One feature common to many cities across Catalonia is their “Rambla” – a surprisingly complex concept to describe when you stop and think about it. It is little more than a straight road (more or less), usually lined with trees either side that is located relatively centrally in the town in question. A suitable English translation could be something like “avenue” or “promenade”, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
For most people, 2020 has offered little cheer. But the year does mark a noteworthy anniversary for Football fans from one nation that has contributed extensively to the global game. This year citizens from Seville to Santander can celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Spanish international Football.
The big news story in the British Football press right now (besides the loss of one of the most popular figures in the world game) is the return of fans to English stadia. For the first time since early March 2020, up and down the country the top 4 tiers of English league Football will conduct competitive matches in front of a live audience. You might have stumbled across this blog post months or perhaps years down the line and think “what’s all the fuss about?” But right now, the possibility of getting back in to watch the boys seems very exciting. Last week I stumbled across the following image and got an idea for the post you are now reading:
The message “practice what you preach” is more relevant than ever. Social media’s ubiquity has facilitated the growth of a macabre, international market for the superficial and the vapid. The inability of platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok to accommodate depth in the content posted to them inadvertently promotes the expedient and the striking over the well-researched and the empirical. One negative side-effect of the global social media tsunami is the premium that popular culture places on virtuosity – regardless how selfless or benevolent an “influencer” may actually be away from the filters.
We at FBTG believing in practicing what we preach. Thus, after years of talking critically about fans from Beijing to Buenos Aires via Berlin, we are finally looking in the mirror and being self-critical about “our” Football club.
To my surprise, fans were freely walking back out of the stadium. The vast security team that had so diligently monitored the actions of the crowd inside the ground now seemed entirely ambivalent to their temporary exit. With fifteen minutes to kill, I followed many fans out to find a soft drink. Having completed my purchase from a vendor making his living in the shadow of the stadium named in honour of the city’s proletariat, I turned to face the Beijing Workers’ Stadium and bumped into three young men in identical green t-shirts featuring bold designs. Given the impenetrable language barrier, I made a friendly motion to demonstrate my wish to take a photograph. Their passive demeanour evaporated.
There was a time when we were wondering if we would ever see live professional Football again. The necessary measures put in place to contain the terrifying transnational spread of Covid-19 in spring forced an immediate and indefinite halt to all organised sporting events. Caught between a rock and a hard place, broadcasters and governing sports bodies pursued a wide array of alternatives in order to keep television viewing figures high and to fulfill their contractual obligations, from repeats of classic Football matches to a first ever gaming 24 Hours of Le Mans race in June.
Having added the final signature, Fandi Ahmad Yani threw down the pen with a sigh, turned to his counterpart and extended a firm hand. As Kaji Riki (a representative of Ultras Gresik) shook it, a polite round of applause rippled among the journalists and reporters gathered in the conference room. The six men sat at the table congratulated each other on the business conducted that day before turning to force a smile for the photographers.
It had happened at long last. Gresik United Football Club is owned by Continue reading
Originally constructed in bonnie Newcastle in 1915, the HMS Malaya had been of service both in World War I and II in places as varied as Denmark, Anatolia, Malta, Genoa, Cape Verde and the Caribbean. She gallantly ended her service as target bouncing bomb practice in Loch Striven in Scotland in 1944, but where Football is concerned, the HMS Malaya made her most important trip in 1921 – to the land after which she was named. Continue reading
From Boothferry To Germany 