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ProsperoDGC
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10 months ago
in Why So Many Empty Seats For Cup Competitions? on EPL Talk
There's a simple solution to this: stupidity. When the Ricoh stadium was built, they put the TV camera stanchions above the home fans seating area. Consequently, the stand BENEATH the cameras are mostly full, while the stands opposite are often less than half full.
This isn't to say that other factors aren't also at play -- Sky's TV money, the too-full football schedule, and so on -- but the design of the stadium is the primary reason.
This isn't to say that other factors aren't also at play -- Sky's TV money, the too-full football schedule, and so on -- but the design of the stadium is the primary reason.
11 months ago
in English Football: Recapturing True Football on EPL Talk
If you haven't already, I'd STRONGLY urge you to go and buy David Goldblatt's "The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football" (http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Round-Global-History...) and read it very carefully. As he demonstrates, England gave the world football but it's no more an "English game" than the Internet is "American".
The idea that English leagues should somehow cling feverishly to an ill-defined brand of football which is somehow more "English" (by which you appear to mean more "honest and workmanlike") is the same brand of thinking that created the collapse of the British industrial empire: insisting that "our way" is the best way, and all those damn foreigners are cheats and scoundrels.
There have been plenty of cheats and scoundrels throughout the history of the English game (which, incidentally, wouldn't have become the world's game had it not been for the Scottish, in particular). To claim that undesirable influences have invaded solely from abroad is xenophobia of the worse sort. More alarmingly, it demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge about the history of the game and English culture.
England has won the world cup once, and for good reason. Not because we cheat less, or because we're more honest and "workmanlike", but because we have not played the game according to the rules that everyone ascribes to. Instead, English players spent years drinking and smoking and eating ludicrously while the Italians, Germans, Brazilians, and others took more care about their preparations for games and themselves. That "workmanlike" culture you seem to adore lauded men who could scrap and fight but sneered at the artistry of the game. While English players ran like chickens with their heads cut off, the Brazilians and Germans and Italians and French used strategy, tactics, and guile to overcome such simple-minded opposition.
I'm English. I love England, and I love the English game. I also see that it has flaws. But, for God's sake, man, get your head out of the sand and stop tilting at windmills. The Premier League isn't going to stop using foreign players or investment any more than you or I will stop using this AMERICAN invention called the Internet. The only solution is to embrace it, extend it, develop it into something that is imbued with the best of the culture you adore, and don't demand that it stand still so you can feel all comfortable and cozy about it.
The idea that English leagues should somehow cling feverishly to an ill-defined brand of football which is somehow more "English" (by which you appear to mean more "honest and workmanlike") is the same brand of thinking that created the collapse of the British industrial empire: insisting that "our way" is the best way, and all those damn foreigners are cheats and scoundrels.
There have been plenty of cheats and scoundrels throughout the history of the English game (which, incidentally, wouldn't have become the world's game had it not been for the Scottish, in particular). To claim that undesirable influences have invaded solely from abroad is xenophobia of the worse sort. More alarmingly, it demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge about the history of the game and English culture.
England has won the world cup once, and for good reason. Not because we cheat less, or because we're more honest and "workmanlike", but because we have not played the game according to the rules that everyone ascribes to. Instead, English players spent years drinking and smoking and eating ludicrously while the Italians, Germans, Brazilians, and others took more care about their preparations for games and themselves. That "workmanlike" culture you seem to adore lauded men who could scrap and fight but sneered at the artistry of the game. While English players ran like chickens with their heads cut off, the Brazilians and Germans and Italians and French used strategy, tactics, and guile to overcome such simple-minded opposition.
I'm English. I love England, and I love the English game. I also see that it has flaws. But, for God's sake, man, get your head out of the sand and stop tilting at windmills. The Premier League isn't going to stop using foreign players or investment any more than you or I will stop using this AMERICAN invention called the Internet. The only solution is to embrace it, extend it, develop it into something that is imbued with the best of the culture you adore, and don't demand that it stand still so you can feel all comfortable and cozy about it.
11 months ago
in Why Fox Soccer Channel Viewers Need To Subscribe To Setanta Sports on EPL Talk
...Or you could download Match of the Day via bittorrent the night it's broadcast in the UK and watch it at your leisure the next day. No good for live games but if you really have to watch footy second-by-second you've got bigger problems than I can help you with.
