This Week in World Football: Portrayals of footballing passion

Football is the world’s most popular sport. The game has fans in all corners of the globe who follow their teams with their own unique traditions, values and displays of support and passion. This week in world football there were a few stories that highlighted just how differently fans across the plant show their love for our beautiful game.

WHO CARES ABOUT THE FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP (CWC)?

Apparently, Corinthians fans do. The CWC should be one of the most prestigious competitions in all of football. Any competition that crowns it’s winner Champion of the World at very least sounds important. However, with the competition taking place over the last week it was clear to see that in different parts of the world the CWC is judged in very different ways.

Stories have emerged this week of Corinthians fans selling their homes, quitting their jobs and borrowing money from anyone willing, showing just how passionate Brazil is about the CWC. Especially when compared to most Premier League fans, who were more likely just confused Chelsea didn’t feature in this weekend’s matches. I’d actually have felt bad for the 30,000 Brazilian fans in Japan if Chelsea had returned to London with the cup, where it would probably just gather dust on the shelves of Roman Abramovich’s second favourite yacht. Congratulations Corinthians, Brazil, South America.

A-LEAGUE FLARES UP

Displays of passion are also making news in Australia at the moment. The A-League are getting bigger crowds than ever before and the league looks like it is on the up, particularly with the introduction of new team Western Sydney Wanderers creating a Sydney Derby to go with the Melbourne Derby and already established Adelaide – Melbourne rivalry. Unfortunately the media constantly focus on so called ‘crowd trouble’ supposedly caused by these games and fans who use flares. Overlooked are the far more regular ejections of drunken fans at AFL, NRL and cricket games across the country.

Naughty little Adelaide Utd fans set off a flare during the game against the Melbourne Victory

Most people support the flares claiming they show the fans’ passion for the team. Why? Because fans in South America are famously passionate and they use flares? Using flares at an A-League game is a cheap way to create an atmosphere and is just how fans, new to game, think they should act. Most of the fans who had flares at my first A-League game this week were kids, more intent on trying to push one another on the pitch than watch the game. Are these fans really the standard bearers of Australian football fans, leading the crowd in chants with flares held aloft? If Australians are really passionate about their football teams they wouldn’t need flares to prove it.

SUNDERLAND FANS GIVEN LITTLE TO SING ABOUT, SING ANYWAY.

In the Premier League, Sunderland fans showed us all how it’s done and were praised by many for cheering on their

Sunderland Fans 2 (Photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald)

hopeless team right to the end of the game against Man United, despite watching a standard of football that probably would look poor even in the A-League. Despite this they out-sung United throughout, particularly in the last 20 minutes, when all was definitely already lost, and even I had come close to fast forwarding the recorded coverage of the game I was watching. Sunderland have always been inspirational in the stands, less so on the pitch.

FRENCH FANS STARVED OF HOME GAMES

In France, Ligue 1 side Bastia will be unable to feel the passion of their loyal fans after being banned from playing at home because of some violent incidents before and during their matches. “It’s great to say we can’t play at Bastia, but the gentlemen on the Disciplinary Commission need to tell me where we can play and how we get there” said the club’s President. His questions are all the more pressing after the club’s logistics official, Jo Bonavita, reacted to the ban by going on hunger strike.

SNOW TROUBLE FOR VENLO

Fans of Dutch team VVV-Venlo showed their commitment to the team in a unique way this week by helping the club shovel show prior to kick-off. The club are struggling in the top flight of Dutch football and were in desperate need of a win. Their latest fixture came extremely close to postponement because of snow and ice covering the pitch but fans picked up shovels and got to work. The game was played and Venlo repaid their supporters with a 3-1 win and this creative celebration. I wonder if someone got yellow carded for it?

Football makes fans do funny things for their love of the game and their team. It might not be easy to understand for fans of other teams, other sports or in other countries. But to some people, somewhere it all makes perfect sense.

Related articles

• Changes needed to earn FIFA Club World Cup the respect it deserves (thefansbase.wordpress.com)
• Who cares about the A-League (thefansbase.wordpress.com
• Corinthians: World’s craziest fans? (edition.cnn.com)
• Do fans need to suffer to appreciate football? (footballfancast.com)
• Bastia official starts hunger strike after club’s stadium ban (guardian.co.uk)

Changes needed to earn FIFA Club World Cup the respect it deserves

FIFA Club World Cup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Sunday Chelsea and Corinthians will meet in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup to determine who is the best club team in world football. Why is it that a competition with such prestigious connotations is treated with so much indifference?

