LA Galaxy: The New Galacticos?

While the rumours had been circulating for months, it was still a surprise to yours truly when it was announced that David Beckham will be moving to the LA Galaxy at the end of the season. For one thing, it would seem to be a self declaration that he considers his England career over, having failed to make an England squad since the 2006 World Cup. Such is the mindset of English football that when Beckham originally moved to Real Madrid, there were fears from (admittedly few) corners that this would compromise his ability to be selected for the England team despite of Real being one of the biggest clubs in the world in a league that is often considered of higher quality than the EPL. No such grand claims can be made about the LA Galaxy and the MLS therefore unless Becks is able to pull a shifty and "discover" that he has American grandparents, it's fair to say that one can declare Beckham "retired from international football".

So what has motivated Becks to move over to a footballing backwater? Of course one could start and finish the argument with his staggering pay packet. Even in the financial la la land of professional football, Beckham's reported wage leaves everything else for dead. It's very difficult to believe that he is receiving such high wages merely for his (usually overrated) footballing ability. Cynicism over whether Beckham's real value to a club was due to his on field abilities or his ability to shift replica shirts with his name on the back has gone on as far back as his Old Trafford days. This cynicism can only he heightened when Figo, a much better player in my opinion can only get a US $6 million move to Saudi Arabia. Certainly football authorities in the US would love to have Beckham rekindle interest in football not seen since the Pelé days of the NY Cosmos, albeit without the disastrous crash afterwards.

However there is more to the move than this. Beckham's move will signal the dying stages of the Galacticos era at Real Madrid. Stranded on the bench since the start of the season, Beckham had little reason to stick around a sinking ship, especially since Real have not won a trophy since he arrived and show little sign of turning things around any time soon. Tim Stannard explains things more thoroughly here and on his blog, however I might just steal some of his words:

There is neither the time nor the space here to plough through the causes of their recent decline, but the short version puts the blame on the combination of the ridiculous dismissal of Vicente del Bosque, the wrong players being sold (Makelele, Solari, Cambiasso, Owen), the wrong ones being kept (Guti, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos),and the wrong ones being bought (Gravesen, Baptista).

Having six managers and three presidents in three seasons and the kind of political infighting to make the downfall of the Tory party in the 1990s look like a minor spat was not that helpful either. It's this ongoing weakness for woolly thinking and politicking that was the major factor in yesterday's announcement of Becks' departure in June.

The Galacticos plan seemed so good at the time. Real Madrid were at the top of world football. The plan to stay there was to invest in only one or two world class players per season. This was kicked off with the controversial purchase of Figo from bitter rivals Barcelona for what was then a world record fee. The next season Zinedine Zidane joined the club from Juventus, breaking not only the world record transfer of Figo a year ago but also the world record fee set just two weeks before for Hernán Crespo's move from Parma to Lazio. Other stars such as Ronaldo and Beckham soon joined them and an era of brutal dominance not seen since Franco ruled Spain seemed assured. Then the craziness began.

Manager Vincente del Bosque was sacked just days after winning the La Liga. Then Claude Makelélé's demand for an improved contract were ignored and the (severely underrated) player was soon shifted off to Chelsea, where he has been kicking arse ever since. Attempted replacements such as Thomas Gravensen have proved to be disappointing. The only thing worse has been the off field politics, with the club having gone through four presidents in the last twelve months. And there biggest and fiercest rivals Barcelona look likely to win back to back La Liga and European Champions League titles. Bad times indeed at Santiago Bernabéu.

The Galacticos era is a powerful reminder to many that money is not the only thing which can bring success in football (Although it sure helps). Clubs built on more modest foundations such as Arsenal, Lyon and Bayern Munich have all tasted success in recent years aginst the Galacticos without sending the football transfer system into chaos. Meanwhile Real Madrid languish in comparative mediocrity. I suppose sometimes life is fair.

ECL Round Of 16 Draw

Just a quick post of the draw for the Round Of 16 in the European Champions League. My predictions of teams to go through in bold.

Porto - Chelsea
Celtic - AC Milan
PSV - Arsenal
Lille - Manchester United
Roma - Lyon
Barcelona - Liverpool
Real Madrid - Bayern Munich
Internazionale - Valencia

First leg starts 20th of Feb., 2007

FIFA Allocates Places For The 2010 World Cup

Mere months after the rather dull 2006 edition of the World Cup concluded in Germany, FIFA has already began the process of allocating places for the 2010 edition. In perhaps what is one of the most controversial and politicised functions of FIFA, the 31 remaining spots for the final tournament are allocated by continent. (The 32nd spot is for the hosts, in this case South Africa, who automatically qualify).

