In the past week, I've read about two separate (but thematically-related) issues in soccer. The
first involves the very controversial
6+5 rule adopted by FIFA (and currently being vehemently opposed by the EU). I really am not sure if this rule will end up being passed, because the rule does sound at the very least borderline-discriminatory. What interests me is the exact motivation behind the rule. Purportedly, the rule will preserve the connection between country and club team while at the same time limiting the difference in talent between the richer and poorer clubs. I think it makes sense, in a sport with nothing like a salary cap, to try and maintain some sense of parity between clubs, especially since there isn't even a draft system where the poorer-achieving teams get higher picks. However, the idea that the players on a club team should reflect the nation in which the club teams plays seems somehow antiquated to me (and, when put this way, does really sound discriminatory). I'm also not sure this is the most effective way to create parity among teams, as the top English players would all be offered money to play for the best English teams, whereas currently this is less the case than I'm sure it would be. Thus, the best teams would probably lose some of their better foreign players, but to replace them they would just poach the better English players from the smaller English clubs. The rule might create parity among the best clubs from different leagues (which I'm sure will probably lead to anti-English claims about FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, as the Premiership is currently the most dependent on foreign players), but I still think the rule is more likely to accomplish more intra-club homogeneity than inter-club parity.
A
second article highlighted for me the massive racial (and nationalistic) issues that still exists in many European countries. I never thought much that, unlike America, many European countries have not had larger numbers of different ethnic groups until relatively recently. Spain and Italy (as well as Croatia I believe) have all been fined because of racist chants by their fans. It surprised me that even in countries that I think of as liberal (like France), racism is still such a divisive factor, although I also never considered that many European countries are much less racially diverse than the United States. I guess in the end though, it makes me happy that, despite a lot of the shit the U.S. takes for being ignorant, in race relations we are actually farther ahead than many countries. U-S-A, U-S-A.
Racism in Europe never ceases to amaze me. Increasingly, I find myself thinking of European countries on par with states, especially when you look at their size. I mean granted we joke about some states (New Jersey and the entire south come to mind), but nothing approaches the level of hatred exhibited among Europe's ethnic groups.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read up on this rule yet, but from what you wrote there should be a better mechanism in place to create parity and limit spending. The amount of money some clubs pay for one player is ridiculous, no person is worth that much. Salary caps and a new drafting system sounds far better.
Great post dude.
ReplyDeleteI've always found the Nationalism things interesting and feel soccer gets (somewhat) of a bad rap when compared to the U.S.
I think college sports fans are terribly, horribly racist *cough South cough* and it shows. I remember reading about some small Christian school making monkey noises whenever an opposing black basketball player touched the ball. That is ridiculous.
But yeah, seeing things like the Spanish National Team in 08 making slanty eyes during a team picture does make the good ole US of A seem a little more tolerant.
Thailand is pretty racist but only in the ignorant, closed-minded way and thankfully nothing leading to conflict. Having lived in Southern Europe and now here I can say that other countries could definitely prosper from a dose of Dr. King. Racial profiling happens daily (as it does in the States) but it isn't even seen as an issue. There's no outrage and definitely no legislation. America is scrutinized a lot for racism, but it's mostly from within our own borders where it is seen by most (hopefully) as abhorrent. In Thailand there's really no such thing as nationalities outside of Asia. You're white? You're a farang. American, Australian, English, Dutch, French, German and on and on; all farang. There's a lot I could get into but let's just say that more often than not, I feel judged by the color of my skin rather than the content of my character.
ReplyDeleteBut on a positive note: Kerry, you could totally get a job here teaching English! I had a friend in my program (an Asian-American) who actually went home because they high-end schools didn't want to hire someone who looked so Asian. I've seen job listings that pretty much said "Filipinos need not apply." Rich parents want their kid learning English from a real whitey and based on your posts about daytime television I gotta assume you're in rare form.
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