The truth is, that outside Europe, it is actually a very important and highly anticipated tournament. For UEFA’s representatives, Champions League winners Chelsea, it might just serve as a nice break from the rigours of Premier League football and a chance for team-bonding and travel, but for the champions of Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America and North America it is far more meaningful.

Even though European teams are usually favourites to win the tournament the cup is hardly a sought after piece of silverware in the continent. In 2010, while current Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez was competing in the tournament with Inter Milan, he described how his South American and African players came to him desperate to fulfil their lifelong dreams of being picked to play in the Club World Cup. Despite this, and the team’s subsequent victory in the tournament, Benitez’s bosses at Inter didn’t share their passion and he was sacked soon after. In 2000, the competition’s inaugural year, Manchester United chose not to compete in the FA Cup in favour of the Club World Cup. It is hard to imagine a similar choice being made by an English team a decade later.

Outside of Europe however fans reflect their players desire to become world champions. 15,000 people turned up at the airport to cheer Brazilian side Corinthians on their way to the tournament. Tens of thousands of football fans have turned up to the games in host nation Japan and for part-timers like Auckland City, winners of the Oceania Champions League, and all the other teams involved, the tournament is a chance for them to show they can compete against the best in the world. It is a chance for world leagues and confederations to show that they have skill, talent and potential on the world stage.

Benitez speaks of the tournaments importance to his players in 2010. FIFA Club World Cup 2010: Benitez & Diego Milito © inter.it (Photo credit: καρλο [ AKA Gilyo])

Mexican side Monterrey and African giants, Egyptian side Al-Ahly, both made it to the semi-finals before losing to their superior opposition but came into the tournament confident of their chances of securing unlikely victories. Despite missing out on places in the final all the losing teams, also including Japanese K-League Champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Asian Champions League winners, Ulsan Hyundai of South Korea, will play more games to determine who finishes 3rd, 4th and 5th. All the games are massive for the teams involved with decent price money on offer and history to be made. Amateur Auckland City players returned to New Zealand as heros in 2009 after beating host team Al-Ahly and future finalists and African Champions Mazembe, in the biggest matches in their existence.

Still, despite being the only competitive world club tournament, with such unique match-ups, inspiring underdog stories and colourful teams the Club World Cup is often judged in England and Spain as equal to a friendly pre-season cup. How can the tournament get the respect its ideals deserve?

Scheduling is the biggest problem. The tournament is hosted by the same country for a number of consecutive years. Japan hosted between 2005 and 2008, did so again in 2011 and holds this years’ competition. The UAE were hosts in 2009 and 2010 and the Club World Cup travels to Morocco for two consecutive years starting in 2013. Why not share the responsibilities around the world? With a new host each year the cup would quickly get more exposure, as would other footballing nations around the globe. Better still FIFA should have a European country host the tournament to show the most powerful of footballing regions what the tournament is all about. With little chance to watch the event unfold on TV how can European fans be expected to get excited about something so distant.

Most importantly the knockout format should be replaced with a group stage, increasing the teams involved to 8, and giving teams more of a chance to face the eclectic opposition that make up the Club World Cup. The group format would also avoid the long waits between games and the somewhat pointless exercise of playing games to rank each team.

Playing the tournament in two groups of four, with the top two progressing from each, would also remove the need to give teams from UEFA and CONMEBOL free passes to the semi-finals, something that has no doubt contributed to teams from either South American or Europe winning every Club World Cup in its 12 year history. Only one team from the other 4 FIFA confederations has ever made it to the final when African champions Mazembe lost 3-0 to Benitez’s Inter Milan in 2010.

There is also the matter of adjusting the countries in each FIFA confederation with huge gaps in ability developing between each one. It is especially clear that the Oceania Football Confederation is significantly weaker after Australia were allowed to move to the Asian Confederation

These changes would make the competition more competitive, more visible and more meaningful and as a result the Club World Cup could one day achieve the popularity that is surely warranted by a competition which crowns one football club champions of the world.

Related articles

• Club World Cup massive – Benitez (bbc.co.uk)
• Torres defends Club World Cup (soccerway.com)
• Corinthians make final (arabtimesonline.com)
• Al Ahly’s odds-defying run continues into Club World Cup semifinals (prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com)
• Club World Cup: All eyes on Japan (bbc.co.uk)