Oracle
June 14th, 2010, 02:18 PM
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-ever-happened-to-quality-soccer-2010-06-14
"JERUSALEM (MarketWatch) -- Four years on, millions are once again crowding pubs, taverns, sports bars, living rooms, storefronts and hotel lobbies around the globe, losing sleep, risking jobs and destabilizing marriages in the brave hope of seeing the world's most expensive athletes perform what their huge contracts are meant to deliver: great soccer.
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan scores a decisive penalty kick against Serbia in World Cup action on Sunday. Reuters
Alas, judging by the World Cup's opening games, the fans' wish will be denied -- again. The first seven games saw a mere eight goals, including one scoreless match and another that was decided by a lone penalty.
The eighth game finally yielded goals -- but that was Germany's lopsided 4-0 rout of Australia, the kind of outcome that has become common since commercial interests doubled the tournament to 32 teams, putting cannon fodder on the pitch instead of quality soccer. Visit MarketWatch's World Cup section.
The cup's diminishing quality is already 26 years old.
The five tourneys since 1986 have yielded on average hardly half the previous 14 tournaments' goals. Memorable spectacles -- like England's 4-2 defeat of Germany in the 1966 final or Brazil's 5-2 over Sweden in 1952, not to mention Hungary's 8-3 trouncing of West Germany early in the '54 cup -- are today unthinkable.
Heck, in the entire 2006 tournament, champion Italy scored a measly 12 goals and won the final only thanks to a penalty shootout following a stale draw. It was the second such anticlimactic aftermath in 12 years.
For a quarter-century, ever since West Germany erased a 2-0 deficit only to lose to Argentina 3-2 in the final, the World Cup has been a continuum of mostly boring, eventless, unimaginative and nearly scoreless games.
Ultimately, if the game's fertility crisis is not treated, team owners will find that TV-broadcast rights, which currently earn even mediocre European clubs an annual $50 million, will dwindle. So will sponsorship and ad revenue and stadium attendances that currently yield ticket sales of $5 million and more per game.
What, then, is the cause of soccer's emerging decline, and how can it be offset?
The cause boils down to one word: globalization. For soccer, the otherwise blessed phenomenon of diminishing borders, regulations and nationalism has been devastating.
Hungary's Zoltan Czibor scores against Uruguay in a 1954 semifinal. The Hungarians, in the midst of a stunning multiyear international football run that fueled a wave of nationalism, went on to defeat West Germany in the 1954 final. FIFA
Hungary's Zoltan Czibor scores against Uruguay in a 1954 semifinal. The Hungarians, in the midst of a stunning multiyear international football run that fueled a wave of nationalism, went on to defeat West Germany in the 1954 final.
For now, the big money that soccer involves makes owners, advertisers and officials assume business can proceed as usual.
It can't.
Fans are already asking what they are getting in return for players earning $1 million a month and being traded at $100 million, while investors from Abu Dhabi buy Manchester City from a former prime minister of Thailand for $380 million, and other newly arrived foreign owners lead English Premiership clubs as venerable as Liverpool, Portsmouth and West Ham into financial pits.
Not only the owners, but the players, too, have become foreign legions. Before globalization, most players played in their home countries, and national squads came mostly from a handful of local clubs."
Page 1Page 2
Read page 2 if want to but reading about soccer is as boring as watching IMO. ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZ
This must be what EV is trying cover up with his wholesale deleting of posts:nono:
"JERUSALEM (MarketWatch) -- Four years on, millions are once again crowding pubs, taverns, sports bars, living rooms, storefronts and hotel lobbies around the globe, losing sleep, risking jobs and destabilizing marriages in the brave hope of seeing the world's most expensive athletes perform what their huge contracts are meant to deliver: great soccer.
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan scores a decisive penalty kick against Serbia in World Cup action on Sunday. Reuters
Alas, judging by the World Cup's opening games, the fans' wish will be denied -- again. The first seven games saw a mere eight goals, including one scoreless match and another that was decided by a lone penalty.
The eighth game finally yielded goals -- but that was Germany's lopsided 4-0 rout of Australia, the kind of outcome that has become common since commercial interests doubled the tournament to 32 teams, putting cannon fodder on the pitch instead of quality soccer. Visit MarketWatch's World Cup section.
The cup's diminishing quality is already 26 years old.
The five tourneys since 1986 have yielded on average hardly half the previous 14 tournaments' goals. Memorable spectacles -- like England's 4-2 defeat of Germany in the 1966 final or Brazil's 5-2 over Sweden in 1952, not to mention Hungary's 8-3 trouncing of West Germany early in the '54 cup -- are today unthinkable.
Heck, in the entire 2006 tournament, champion Italy scored a measly 12 goals and won the final only thanks to a penalty shootout following a stale draw. It was the second such anticlimactic aftermath in 12 years.
For a quarter-century, ever since West Germany erased a 2-0 deficit only to lose to Argentina 3-2 in the final, the World Cup has been a continuum of mostly boring, eventless, unimaginative and nearly scoreless games.
Ultimately, if the game's fertility crisis is not treated, team owners will find that TV-broadcast rights, which currently earn even mediocre European clubs an annual $50 million, will dwindle. So will sponsorship and ad revenue and stadium attendances that currently yield ticket sales of $5 million and more per game.
What, then, is the cause of soccer's emerging decline, and how can it be offset?
The cause boils down to one word: globalization. For soccer, the otherwise blessed phenomenon of diminishing borders, regulations and nationalism has been devastating.
Hungary's Zoltan Czibor scores against Uruguay in a 1954 semifinal. The Hungarians, in the midst of a stunning multiyear international football run that fueled a wave of nationalism, went on to defeat West Germany in the 1954 final. FIFA
Hungary's Zoltan Czibor scores against Uruguay in a 1954 semifinal. The Hungarians, in the midst of a stunning multiyear international football run that fueled a wave of nationalism, went on to defeat West Germany in the 1954 final.
For now, the big money that soccer involves makes owners, advertisers and officials assume business can proceed as usual.
It can't.
Fans are already asking what they are getting in return for players earning $1 million a month and being traded at $100 million, while investors from Abu Dhabi buy Manchester City from a former prime minister of Thailand for $380 million, and other newly arrived foreign owners lead English Premiership clubs as venerable as Liverpool, Portsmouth and West Ham into financial pits.
Not only the owners, but the players, too, have become foreign legions. Before globalization, most players played in their home countries, and national squads came mostly from a handful of local clubs."
Page 1Page 2
Read page 2 if want to but reading about soccer is as boring as watching IMO. ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZ
This must be what EV is trying cover up with his wholesale deleting of posts:nono: