Another route into becoming a European Soccer fan is to read a couple of books on it - ones that focus a little less on the intricacies of the game and more on the society of it.
I’ll nominate two very good ones:
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby (the same guy who wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy).
The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro by Joe McGinniss (author of Fatal Vision).
I’d love to have other recommendations posted in this thread.
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I would second this, even though as an Arsenal supporter i may be a bit biased. It’s not just about Arsenal, though; it’s really more about the whole psychology of being a football fan, about how and why you keep supporting a team even when it never wins anything–the book covers Hornsby’s life up through the 1980s, and during most of those years, Arsenal was a very mediocre side, usually mid-table at best.
It’s easy to forget that nowadays. With Arsenal doing the double twice within the last five years (98 and 2002), you kind of get complacent about always finishing near or at the top. When you look over Arsenal’s history in the 70s and 80s, though-- excepting '71, the first time we did the double (i was born one year too late to see that)–it’s hard to believe that we’re complaining so much about coming in second place this year, with very good odds at winning the FA Cup.
In other words, we could have it a lot worse.
We could be Tottenham (who haven’t won the league 1961.)
I’d just like to point out here that Celtic have always had Protestant players, but Rangers had a No Catholics policy until 1989.
*Originally posted by everton *
Arg - now I’m beginning to understand some of the frustration Leeds’ supporters have for their team. I may need to look to another team with more “promise” 
I rather liked Newcastle when I saw them play on cable - Shearer and Dyer, especially.
By the way - did you guys find Brian McBride a decent addition to your squad? As a Columbus Crew fan, I was just curious as to how he rates in the eyes of European football aficianados.
Finally, what’s the perception of Watsford? I saw their game against Southhampton in the FA semis and rooted for them against their Premier Division opponent (I’m assuming Watsford is in the first division). Do they have a lot of young talent, or did they merely have a good run with good, but not great players on the downside of their careers? Just curious…
rexnervous,
Try “Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer” by David Winner.
And another - “Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism” by Andrei Markovits and Steven Hellerman. The book explores reasons for why “football” isn’t popular in the US but virtually everywhere else. It also provides “…a comparive analysis of sports cultures in the industrial societies of North America and Europe.”
We liked Brian. He was signed as temporary cover when we had a few injuries at the start of the year and only played six games, but he managed to score four valuable goals, had a very positive, professional attitude, and made plenty of friends at the club. The only reason why he wasn’t signed on a longer contract is because money is a bit tight for us and it was felt that MLS were asking more than we wanted to pay for a 30-year-old.
He had previous experience working with our manager at his previous club and apparently it was an easy decision for them both to bring Brian over. I’m sure he would have stayed longer if we could have sorted out the finances, but I also suspect that one of the reasons he did so well is because he knew his contract was a short one, so he didn’t feel under too much pressure to prove himself. Being able to relax on your shot is always good for strikers.
Watford are a strange club. They’ve never won a major trophy but exceeded all expectations by reaching the top division for a period during the ’80s (they finished second in the 1982/83 season). In spite of Elton John being their No.1 fan and major shareholder for years they ran into big money problems in ’90s, partly because their manager overspent on players who didn’t do well, partly because their partners in media rights deals failed to pay what they had agreed (I think that’s still in the hands of the lawyers) and partly because Elton had more money to spend on flowers and jewelry than the team.
Their current squad has been chosen to ease the debt burden. It contains a number of seasoned professionals who either never made it big at their previous clubs or are reaching the end of their careers, mixed with youngsters we can’t tell much about yet. Although he wasn’t eligible to play for them in the FA Cup, the player who made most headlines this season was Michael Chopra, who they signed on loan from Newcastle (and who would prefer to go back there rather than make a permanent move). At the start of this season the players took a 12% pay cut to avoid bankruptcy and although they finished mid-table this season, they can’t expect a return to the Premier league in the near future.
I wouldn’t expect their good cup run this season to set any precedents, but it brought back some happy memories for me as Everton beat them in the 1984 final.
What are the average salaries of players in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga? I’m not talking about the superstars, just the mid-level and low-level players. Also, what about the players in Divisions 1, 2 and 3 of the English League?
A comprehensive set of figures is not easy to come by, but as you can see from this article, most Division 1 clubs are in financial trouble because income from TV, other marketing sources and the transfer market have all shrunk recently and players’ contracts were drawn up under the assumption that more money would be available. Big changes are essential.
Salaries in the lower divisions are predictably lower, and for Premiership clubs they are much higher. Even so, there is a huge differential between the salaries paid to top rated players by wealthy clubs like Manchester United and those paid to less well-off clubs like Bolton or Charlton. The top-earning player at Everton makes about £1.8m (US$2.9m) before tax, but our salaries are in the lower half of the Premiership scale. The highest paid player is David Beckham at Man U. He makes around £4.6m per season basic salary, plus other sponsorship and image rights deals increasing his overall income to about £10.5m (US$16.8m). See here for more details of his money and that of other top European earners.
Offhand I’d estimate that salaries are roughly comparable between England and Italy, Spanish clubs pay a little less, German clubs pay significantly less again. I’ll try to find more stats.
Thanks for that information, ruadh. Have Rangers had any success in getting away from that sectarianism?
I must admit that i hear more intolerance coming from Rangers’ supporters than Celtic. When i referred to the dangers of walking in Belfast wearing the “wrong” colours, i was thinking of Gerard Lawlor’s death in particular. This was around the time that Neil Lennon was forced to retire from playing international football for Northern Ireland after receiving death threats from NI supporters. His crime? Being a Catholic and playing for Celtic.
