would gladly testify to all aspiring semi-pro soccer players.
Even for kids who are not living in a top footballing nations such as Malta, Bhutan, and San Marino in Europe. they could easily be selected in the national teams of these nations and compete with the world's best in the European Championship against the best names in soccer such as Italy, Spain, and France. Even if they garner 0 point and even 0 goal scored, the experience of playing against the top soccer players such as Wayne Rooney, Daniele de Rossi, and David Villa is too invaluable. Thus, I would say that the biggest benefit for kids who play soccer is of course to pursue a career in soccer, whether as a top professional and be the next who's who in the sport, as well as just supplementing one's income by playing the sport on a semi-pro basis. Even for girls, fret not, as the women's scene of soccer is increasingly developing really well and the women's game is improving and garnering positive reputations as well as time passes.
We have seen how soccer is incredibly good for kids and that the benefits stated above are not mutually exclusive and that they are able to earn all of those benefits stated above all at once. Again, it is incredible and I would even say a bit spooky on how a simple sport such as soccer is simply irresistably good for the kids and how a world of benefits these kids stand to gain just from playing this game. This is the magic of the game, and the sheer impacts of soccer for kids around the world is just one little aspect of what soccer is capable of. In short, we, especially if we are soccer fans, should start thinking about educating our kids about soccer since a very early age and to encourage them to play the sport considering the plethora of benefits that they could gain from playing soccer. For the kids, let's tie up your boots' laces, bring the ball to the nearest play, and let's kick the ball around!
Many people call soccer as a male dominated sport, and the more extreme ones would even declare that this sport should be out of bounds to the more feminine gender. However, since we live in the increasing era of emancipation between the genders, and also the increasing popularity and standard of the womens' soccer worldwide, and as the title suggests, since this is only talking about kids in general, the benefits highlighted in the following paragraphs will be applicable for boys as well as for girls.
The first benefit for the kids from playing soccer is obviously the fact that the game helps each kid to build a sense of team-work, and to constantly expose them in a team based environment. We know that soccer is one of the most team oriented sports in the world. Many people might argue that other sports such as baseball and basketball are also team oriented sports, but if we are able to quantify/measure the level of “team elements” then soccer will definitely be ranked up there relative to other sports. To cite a real life example, just look the excitement within and surrounding the NBA team Miami Heat when they managed to sign James le Bron, one of the hottest names in basketball in recent times. Just because of the acquisition of this one player, Miami Heat has been touted as the next NBA champions for the next season. This is reminiscence to a few years ago when the same team signed Shaq O'Neal from LA Lakers. Just because of him, they did win the following season's NBA championship. While the same certainly cannot be said for soccer. When a team signs one player, that one player will not be able to carry the team forward all on his own. He has to adapt to his new surroundings, his new club's tactical set-up, as well as his new team mates' style of play. The transition of the one newly transferred player will not be as smooth as the ones observable in NBA such as illustrated above. Even when a player has been successfully integrated into a team and/or a whole newly assembled squad has successfully earned a decent amount of team chemistry, one player could not do it all. Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Leo Messi, Maradona, you name it. No player on earth will not be able to do everything on his own for the team.
The lengthy explanation above only serves to highlight how soccer is a very team oriented sport. Thus, when kids play soccer, they would learn how to work in a team. In a soccer team, each and every player has his own duties, and it is imperative that every one of them adheres to their own set rules all the time. There's no “I” in a soccer team, everyone has to work together to make the whole team functional. When there's even only one player in the team who is out of sync with his/her team mates on the pitch, the team's structure and general well-being will be in jeopardy, and the team will not function as it should be. This will definitely drill into the kids' minds that it is crucial that they think about others and not only themselves. In my opinion, this is especially important for only children in the world. Only children have always been labeled as kids who are not able to integrate well into the society when they reach adulthood, and they are also perceived to be destined as individualistic and egoistic individuals with no sense of team work at all as they supposedly have been getting whatever they want from their over-parenting parents and that they don't need to share their belongings with anybody since they do not have anybody to share anything with in the first place. Even though these harsh stereotypes and labellings have been dismissed by other groups of scholars, there are some truths in those stereotypes and soccer can help compensate the lack of sharing opportunities at home due to the absence of siblings, as these kids would learn how to work and operate in a team through the soccer matches that they participate in, and they would also learn that they cannot always get anything they want anytime, for example, they need to fight and jostle for the ball, try their best to beat the defenders or stop the strikers, and so on.