According to reports, the spots for 2010 will be allocated as such:

• UEFA (Europe): 13
• CAF (Africa): 5
• AFC (Asia): 4.5
  
• OFC (Oceania): 0.5
  
• CONCACAF (North & Central America): 3.5
• CONMEBOL (South America): 4.5

The most remarkable thing about these allocations is that they are unchanged from the 2006 edition. The only differences are that the playoffs change from AFC v CONCACAF & CONMEBOL v OFC to the more logical CONMEBOL v CONCACAF, while the winner of the 2008 OFC Nations Cup winner will qualify for the final group stage of the AFC qualification tournament.

Implied in these allocations is the rise in strength of the emerging confederations. While in theory places are allocated in such a way as to try to get the best teams in the world in the final tournament, the prestige (and perhaps not unsubstantial amounts of money at stake) for mealy qualifying for the World Cup finals means that there is some very intense competition off the field. Due to the strong performances of European teams in 2006, many expected to see their allocation increased. The fact that this has not happened demonstrates an increased willingness to stand up against the old powers of UEFA and CONMEBOL.

Not all confederations rely on nobility and footballing prowess to gain a good deal however. The allocation of 3.5 spots for CONCACAF, in the context of their team's relatively poor performances in World Cup finals has rankled many, especially Europeans who feel that they are bearing the costs of globalising participation the the World Cup. Many would suggest that there is only one reason for such generosity: The U.S. and the potential goldmine it represents. While cynical, it is also probably realistic. However as noted before, the nature of this process is highly political. Students of politics might remember that politics is about the allocation of power and resources. In this game, the CONCACAF is the Pelé of the backroom deal.

Football Manager 2007 Arrives To Give Me An Excuse To Discuss Electronic Gaming Censorship

Today's Musical Selection: Sexy by Car5
From the Girlmonster Album

Glorious news arrived in Sir Spell Cheque's bunker last month with the release last month of the latest in the Championship/Football Manager games series, Football Manager 2007 from SI Games. Apart from giving football fans around the world such as yours truly the opportunity to prove that they could do a better job than the managers of their favourite clubs, it is also a way to educate oneself about world football via immersion. The most impressive evidence of the effects of the CM/FM series in my opinion has to be the fact that it has been discussed in an academic journal.

Garry Crawford in his article The Cult of Champ Man uses the example of the CM/FM series to show how electronic gaming help to create community and fuel social interaction, whether virtual or traditional. In many ways this goes against the dystopian view of information technologies which hold so much influence in Australian society and regulation, despite often having little relationship with reality. Crawford's arguments of the social aspects of electronic gaming, expressed via analysis of the CM/FM series, contrast strongly with the dystopian stereotype of the 'loner' gamer which in extreme cases may lead to disorders such as Hikikomori.

Departing from Crawford, social isolation is not the only complaint of the dystopians. Perhaps the most troubling is the idea that players of violent electronic games will themselves turn violent. Apart from the very simplistic view of how people consume media, it also leads to simplistic solutions. In Australia, this has meant that electronic games that are freely available overseas are banned due to their content. The form of censorship employed in Australia is further insulting due to the method used to censor these electronic games. The Australian classification system for electronic games is based on the increasingly false premise that mostly children play electronic games and does not have a R18+ rating. Therefore, electronic games which fail to receive a MA15+ rating are unable to gain a classification and therefore cannot be sold in Australia. This is a blatant double standard given that movies such as Sin City and Kill Bill are able to be publicly shown in cinemas and sold on DVD to adults. (While Sir Spell Cheque thinks that Sin City was pretty light on for plot, the violence did leave him a bit fucked up!)

One hopes that in the near future a more mature approach to such issues takes hold in Australia and electronic gamers are given the same level of respect as other media consumers, especially since these are often the same people! Unfortunately one does not hold out much hope due to the increasingly conservative views held by the government and its supporters regarding censorship. The influence of such views is dangerous due to its ability to chip away at the freedom to free expression in politics by undermining it for entertainment purposes. The strength of the view that people, especially children, are input devices for information good or bad seems to hold for other policy areas such as history education, where the government seems to hope that children will uncritically internalise particular historical 'facts' in a nationalistic spirit whit out asking uncomfortable questions.

I notice that I have rather diverted from the stated topic, but since it's my blog I'll let myself off of the hook :). Oh well, at least I can concentrate on getting Melbourne Victory into the ACL on FM2007. And whether virtually of in real life I reckon I can still do better than Ernie Merrick! (OK, maybe not, but certainly I'd kick Frank Farina's arse!)

P.S. Some good resources on the issue of censorship in general in Australia can be found here (Warning: Some material may not pass prudish filters!)