Quote:
Originally Posted by LFC_SL Read this interesting American take on the English game Conclusion: only accountants are ever happy in the world of football |
Can't argue with that.
Sadly.
The interesting thing is, is that a guy I know online from the US (by know I mean we send each other gifts for our kids and speak on the phone) is high up in a sports firm. I asked him what his take on Beckham was, given that he's a football fan himself. Note 'football', he never calls it 'soccer'.
His view is that US football, while being a patriot he'd love to see it take on the best, and have a strong league, hasn't benefited one iota from Beckham's presence. He may draw in the crowds to see him, and sell a load of shirts of his name, but that's not helping US football long term.
His company have seen no fiscal improvements for the other clubs, bar when LA are in town, and predict no long term boost for the game once Becks retires.
The reason for such gloom? The US loves a celebrity, and that's what Becks is. However, fame, they also conclude, is a fleeting thing.
Experts in the US game are commenting on the lack of quality in the game, quality that is so lacking a certain European coach recently commented on his arrival, that players don't need to be working on tactics, they need to be working on basic skills! As one English pundit said, he's
never heard that said about a supposedly 'major' club before in his life.
It's this, the lack of 'trickle down', the lack of talent across the board, that's worrying those, like my friend who really knows the US game, not how much 'money can be generated'. It is, after all, only money. Unless, and the evidence suggests it isn't, it goes back into improving the game. An all too familiar situation even to us Europeans.
Frankly I'd rather take his view, someone working at grass roots level in the US, who loves the game, than what someone working with figures alone predicts.