As they learn more about the game, and as these kids start caring more about winning trophies and competitions, they will learn some selfless traits from soccer. For example, when kid A has the ball around the right flank and he is surrounded by four defenders, then kid B, his team mate is waiting in the penalty area and he is minimally marked at best. Kid A has two choices, firstly, to be an egoistical hero and try to beat those defenders and to score the goal himself which he is likely to fail or secondly, to just send a pass to kid B for kid B to score a goal and win the match for his team. This is especially important in the working life as increasingly people need to work in a team, and that sometimes or even more often than how people perceive it to be, the harsh life often expects people to sacrifice their personal gains for the best of the team. Soccer prepares these kids to be those team players in an amazingly perfect, amazing, and of course fun manner.
This is also tied to the second benefit for those kids from playing soccer. It is no longer a secret that modern life is increasingly identical in meaning to “sedentary lifestyle” and that obesity and of course the problems associated with it such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke just to name three have officially been considered as epidemics, especially in the developed countries in which most of the time spent by people, and for kids as well, are simply between the keyboard and the chair. The all important physical exercise is increasingly considered as an activity not worth doing and that it is just a waste of time. The bare minimum exercise of an average of 30 minutes a day are considered by many, especially kids to be useless and pointless chores and that the time supposedly used for the physical exercise is better off in their minds to be spent on supposedly more productive activities such as studying for the kids. However, they fail to realize the sheer importance and necessity of doing physical exercise regularly and not only they will regret it much later in their lives when they have to gripe with a Pandora Box full of problems such as the various illnesses associated with the modern sedentary lifestyle such as diabetes and heart diseases to the various social stigma in the society against obese people.
Therefore, I feel that soccer really helps in an immense way to alleviate the kids from all those problems. When the kids play soccer regularly, they only realize it as playing a fun game with their friends. Even if they realize what I have mentioned above about the team bonding exercise provided by soccer, they are unlikely to realize that by playing soccer, these kids are doing themselves a great favor in each game day by exercising vigorously for the duration of the game. Assuming that thy play for at least 1 hour, we could just look at the statistics of professional football matches to see how players cover distances for up to 13 or more kilometers in one game! That is a great workout which would undoubtedly and markedly improve the fitness level of those kids as well as keeping themselves healthy physically and mentally. It has been proven that kids who exercise regularly tend to do much better in school compared to their more sedentary counterparts. Again, by playing soccer, the kids get a multitude of benefits, they get the fun, and they get healthy.
Thirdly, I would also like to elaborate more on the benefits of playing soccer for the mental health of the kids who play the game. It has been mentioned above on how students who exercise regularly tend to do better in school, but there is also one more important mental aspect which could be improved by playing soccer. Soccer is a simple game, and when simplified to its simplest form, it is just a game in which players who are playing the game are all constantly having one aim in mind, and that is to score goals, and of course to score more goals than the opponents. This is actually the macro and the more attacking side of the aim in football, and there is another more micro and defensive side of the game in which every single player on the pitch each has a defensive duty to regain possession when the opponents are with the ball. The tandem of both main aims in soccer means that the kids who play the game are having those aims constantly embedded into their minds. In the long run, the will to fight to reach the goal, the determination to overturn things when things are tough, as well as the occasions when they have to sacrifice their personal gains for the good of the team means that the kids will be stimulated to become a competitive, determined, and even tough individuals.
When these kids grow up, and when they eventually enter the workforce regardless of their fields of choice, they will take away with them from soccer the tough mentality and the sheer determination when they are striving towards their goals in life. This shows one great benefit from playing soccer in childhood (and even constantly in their lives later on) which could potentially span across almost if not all aspects of life.
Last but not least, and in fact one significant benefit, is simply the dazzling and lucrative opportunity for the kids to become professional soccer players. It has been assumed up to the above paragraph that the kids who play soccer will eventually go to the workforce and an impression seemed to be given that these kids will leave soccer for good once they have entered the workforce. However, that is not the case. We know that the professional soccer globally is a multi-billion dollars history in which one million Euros is considered “very cheap” and/or “very little amount” and that a top player could earn that amount in just approximately two months or even less. Like how I mentioned at the beginning on how top players such as Thierry Henry, Carlos Tevez, and Robinho just to name three started out playing soccer in their respective hometowns when they were kids and now they are the who's who of soccer. In other words, another and perhaps the most significant benefit that kids stand to gain by embracing and playing soccer is a glittering career in the professional scene.
