Football (Soccer) Thread

[Threviel]

Threviel's war on tiki-taka and the causes of tiki-taka continues.

Not even Barcelona play tiki taka anymore!  And they're coached by Xavi, who is basically tiki taka made flesh!

Don't bother him with facts and knowledge of the game, will you? 

I want you to know that I can back up my deep understanding of the game (I do hope the not very serious tone shines through here) with my total humiliation of you lot in the latest WC predictions game.

[Duque de Bragança]

Threviel's war on tiki-taka and the causes of tiki-taka continues.

Not even Barcelona play tiki taka anymore!  And they're coached by Xavi, who is basically tiki taka made flesh!

Don't bother him with facts and knowledge of the game, will you? 

I want you to know that I can back up my deep understanding of the game (I do hope the not very serious tone shines through here) with my total humiliation of you lot in the latest WC predictions game.

Almost a success, but we're talking clubs, not national squads. So close! 
At least, you are improving, even the humor.
Did we have a prediction game for the Euro though?

[The Larch]

So, my team has just signed a Yank, a certain Luca de la Torre, full US international midfielder who was playing in the Netherlands until now. Does anyone here know anything about him?

[FunkMonk]

So, my team has just signed a Yank, a certain Luca de la Torre, full US international midfielder who was playing in the Netherlands until now. Does anyone here know anything about him?

I've seen him play once for the national team. I think there was some hype for him but he didn't seem anything special to me.

[celedhring]

I wish we still tiki-takaed, going down with the ship and all. 

[Threviel]

Yeah, it would be more well deserved then.

Or is there a real risk? In that case good luck!

[celedhring]

Of disappearing? Not really, but we're in for some lean years. We've been lucky of getting another crop of brilliant young players, though, this should keep us afloat football-wise.

Push comes to shove we turn into a PLC and sell the club. Which would be a huge shame, although a lot of our problems are due to the politics of being fan-owned.

[Threviel]

Comeuppance.

[Duque de Bragança]

Of disappearing? Not really, but we're in for some lean years. We've been lucky of getting another crop of brilliant young players, though, this should keep us afloat football-wise.

Push comes to shove we turn into a PLC and sell the club. Which would be a huge shame, although a lot of our problems are due to the politics of being fan-owned.

A lot, but not all of your problems. 
I read a former president of Barça is eyeing a local political career i.e Sandro Rosell.
Will you be supporting him? 

Can it be worse than Manuel Valls? 

[The Larch]

Rosell? I thought he was in jail.

[celedhring]

Rosell? I thought he was in jail.

He was absolved.

Still, not somebody I'd vote to run the city council 

[Threviel]

I listened to my favourite podcast, a football history one. They had a a special on Messi last year, 15 or so hours of Messi, apparently he was quite good back in the day.

They talked a bit about the upcoming problems for Barcelona. Apparently there are tens of thousands of season ticket holders that more or less only sell their tickets on to tourists. So in any given Barcelona game there are relatively few local fans, mostly just tourists coming in. When the economic troubles started the membership were asked to donate money, a few hundred supposedly did so which is pitiful since there are so many members.

They gave the impression that support for Barcelona has gone quite shallow, lots of fans, but few die-hards and the local football culture more or less slowly disappearing in the wake of all success these last years.

Any truth to that?

[Threviel]

As a note, apparentlu tiki-taka has its own wiki page. First quote from Guardiola: "I loathe all that passing for the sake of it"

[Josquius]

On Barcelona it was a big thing in the news lately of the women's team getting a record crowd, large crowds being increasingly normal there.

I wonder whether this is an outgrowth of dissatisfaction with the male team? - women's football in general seems to be enjoying rising popularity out of this sense of it being somehow purer and unspoiled.

(Untrue of course. In the UK at least it was ravaged a few years ago, the numbers just haven't gotten too big yet.)

[celedhring]

I listened to my favourite podcast, a football history one. They had a a special on Messi last year, 15 or so hours of Messi, apparently he was quite good back in the day.

They talked a bit about the upcoming problems for Barcelona. Apparently there are tens of thousands of season ticket holders that more or less only sell their tickets on to tourists. So in any given Barcelona game there are relatively few local fans, mostly just tourists coming in. When the economic troubles started the membership were asked to donate money, a few hundred supposedly did so which is pitiful since there are so many members.

They gave the impression that support for Barcelona has gone quite shallow, lots of fans, but few die-hards and the local football culture more or less slowly disappearing in the wake of all success these last years.

Any truth to that?

Not really, what you describe isn't anything new, has been going for around two decades, when the city started becoming a popular tourist destination at the same time the club started being successful. Even before that touting was rampant, but more focused on domestic customers, which have been now been outpriced by tourists. The club has never truly clamped down on this, because those touts, well, they vote and they are a significant voting bloc. But anyway, thing is that the Camp Nou has never been known for its passionate atmosphere, so it doesn't really affect things that much. The city itself remains pretty passionate, although the current generation of fans are used to a level of success that is unprecedented in the history of the club.

The problem with Barça is a succession of boards that have done very short-sighted decisions to answer the pressure of fans demanding perennial success - and fans wield and outsized power in the club and a section of them are extremely militant - which have heavily compromised the club's future - and now chickens are coming to roost. Add to it a level of growth - both financial and social - that has outpaced the professionalization of the club's management. In many ways the club is still run as it was in the 1990s, with a president and board - who are elected and usually don't have experience in running a sports team - still having a lot of say in the day-to-day, instead of acting as a board of a company overseeing a professional management structure. And it's difficult to consolidate management structures when there's a chance a new president will come in 5-6 years time and put his guys in place. I.e. the Bartomeu board was a disaster but they actually had some really good people running the commercial side of things, Laporta has fired them all and his people are going in an opposite direction strategically.

OTOH, Madrid have been more stable given that Pérez has become de facto owner of the club, preventing nearly everybody from running against him.