I am a huge fan of american sports. I’ve adopted Los Angeles Dodgers as my Major League Baseball team and follow them vigorously through thick and thin. My devotion to the NBA and NFL isn’t as hardcore but I’m still a huge fan.
The reason for that is that I’ve grown fond of American athletes in general. With very few exceptions, they are nice, pleasant people who quite often go all out for their team. Following American sports provides serious contrast compared to European sports, namely soccer.
I love American sports and approach them with the knowledge that it’s entertainment. The level of anxiety prior to gameday in the US is significantly lower than in England, Spain or Italy (except maybe in Boston, Green Bay and other hardcore cities in the US). The US sports audience has a more sober view on “their” team. It’s more of a chance to flee from the troubles and disappointments in real life. Rather as in Europe where it almost can be viewed as the other way around.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because fans in Europe will soon have to adjust.
Soccer is on its way to becoming the mellow idea of entertainment that American sports are. There is no loyalty in American sports. Sure, players like, in various amounts, a city, team, or their fans. But loyalty as we expect from superstars in soccer? No way!
And this might be a problem.
Soccer fans in general are very, very devoted and the list of players receiving threats, just for not performing well enough, is long. If we were to add all those players being harassed by fans just for departing to a different club, the list would be even longer. Players are constantly exposed to demeaning chants for various, often meaningless, reasons.
That happens in Europe.
Fans on that side of the Atlantic have not quite grown accustomed to the fact that players have more or less become mercenaries. Sold from one team to another, often at an early age, they’re regularly taught that fans are not a vital part of the team itself but a source of income. That is fine for me, as long as the fans are okay with it as well.
During the summer we have seen Real Madrid spend money like there was no tomorrow. They now boast four of the five most expensive transfers ever made in the history of football. All other top teams are spending ridiculous amounts of money as well. Even smaller, less attractive, teams are spending.
All that amidst the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
In reality, this means that teams are selling out. Long gone are the days of protests of external takeovers in Europe. The protests after the Glazer’s takeover of Manchester United seems almost childish in hindsight.
Most hardcore fans in Europe have to realize the fact that players, owners and executives don’t “bleed” for the club liked they used to. Most fans will have to realize that players will perform better when their contract is up for renewal.
All fans will have to realize that sports in general and European soccer in particular is not what it used to be. Now more than ever, we will see teams, players and leagues as the gladiators of the Roman Empire, a distraction from politics, wars, despair: the real life.
I don’t believe there is a golden path in between.
The only change in system that would provide a solution is for the biggest clubs in Europe to break out and form their own separate league, the European Super League. Then we could care less about them and more about the real teams out there, the Sunderlands, the Almerias and the Sienas.
I’m quite sick of players in Europe proclaiming their love to the team,how they will never leave, how they could never let down the fans.
Until players start acting like they are treated (as mercenaries), they will not earn my respect. Until then, I almost can’t stand it.