The kids might just be playing casually with friends and/or representing their schools. It does not seem like a big deal at all to a casual and average observer. But in the professional scene exists people known as scouts who are employed by national team federations and football clubs (local or overseas) whose duties are to identify and pick out promising talents to be groomed into the final product and to serve the scouting team with distinction.
The obvious benefit of playing soccer professionally is of course in terms of finance. Many soccer players spent their childhoods in poverty, but soccer more often than not offer a way out of their plight. It is true that not many will get the chance to be the Ronaldos and Kakas of this world and earn millions of Euros annually, but even if they do not, soccer could at least provide an avenue of financial help at the semi-pro and/or amateur level. This is observed quite extensively in the countries in which soccer is the top sport such as the UK and France in which many people from policemen to binmen ply their trades in soccer on a part time basis. They could yet find their way to the top rung of soccer ladder from this route, such as how Steve Savidan, the somewhat legendary French player (who was a binman himself) would gladly testify to all aspiring semi-pro soccer players.
Even for kids who are not living in a top footballing nations such as Malta, Bhutan, and San Marino in Europe. they could easily be selected in the national teams of these nations and compete with the world's best in the European Championship against the best names in soccer such as Italy, Spain, and France. Even if they garner 0 point and even 0 goal scored, the experience of playing against the top soccer players such as Wayne Rooney, Daniele de Rossi, and David Villa is too invaluable. Thus, I would say that the biggest benefit for kids who play soccer is of course to pursue a career in soccer, whether as a top professional and be the next who's who in the sport, as well as just supplementing one's income by playing the sport on a semi-pro basis. Even for girls, fret not, as the women's scene of soccer is increasingly developing really well and the women's game is improving and garnering positive reputations as well as time passes.
We have seen how soccer is incredibly good for kids and that the benefits stated above are not mutually exclusive and that they are able to earn all of those benefits stated above all at once. Again, it is incredible and I would even say a bit spooky on how a simple sport such as soccer is simply irresistably good for the kids and how a world of benefits these kids stand to gain just from playing this game. This is the magic of the game, and the sheer impacts of soccer for kids around the world is just one little aspect of what soccer is capable of. In short, we, especially if we are soccer fans, should start thinking about educating our kids about soccer since a very early age and to encourage them to play the sport considering the plethora of benefits that they could gain from playing soccer. For the kids, let's tie up your boots' laces, bring the ball to the nearest play, and let's kick the ball around!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Time to Inreoduce Technology to Football?
The debate about the implementation of the various technologies in football such as the Hawkeye system used in tennis to determine whether the tennis ball falls into or outside of the court has been raging for quite some-time. It has died down in recent times due to the persistent unwillingness of FIFA, the world's football governing body to implement such technologies in football. Even when FIFA attempts to implement this, it has always encountered stumbling blocks especially in their voting system with the International FA Boards (IFAB) which consists of the FA (Football Association) of the various “countries” in the United Kingdom. The FA of Wales and Northern Ireland, that have veto power in the voting system always utilize their veto as they are afraid that their semi-pro leagues will be neglected as top leagues would get the top priority and have the best financial position to implement the technologies. However, this debate was re-ignited to an almost bordering to the ridiculous proportions after the last 16 round of World Cup 2010.
First, we have Argentina's 3-1 victory over Mexico, in which one of Argentina's goals from Tevez was totally offside but the linesmen and the referee gave the goal to Argentina. This incident was just a very small one compared to the second one which I am about to say, the one which arguably set the tone of the re-ignition of the wild and intense technology debate. That's none other than 1966 Wembley moment re-enacted in such a twisted manner. Frank Lampard shot towards goal from distance, hit the bar, bounced over the goal line, and out again. The referee did not consider that a goal and waved play on as the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer caught the ball. England is arguably the most media featured team in the world. Just open any football websites and/or newspapers, especially English language ones, and there's not even a day without England somewhere in the papers. Even if there's no mention of them on the Sports pages, they would hit other pages, even front pages (Ashley and Cheryl Cole split and Terry vs Bridge anyone?). Thus, when England is the team at the end of such a refereeing error which definitely calls for the introduction of technology, we could expect an intense debate for the introduction of technology and that's what we have been getting. In any case, this implementation of technology should have continued on to be debated instead of waiting for such a high profile and most media featured team to be adversely affected by it. Along with modernity, as well as the continuing incidences of high profile errors at the very top level and not forgetting how other sports such as tennis as mentioned above have implemented it long ago, it is pertinent that technology should be incorporated into the beautiful game for the better f the sport as well as for everyone associated with it.
