Comments on: What’s English about it anyway?

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:56:53 +0000

Very interessting Football Blog:

http://euro2008.swissinfo.ch

By: posh

posh — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:22:43 +0000

What about Redknapp? Does Harry have a place in the Englsh setup - or is Harry’s place on the sidelines?

By: Simon Evans » Blog Archive » Catching up

Simon Evans » Blog Archive » Catching up — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:27:20 +0000

[...] Soccer Blog-What’s English about it anyway? [...]

By: Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:11:40 +0000

I agree with every word Simon, top blog. As you know Italy has gone backwards. A few years ago there were foreign coaches like Fatih Terim, Eriksson and even David Platt, sort of.
Now there is no foreign coach in Serie A and some ‘big’ clubs like Lazio have no money to spend at all. Yet in a way it’s more ‘real’

By: Five Times

Five Times — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:55:17 +0000

Yes, the EPL offers the Americans the freedom to spend, no salary caps etc etc.

Down at Liverpool, that statement’s absolute rubbish! And rubbish is being very polite. I think the ‘do what you want with your money’ for Hicks & Gillet = spending as little as possible, squeezing the life out of Liverpool and then walking away with a profit. As many players have been sold by Liverpool to balance what was spent to buy Torres and a few others. Debt for the new stadium has been put on the club.

S.O.S.

That aside, the benefits of playing 1 game in another continent with die-hard fans who wake up in the dead of the night to support their adopted team and have poured tonnes of money for the club buying expensive new original merchandise every season, paying expensive cableTV subscriptions, all without asking for anything in return and all for the love of their club.

This far outweighs selling a club to Americans who only regard football as a sport played with an oval ball.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:01:56 +0000

I think English fans are mostly unaware and/or unconcerned about the legions of foreign fans they share their clubs with, which is fair enough.

I see the bigger problem not as a the Premier League losing its “Englishness” (because, you know, too late) but with the extra fixture. If each team plays every other team home and away then everything evens out at the end of the season. Add in an extra random game and you make a mockery of the league system.

So for me the problem isn’t the foreign location of the extra game, it’s just the extra game.

By: Simon

Simon — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:53:10 +0000

Thanks for that information Jeremy - interesting to note the reaction of MLB. I’m not saying that reaction is right btw, but it is certainly a contrast to the ‘in you come boys’ attitude of the Premier League.

Lenin’s Whippers: Yes, I am sure you are right - the NFL would import players if there were any good foreigners to import (actually there were two Brits in the Super Bowl this year!) Major League Baseball has a significant number of non-US born players and that number will likely grow. Would the Boston Red Sox fans accept a Chelsea style team made up entirely of Hondurans, Japanese, Venezuelans, Cubans and Dominicans without a single American in the starting line-up? I honestly don’t think they would.

Anyway, that is slightly off topic - what strikes me from the debates all over the web on this issue is that there is very little recognition from English fans of the genuine support for their teams outside of England.

I wonder how global ‘EPL’ fans feel about this?

By: Jeremy Brahm

Jeremy Brahm — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:04:35 +0000

There is one team with foreign ownership, the Seattle Mariners. When the team was looking to move in the early 1990s, Nintendo purchased the majority of the team, but Major League Baseball wanted the management of the team to be Americans, which it is, but the majority of the team is owned by Nintendo and Hiroshi Yamauchi the former chief of Nintendo in Japan has even been used to help sign Japanese players.

By: JohnST

JohnST — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:12:10 +0000

I love your final statement, “Now that the (mostly) Asian fans who have helped pour money into their clubs’ coffers may have a chance to see one game a year, the English suddenly bleat about roots and tradition.”

Well said. Those who profess they love the game and tradition can allow Manchester United and Liverpool to be saddled with huge personal debts by American owners, yet they raise a ruckus when the EPL go aboard in pursuit of more money.

By: Lenin's Whippers

Lenin's Whippers — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:02:29 +0000

Ah, but soccer is a truly global game. The NFL would not be beyond importing from outside their shores if anybody else played it to any appreciable standard.

I still love the idea that the sport synonymous with apple pie America has a socialist infrastructure.

Exhuming McCarthy indeed.