His Style Is Chaos Illumined By Flashes of Lightning

I have to admit I've never really considered myself a writer nor have I at any point had any desire to have/be involved in a blog but I have been a fan of the game of football as long as I can remember. (However as an American I just fairly recently started referring to it as football instead of soccer) I played for many years growing up and while I'm far from an expert, nor do I have the credentials to be a coach or manager, I do feel as if I have a very good general understanding of the game and many opinions on it.

Recently I was having a conversation via text with my buddy Eric , having our usual discussion of the recent events of English football and pieces from blogs we enjoy when the topic of Eric’s previous blogging came up. Needless to say, the man has missed it quite a bit since his last ventures in it. He, himself, is a writer, and a damn good one at that. I suggested he start his own blog to provide himself a place to put down and share his thoughts and provide an outlet for his regular musings into the strange and often times corrupt world that is football.

Anyway, once the topic came up a few ideas were tossed around and the man extended an invitation to me to contribute whenever possible to provide a little diversity to his works and maybe even entertain a bit while at it. With the offer on the table I was slightly honored to be a part of this and accepted with little hesitation. After all, Eric has been a longtime buddy of mine and I'm more than interested to see what he has to say and who or what will be the subject of his rants which are sure to follow.

Having read his previous efforts I can say that he never fails to entertain and is a well spoken, intelligent writer, who knows his stuff. I will always respect him for his knowledge of the game and its history as well as his ability to form opinions without bias. This is where he is well qualified to be the man writing the blog taking a critical look at the game and its many ups and downs that undoubtedly come year after year. That being said he does have teams/players he likes and supports as well as teams/players he cant stand just like the rest of us but I do know for a fact he calls it like he sees it and while he may be up front and in your face at times, he can always back up what he says and have reasoning behind it. Like he said already, feel free to exchange ideas.

As for me personally, I feel as if I contradict the mission statement here right off the front. I am very biased a lot of the time. I do give respect where respects due (A majority of the time. Some teams and players I will never respect regardless. I mean come on, Tottenham are the Lilywhites and their logo is a chicken standing on a fuckin beachball for fucksake. And don't get me started on the team that’s spent more money in the past two years than anyone in the history of the game. That’s right, fuck the oilers, er uh City), but a lot of my opinions are formed by where my loyalties lie. I am a die hard gooner. The Arsenal FC is by far the greatest team the world has ever seen after all. A fan for many years I can’t help but be slightly consumed by the goings on of the Arse. This being the case you can expect a lot of the pieces I post to involve AFC in one way or another if not completely be about them. I do not however feel this compromises the integrity of this blog as I am only a guest, who will be stopping in every week or so to share a few thoughts and fade into the background once again where I belong here. My role being as it is you may not hear from me as regularly and my posts might be short at times but hopefully I will provide a decent read, possibly a few laughs, and a few moments of entertainment on occasion.

Til next time- Dan

The Mother of Excess Is Not Joy But Joylessness

Whatever happened to European football’s traditional powerhouses?  Are they victims of the current football culture to spend far and beyond their own means, with the hope of possibly bringing home old Big Ears?  Or, more importantly, are they victims of the mentality of extravagant spending to lead to a big European pay-day?

Looking back at the history of European Cup champions, it is amazing to see how many of those teams have seemingly fallen into relative obscurity.  Even more telling, is looking at the teams who were runners-up.  Factoring out Real Madrid’s utter decimation of any, and all comers in the first five years; there was a pretty vast array of club who fell just short of the mark, to be able to lift the European Cup. 

Since the European Cup metamorphosed into the UEFA Champions League, that parity has gradually waned.  Instead of teams from Sweden or Yugoslavia making it to the final match, there is disproportionate domination by clubs from Germany, Italy, Spain, and England.  There have been four teams who have played in the Final, who were not from those nations: Marseille, Porto, Monaco, and Ajax.  These four teams represent an anomaly that stands starkly against the hegemony of the previously mentioned nations.

Prior to 1992, in England for example, before the creation of the Premier League, the top four teams were usually a crapshoot.  Sure, one team may have a run of domination, but the teams just under them could range drastically from year to year.  That, in a lot of ways, was a microcosm of how the European Cup played out.  You could have teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds United, or Arsenal have runs at the top.  But just on the fringe there would be teams like Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, or Ipswich Town who would be there looking for a chance to steal the championship.