Firstly, the obvious reason why technology should be implemented in football is because of the aforementioned high profile incidents that are game-changing. I also remembered somewhere in 2005 or 2006 if I am not wrong, there was a similar incident whereby the then Tottenham player Pedro Mendes launched a blistering shot from distance and the then Manchester United goalkeeper Roy Carroll parried it, but replays showed that the ball had passed the goal line before Carroll clawed it out of the net into safety. There are many more incidents like this, and the teams which are adversely affected by this such as Tottenham and England, especially England will argue to the end of the world that had their goal was allowed they would have clawed the scoreline back to 2-2 at that time with Germany after being 2 goals down, and they argue that they could have gone on to win the match. For one, I have to side with the English this time as prior to that incident, England was totally dominating the game, and had that gone in, I believe that England would have gone on to win the game, provided that they continue their dominance during that 15 minute period or so until the end of the game. This shows that this kind of unnecessary and frankly preventable errors definitely twist around the results of matches. Teams that should have won, did not, and on the other hand, teams that should not have won, won the match. Thus, it is absolutely necessary for FIFA to consider implementing technology in football so that teams that deserve to win a game could win a game. This is just about justice being heralded in the professional football games at the highest levels. Not forgetting the fact that football at that level should not contain such embarrassing errors.
The second reason is simply due to the flow of time. We have heard from topics outside of football on how certain beliefs are seen to refuse to embrace the modernity (or even post-modernity) which is here whether we like it or not, and that the reasons by the adherents of those certain beliefs are all pointing towards one word “traditionalism and purism”. Alright, basically that's exactly the very same set of reasons given by Sepp Blatter, the incumbent FIFA President against the implementation of technology in football. However, as mentioned above, football is inevitably will have to take on the modern era head-on, especially considering how other sports have taken those steps to adapt and evolve along with an era increasingly laden with various technological advancements. With the increasingly often game changing errors as mentioned just now, it adds more impetus for those at the top rungs of the footballing universe to just embrace the available various technologies and improve the game such that it would minimize and even eradicate ridiculous mistakes in the game at least at the professional level.
Another reason justifying the technology's introduction to football is of course to discourage yet another increasing sad trend in football, and that's the dark arts of the game such as diving (nowadays called simulating for softer effects), blatant handballs, and also influencing a referee by acting (such as when Maradona told his teammates “Hug me, or the ref won't allow it” right after the Hand of God goal). This will move us on away from tennis, and for the incorporation of the video replays into the games. We know that if we watch the football games on television, we are always served up plenty of video replays repeatedly after each goal and/or controversial decisions. Even in the stadium itself, there's a big screen basically screening the match to the people who are somewhere in row Z (read: at the very back end and high up in the stands). However, the referee must not make a decision out of those replays and even based on what he and/or his linesmen are seeing on the big screen in the stadum, and that the referee's decision is final, and not even if he realizes his mistake later on, he won't be able to make any changes to his decision no matter what. One example of this was in the 2006 World Cup final during the famous “Zidane headbutt” incident. When the referee was busy officiating with his back facing Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane, Zidane headbutted Materazzi as it is said (although even until today no one knows the exact real event) that the Italian had blurted some words about Zidane's mother and sister which did not sit well with the Frenchman. Although the incident happened with the ref's back facing them, he was able to see the incident on the aforementioned big screen in the stadium and he duly dished out a red card for Zidane. Although the referee was not supposed to use video evidence and have to see it with his own eyes, he had dished the red card, and also considering the referee's decision is final, go figure... In any case, technology did help the referee to make an informed decision.
What was proposed is simply the kind of video replay utilization used in rugby, in which each team has several chances (usually two) to contest any controversial decisions in the match. Then, the video replays will be used to judge a decision, for example whether a handball is deliberate, whether the ball has crossed the line, etc. Then the referee could overturn that decision based on the video replays. Since it has been proven in the aforementioned 2006 World Cup Final that technology has the potential to help referees to make more informed and correct decisions, why not implement it. It is true that change will undoubtedly trigger resistance to change, but that's the way it is.
Another benefit that FIFA could gain from the above implementation is just like what NFL is benefiting. During the replay assessment period when managers call for the video replay to contest a decision, there will be a short break on the game, and in NFL, usually this is used as a room for advertisements. This will undoubtedly generate even more cash for FIFA, as since it is a non-profit organization, thus more profits could be generated and more funds could be directed to FIFA projects to make football worldwide better such as its GOAL project. This will certainly go a long way in making football a better sport around the globe.
However, despite the obvious benefits that the footballing universe stand to gain from the implementation of technology in football as explained above, we have to remember that despite any arguments around the world that technology will make football a game which is what they call “too perfect” and becomes boring and one-dimensional and that we will miss all those dramas and controversies, they are in for a surprise if technology is really implemented. We know that technology itself is not perfect, and at some point there might be errors with the technology itself. Who is to say that no matter how well tested and tried technology is totally foolproof? I believe even if there's a total revamp in football such that even the referees themselves are replaced by totally cold but advanced robots, there are bounds to be errors from them sooner or later, and it won't be long before a new debate surfaces about the re-introduction of more human elements in the game.
However, I still feel that a degree of technological implementations such as the goal line technology as well as the video replays are still necessary considering how every game at the top level is such a high-stakes game right now. In short, patience is not a virtue in modern football, and that winning is virtually everything. Managers are sacked as soon as they are hired just because of a few blips of performance and not only careers are in jeopardy with defeats, but even lives are in danger. We have seen how Andres Escobar was shot after 1994 World Cup due to his own goal. Thus, it is pertinent that we remember that those dangers exist for the players, managers, and even the referees (there have been countless cases of death threats against the referees, and few notable cases such as that of Andres Frisk that they have to retire to avoid all the flak) for any wrong decisions and/or defeats. Thus, it it still necessary and would be great for the sport if FIFA could come with a grand plan to minimize those mistakes and finally augment football with the kind of technologies that have been serving other sports well.
First, we have Argentina's 3-1 victory over Mexico, in which one of Argentina's goals from Tevez was totally offside but the linesmen and the referee gave the goal to Argentina. This incident was just a very small one compared to the second one which I am about to say, the one which arguably set the tone of the re-ignition of the wild and intense technology debate. That's none other than 1966 Wembley moment re-enacted in such a twisted manner. Frank Lampard shot towards goal from distance, hit the bar, bounced over the goal line, and out again. The referee did not consider that a goal and waved play on as the German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer caught the ball. England is arguably the most media featured team in the world. Just open any football websites and/or newspapers, especially English language ones, and there's not even a day without England somewhere in the papers. Even if there's no mention of them on the Sports pages, they would hit other pages, even front pages (Ashley and Cheryl Cole split and Terry vs Bridge anyone?). Thus, when England is the team at the end of such a refereeing error which definitely calls for the introduction of technology, we could expect an intense debate for the introduction of technology and that's what we have been getting. In any case, this implementation of technology should have continued on to be debated instead of waiting for such a high profile and most media featured team to be adversely affected by it. Along with modernity, as well as the continuing incidences of high profile errors at the very top level and not forgetting how other sports such as tennis as mentioned above have implemented it long ago, it is pertinent that technology should be incorporated into the beautiful game for the better f the sport as well as for everyone associated with it.
Firstly, the obvious reason why technology should be implemented in football is because of the aforementioned high profile incidents that are game-changing. I also remembered somewhere in 2005 or 2006 if I am not wrong, there was a similar incident whereby the then Tottenham player Pedro Mendes launched a blistering shot from distance and the then Manchester United goalkeeper Roy Carroll parried it, but replays showed that the ball had passed the goal line before Carroll clawed it out of the net into safety. There are many more incidents like this, and the teams which are adversely affected by this such as Tottenham and England, especially England will argue to the end of the world that had their goal was allowed they would have clawed the scoreline back to 2-2 at that time with Germany after being 2 goals down, and they argue that they could have gone on to win the match. For one, I have to side with the English this time as prior to that incident, England was totally dominating the game, and had that gone in, I believe that England would have gone on to win the game, provided that they continue their dominance during that 15 minute period or so until the end of the game. This shows that this kind of unnecessary and frankly preventable errors definitely twist around the results of matches. Teams that should have won, did not, and on the other hand, teams that should not have won, won the match. Thus, it is absolutely necessary for FIFA to consider implementing technology in football so that teams that deserve to win a game could win a game. This is just about justice being heralded in the professional football games at the highest levels. Not forgetting the fact that football at that level should not contain such embarrassing errors.