Unbelievable that this kind of thing is still happening today. What does this stuff have to do with football, anyway? It’s one thing to be proud of your club’s tradition, but killing someone for wearing your rival club’s shirt?
If any Rangers’ fans would like to share their perspective, i’d be interested in hearing it…although it might be best to start a new thread if anyone would like to pursue this topic further…
I won’t attempt to give a full answer because ruadh will be able to do that when she shows up, but in the Gerard Lawlor case he wasn’t murdered for supporting the wrong team exactly, but because his assailants were looking for a Catholic target and the green and white shirt was all the evidence they needed to guess right. It’s still an abomination of course.
I can’t recall anybody on these boards who has admitted to being a Rangers fan, but we’ll wait and see. I did meet one IRL who was a very pleasant guy, but he was Australian and could only trace his ancestors back to NI over two generations. He strongly disapproved of sectarianism FWIW.
After a short research on this site www.transferspion.de I think one can say an average player in the Bundesliga would earn about 500,000 EUR per year. Topearners (Kahn, Amoroso, etc.) will get up to maybe 4 or 5 million EUR.
everton’s right - it isn’t really the football team that Gerard Lawlor (or Thomas McFadden, or Mark Scott, or Liam Sweeney, or any of the other Celtic fans murdered or seriously injured in the past decade) supported, but what that indicated to their attackers/killers about their religion. And if you really look into it it isn’t really about religion, either; in Northern Ireland it’s the political issue and in Scotland it’s just good old-fashioned (anti-Irish) racism. Yes, probably a subject for another thread.
There was a Scottish poster called The Mad Hun who I assume must have been a Rangers fan. Haven’t heard from him for a while though - Rangers fans are pretty quiet these days
Well, I’m no Rangers fan, but I’m from NI and have lived in Glasgow for 5 years so can comment a little on the levels of sectarianism surrounding football, if you like.
If you want to start another thread someplace else, I’ll contribute there.
There weren’t many soccer fans in Missouri, but when I went to high school it was slightly surprising to find a core of EPL fans, who just happened to be the guys I mostly spent my time with. Since every last one of them were ManU fans, that’s who I watched the first time I watched professional soccer, and so that ended up being the side I supported.
Yeah, they’re “the best team money can buy” and the EPL equivalent of the NY Yankees, but in America they’re the easiest club to follow, since they get the most television coverage (other than Mexican league games on Telemundo). The only club I can find as much information on is Liverpool, since a friend of mine is from Liverpool and she still keeps up with them. ManU gets all the press here in America, so they’re the natural choice to follow. I’m sure most baseball fans in Japan who follow American baseball are Yankees or Mariners fans, since those games are on in Japan every day (as Ichiro, Kaz Sasaki, and Hideki Matsui play for those two teams.)
Interestingly enough this happened yesterday.
To those who ask, what has this to do with football? Well, nothing obviously, just in the same way that most sectarianism has nothing to do with religion. Unfortunately violent morons are rarely short of an excuse for violence and deaths the world over can be often be attributed to as little as supporting the wrong team or wearing the wrong colours.
Nor should you be mislead into thinking that the Celtic/Rangers excuse for thuggery is all one-way. Celtic have ‘supporters’ who are just as handy with the sectarianism and violence.
It is a pity that a thread on the subject of European football ends up on this subject. But then, Celtic fans are as bad as Rangers fans, they can’t allow a mention of their team to pass without having a dig at the other.
It doesn’t have to end up on this subject. A few people have already suggested that the less savoury side of the Old Firm rivalry would be better suited to another thread, and I would have waited for that thread to appear before mentioning the latest Neil Lennon incident.
Why not explain which team you support and why? I reckon that would be of more interest to the OP.
I don’t think it should come as much of a surprise to discover that football fans from this side of the ocean already have a bad reputation in the USA because of reports that tend to appear prominently in the American media. But there are millions of us with enjoyable first hand experiences who can take this opportunity to reassure them that there’s nothing to worry about.
In any case, from WWI onwards there are numerous cases where football has been the only point of contact between people and countries at times of conflict. A good image to bear in mind is the exchange of flowers and pennants before the USA-Iran game at the '98 World Cup.
I’m not claiming that Celtic Park is a sectarianism-free zone, but I do dispute that each side is as bad as the other. FFS, you only need to look at the body count to see that isn’t true.
Since i initiated this hijack, it’s only right that i take it to another thread:
Football (soccer) and hooliganism
So this way we don’t end this thread on that particular topic.
And to get back on topic here, does anybody refer to the Premiership as the “EPL” in England? I’ve only spent a couple of years in London, but i never heard “EPL” while i was there. In the States, however, i always hear it called that.
OK, i don’t “always” hear it called anything over here, outside of a small circle of Europhile friends.
Anyway, is this a purely American thing? Is it just because we call everything by letters here? (NFL, NBA, NHL, etc.) Except for baseball, of course.
I’ve seen ruadh referring to it as the EPL here, but to my knowledge nobody in England does. When they changed the format for the 1992/93 season the official new name for the top division was the FA Carling Premier League. When the sponsors changed in 2001 it was changed to the FA Barclaycard Premiership.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t refer to it as anything other than the “Premier” or “Premiership” colloquially. It suited me fine when it was plain ole Division 1.
I expect you’re right about the the three-letter-acronym thing fitting with routine American parlance, but also the official name for the top division in Scotland is the Bank of Scotland Scottish Premier League, which is easy enough to abbreviate to SPL, and therefore Scottish fans might say “EPL” to distinguish it from their own league. English fans say “Scottish Premier” when referring to that league.