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FOOTBALL THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

FOOTBALL THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. 1990-2013. From average salaries to players who did not play but were paid a fortune ….

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FOOTBALL THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

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  1. FOOTBALL THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS 1990-2013

  2. From average salaries to players who did not play but were paid a fortune…. • Winston Bogard(from Barcelona to Chelsea in 2002): games played 12 in 4 years for 40.000 poundsa week (even though at some point he was forced to train with the juniors he did not leave the club) • Thomas Brolin : 19 games for Leeds United = 240.000 pounds a shot.

  3. THE FOOTBALL OF VANITY • Why playing if you could be paid more from advertisements and endorsements? In 2005 David Beckham earned 2/3 of his 25 million euros annual income from something other than playing football. Alessandro Del Piero 4.5 ml. from Juventus, 8 ml. from sponsors

  4. ADVERTISEMENTS…

  5. CLUBS AND INCOME • Property developments (Chelsea), pubs (Manchester United which planned to build a chain of Red Devil bars across South Asia) and even trading in nuclear technologies (Dinamo Kiev) allow football clubs to make more money “outside the pitch”. • Football Clubs became businesses and , more important, brands. • What were symbols of patriotism, collective identity, neighborhood solidarity, became consciously designed icons and symbols of identity that can be purchased rather than inherited, felt or learned. • When asked “why didn’t you buy Ronaldinho?” the Director of Football of Real Madrid replied “There was no point: he is so ugly that he can sink you as a brand. • Super cups played in New York or Bejing, teams touring exotic countries like China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. • Rotating and electronic advertisement boards. • Sponsors even on referees’ shirts • Stadiums built and renamed for a price (Allianz Arena, Emirates, Reebok Stadium).

  6. THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL • The ideological and institutional victory of capitalism after the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and of communism in 1991 led to a transformation of Football. • But one should consider that football’s economic significance goes beyond its size.

  7. Football’s minor importance in a wider economy • Workforce of a single top division in Europe: 500 players, 200 coaches and few thousands administrators, factotums, managers, etc. • The equivalent of a medium-size factory • Premier League turnover: 1.5 billion euros (not even comparable to that of a big supermarket chain) • The profits made big Europe’s major oil companies were bigger than the turnover of entire national football economies

  8. FOOTBALL AS EXEMPLAR COMBINATION OF WORKING MARKET AND PRIVATE SECTOR? • NO. • Football is about cooperation as much as competition (remember Socrates?) • Indeed, if the market rewards success and punishes failures too systematically, then the gap between rich and poor will widen and tarnish the competitiveness of the game. • IT HAS BEEN PROVED ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A FOOTBALL CLUB PROFITABLE (of the 22 clubs listed in the UK Stock Market, only 12 remain and these are traded at a mere fraction of their initial offer price)

  9. INEQUALITY • Like the supposed benefits of Capitalism never reached the eastern side of the Continent after 1991, the booming “new European football economy” never reached Eastern Europe: as the value of TV rights exploded its domestic football stagnated and was blighted by loss of skilled players, corruption and organized crime (as much as the “real economy in those very countries)

  10. THE CORE OF REAL FOOTBALL by income, quality, prestige, remained in the five big leagues of England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, with two arcs of semiperipheral football nations (Scandinavia and Eastern-Southern Europe)

  11. MEDIA • The sheer quantity of football in Europe’s public sphere and conversation has grown immensely. From almost no live football (until 1973) to all the games of a league broadcasted live. • From one evening program to 24/7 coverage and newspapers blossoming.

  12. POLITICS • 1998: two million people gathered in the Champs-Elysees in Paris to celebrate the French National Team’s victory in the World Cup. A multi-ethnic carnival of a triumphant civic republic over ethnic nationalism. • 2002: Turkey into the semi-finals of the World Cup- National Holiday granted. • 2006: In the aftermath of Italy’s loss vs France , Silvio Berlusconi burst out: “We should and could have won….you cannot leave the source of their game, Zidane, free to run and show is prowess…even an amateur coach would have realized that”. As a result the Italian coach, Dino Zoff, resigned.

  13. FOOTBALL HAD BECOME…. • Exemplar of a new economy • An instrument of civic, regional and national identity • A vehicle for personal and political promotion • But also tainted with: corruption, collusion, deception and reflecting a continent more globalized (television, internet) but also blighted by unreformed clientelism, closed and self-serving elites, desperate inequalities and systemic racism

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