The second reason is simply due to the flow of time. We have heard from topics outside of football on how certain beliefs are seen to refuse to embrace the modernity (or even post-modernity) which is here whether we like it or not, and that the reasons by the adherents of those certain beliefs are all pointing towards one word “traditionalism and purism”. Alright, basically that's exactly the very same set of reasons given by Sepp Blatter, the incumbent FIFA President against the implementation of technology in football. However, as mentioned above, football is inevitably will have to take on the modern era head-on, especially considering how other sports have taken those steps to adapt and evolve along with an era increasingly laden with various technological advancements. With the increasingly often game changing errors as mentioned just now, it adds more impetus for those at the top rungs of the footballing universe to just embrace the available various technologies and improve the game such that it would minimize and even eradicate ridiculous mistakes in the game at least at the professional level.
Another reason justifying the technology's introduction to football is of course to discourage yet another increasing sad trend in football, and that's the dark arts of the game such as diving (nowadays called simulating for softer effects), blatant handballs, and also influencing a referee by acting (such as when Maradona told his teammates “Hug me, or the ref won't allow it” right after the Hand of God goal). This will move us on away from tennis, and for the incorporation of the video replays into the games. We know that if we watch the football games on television, we are always served up plenty of video replays repeatedly after each goal and/or controversial decisions. Even in the stadium itself, there's a big screen basically screening the match to the people who are somewhere in row Z (read: at the very back end and high up in the stands). However, the referee must not make a decision out of those replays and even based on what he and/or his linesmen are seeing on the big screen in the stadum, and that the referee's decision is final, and not even if he realizes his mistake later on, he won't be able to make any changes to his decision no matter what. One example of this was in the 2006 World Cup final during the famous “Zidane headbutt” incident. When the referee was busy officiating with his back facing Marco Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane, Zidane headbutted Materazzi as it is said (although even until today no one knows the exact real event) that the Italian had blurted some words about Zidane's mother and sister which did not sit well with the Frenchman. Although the incident happened with the ref's back facing them, he was able to see the incident on the aforementioned big screen in the stadium and he duly dished out a red card for Zidane. Although the referee was not supposed to use video evidence and have to see it with his own eyes, he had dished the red card, and also considering the referee's decision is final, go figure... In any case, technology did help the referee to make an informed decision.
What was proposed is simply the kind of video replay utilization used in rugby, in which each team has several chances (usually two) to contest any controversial decisions in the match. Then, the video replays will be used to judge a decision, for example whether a handball is deliberate, whether the ball has crossed the line, etc. Then the referee could overturn that decision based on the video replays. Since it has been proven in the aforementioned 2006 World Cup Final that technology has the potential to help referees to make more informed and correct decisions, why not implement it. It is true that change will undoubtedly trigger resistance to change, but that's the way it is.
Another benefit that FIFA could gain from the above implementation is just like what NFL is benefiting. During the replay assessment period when managers call for the video replay to contest a decision, there will be a short break on the game, and in NFL, usually this is used as a room for advertisements. This will undoubtedly generate even more cash for FIFA, as since it is a non-profit organization, thus more profits could be generated and more funds could be directed to FIFA projects to make football worldwide better such as its GOAL project. This will certainly go a long way in making football a better sport around the globe.
However, despite the obvious benefits that the footballing universe stand to gain from the implementation of technology in football as explained above, we have to remember that despite any arguments around the world that technology will make football a game which is what they call “too perfect” and becomes boring and one-dimensional and that we will miss all those dramas and controversies, they are in for a surprise if technology is really implemented. We know that technology itself is not perfect, and at some point there might be errors with the technology itself. Who is to say that no matter how well tested and tried technology is totally foolproof? I believe even if there's a total revamp in football such that even the referees themselves are replaced by totally cold but advanced robots, there are bounds to be errors from them sooner or later, and it won't be long before a new debate surfaces about the re-introduction of more human elements in the game.
However, I still feel that a degree of technological implementations such as the goal line technology as well as the video replays are still necessary considering how every game at the top level is such a high-stakes game right now. In short, patience is not a virtue in modern football, and that winning is virtually everything. Managers are sacked as soon as they are hired just because of a few blips of performance and not only careers are in jeopardy with defeats, but even lives are in danger. We have seen how Andres Escobar was shot after 1994 World Cup due to his own goal. Thus, it is pertinent that we remember that those dangers exist for the players, managers, and even the referees (there have been countless cases of death threats against the referees, and few notable cases such as that of Andres Frisk that they have to retire to avoid all the flak) for any wrong decisions and/or defeats. Thus, it it still necessary and would be great for the sport if FIFA could come with a grand plan to minimize those mistakes and finally augment football with the kind of technologies that have been serving other sports well.
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