In relation to Europe, there have been dominant teams since the creation of the UEFA Champions League, and the introduction of the Group Stage.  Barcelona being the most recent.  Or Manchester United.  Or even Real Madrid.  Teams who have a history of European pedigree, by this I mean that these teams have either won or played in the Final at least once prior to the creation of the Champions League; they have seemingly fallen by the wayside.  Benfica and Celtic are fantastic examples of this.  As Serie A, the Bundesliga, the Premiership, and La Liga have built a strong financial base, the Scottish Premier League, Portuguese Liga, and French Ligue 1 have fallen behind.  A very large reason behind this relates directly to the distribution of television rights.  In the US, via the outlets of Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN, I have access to the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga.  To a lesser extent the Dutch Eredivisie and Portuguese Liga are shown.  But that’s really it, unless I watch streaming matches online.  That, in its own way, seems representative of the problems that these lesser leagues face.

Another theory regarding the problem, that I have seen postulated, is that the implementation of the Group Stage, was designed to make sure that the power in the European Cup, stayed with the nations whose clubs traditionally drew large crowds and strong gates.  The oligarchy at the summit of European football have come to depend on the financial boost that is dispersed following the Champions League final.  Therefore, it stands to reason, to those who believe it to be so, that they will do everything in their power to maintain their stranglehold on that financial boost.  This includes going as far as insinuations of match-fixing and favoritism being aimed at the powers that run UEFA.  I cannot say that I necessarily agree with this stance, but there are all sorts of patterns that could be interpreted as being a bit suspicious, if one is inclined toward that school of thought.

However, it should be noted that the Champions League has gone through a few changes since its rebranding and modification.  The biggest of which being the elimination of one of the Group Stages.  That alteration, though, does not make it any easier to qualify for the Group Stage.  There is still the knockout round that begins shortly after the previous season’s final.  But those teams, if they manage to make it past that knockout phase, tend to be little more than fodder for the giants, to be able to qualify for the Knockout Phase.  If those teams are lucky, and can manage to get a shock result or two, they may get parachute into the Europa League, but the money there is nowhere near the same, nor is the prestige.

If Celtic or Benfica are the example of the power-shift that occurred in movement from European Cup to Champions League, then Ajax must be the exception.  Ajax has won Champions League, to compliment their European Cup successes from the 1970s.  However, nowadays, Ajax is seen as little more than a developmental club for the European elite.  Because of this status as a developmental territory, Eredivisie titles are now harder to come by.  However, this past season, they won for the first time since 2004.  But this is a team that is rich in European lore, and a team whom I feel should be represented more often in the later stages of Champions League.  But, unfortunately, due to the power of the teams coming out of Spain or England or Italy, teams like Ajax tend to miss out on opportunities to advance.

As an epilogue to this tale, I just wanted to mention Stade de Reims and Eintracht Frankfurt.  Reims were unfortunate to lose to Real Madrid twice during the Galacticos’ run at the pinnacle of the fledgling European Cup.  Eintracht were Madrid’s opposition in what was considered to be the greatest European Cup final ever, at the end of Madrid’s amazing run.  Reims has currently been languishing in the second division of French football, Ligue 2.  And even spent a bit of time in the Championnat National and the Championnat de France amateur, the third and forth divisions of French football.  Unfortunately, it does not appear that they will be fighting to return to their former European glory and status, anytime soon.  Eintracht on the other hand have spent much of the last fifteen years bouncing between the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga.  While they have not duplicated their run from the late 1950s, they still maintain a devoted following, and mid-to-lower table finishes in the Bundesliga, that ultimately led to their relegation at the end of this past season.

The financial monopoly that the European elite have created in the Champions League has effectively shut out teams who have a proud history of in Europe.  Teams who are considered to be “small market” are knocked out of the competition early, or get their chances snuffed out in the Group Stage.  Thus, forcing them to ply their trade for European glory, in the Europa League.

While I did not discuss it in this article, I will touch on it in a later article, I do sincerely hope that the Financial Fair Play regulations open up the door for lesser teams to advance and create a stir in the later stages of the competition.