Search: 'Fan culture'

Gunther Simmermacher explains how the pressures of hosting a World Cup may be getting to South Africa

Even by the standards of South African football, the appointment of Brazilian coach Joel Santana to lead the national team, Bafana Bafana, at the 2010 World Cup was an eccentric decision. In April 2008 Carlos Alberto Parreira, the 1994 World Cup-winning coach, quit as South Africa coach to be with his ailing wife. South African Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant asked him to recommend a successor. Parreira suggested Santana, then at Flamengo.

Read more…

Ian Plenderleith wonders why World Cup qualifcation is assumed to take precedence over politics in some countries

Now that Honduras have qualified for the World Cup their people can expect to be the beneficiaries of the usual condescending, quadrennial interest that western sports journalists pay all poor nations who qualify for the tournament. Curtly researched columns and reports from now until June will sagely conclude that life is tough for the majority, but football offers a way out of poverty for a lucky, talented few. For the fans, we will be told, football is an escape from reality, dangling hope and maybe even salvation. For the political leaders, it’s the chance to stoke up patriotism and distract from the country’s real problems. Because people in faraway countries are easily duped into forgetting a life of hardship when faced instead with the possibility of winning a football match.

Read more…

In the light of a recently published celebrity battle of the sexes, Roger Titford defends football against the influence of its TV manifestation and consider the emotions the game stirs up

Way back in 1992, when the Premier League and Sky’s Super Sunday were but weeks old, Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch came to symbolise a defence of supporting football in the face of a hostile media and uncomprehending middle-class women. For many commentators this was a tipping point in favour of the game. We now may be entering an era when the scales are tipping the other way. Alongside 50 People Who Fouled Up Football another fresh title you can find in the bookshops is A Matter Of Life And Death: Or How To Wean A Man Off Football by Ronni Ancona and Alistair McGowan, the impressionist comedy duo.

Read more…

Following the demise of Setanta, there is a reluctance to spend big on matches that draw small viewing figures. So does the future involve sitting in front of a computer? Andy West reports

The subject of live online streaming rose to prominence with the internet-only showing of England’s World Cup qualifier in Ukraine, opening up the question of how strongly the internet’s presence will be established in the sports broadcasting market. In years to come, will international fixtures be exclusively shown by online media as a matter of routine? Or was the lack of TV coverage of the Ukraine clash a one-off occurrence borne out of a unique set of circumstances (Setanta’s demise, England’s early qualification and an unsociable 5.15pm kick-off)? Fans who missed out on the Ukraine game will be relieved to learn that the latter seems to be the case.

Read more…

Having acquired sporting representatives in Austria and the US, Red Bull have turned to Germany. Paul Joyce assesses the fallout

No city exemplifies the decline of East German football since reunification more starkly than Leipzig. Lokomotive Leipzig, European Cup-Winners Cup finalists in 1987, went bankrupt in 2004 and had to restart at the bottom of the league pyramid. They now play in the same fifth division as former GDR champions Sachsen Leipzig, who entered insolvency in March with debts of €3 million (£2.7m).

Read more…