Day -554. WorldCup2018
Hands up if you are a football fan in Europe or North America and you know that Kashima Antlers are playing Auckland City in Yokohama, Japan at 19.30 (local time) on Thursday in Fifa's premier, and only, club competition.
Yes, it's that time of the year again when Fifa try to steal the club spotlight for a couple of weeks and in attempt to create some buzz about it they assume that the rest of the world really cares. And in a weird psychological way they try and impose world club football fandom upon us.
In years gone by the tournament was the Intercontinental Cup, played between the European Cup winners and the Copa Libertadores (South America). My memory is of a match played at an odd time, in Japan, amid the constant sound of horns. Why were the Japanese fans blowing horns for 90 minutes, I wondered. And the South Americans always seemed to win. (This is completely non-statistical but Penarol and River Plate and a bunch of Brazilian teams were always the winners in my memory).
Then money came into football, serious money. The Champions League was born in Europe which saw the birth of many a meaningless first round group match for which clubs got paid a ridiculous amount of money from contracts that UEFA got TV companies to sign. And the TV companies paid for these contracts by charging gullible customers for the privilege of watching a meaningless group match while being mindlessly sucked into the product advertising in the pre-game/halftime/post game from companies that was also helping to pay for those UEFA TV rights contracts. And all the other continents followed suit and had their own Champions League.
And Fifa, who couldn't be left out of any money-making opportunity, had to be part of this action. So, under the guise of bringing the football community together, or helping develop football around the world, or wanting to be fair and break the establishment monopoly of the South Americans and Europeans, Fifa decided to bring all the Champions League winners together into their own money making competition.
“When I was starting out, I used to say that playing in the FIFA Club World Cup was my dream. I feel very happy to have fulfilled that dream now.” Kashima Antlers midfielder Shoma Doi.
Amy I really too cynical? But, also, am I alone in my cynicism. Please tell me that I'm not the only one who is amused by that and thinks that Shoma Doi was paid a lot of money by Adidas, or Coca Cola or Visa to say that. Was that really his dream. Shouldn't it first be that he actually wins the Asian Champions League? Kashima Antlers didn't. They are only playing as the champions of the host country. Or wouldn't it be that he plays for Japan at the World Cup?
But maybe it's just me, a European, that is not impressed by this Fifa CWC hype. I am a Eurosnob, after all.
As a postscript, the irony is that when the non-money making Intercontinental Cup existed I watched it every year on my TV served by a flimsy roof antenna in Malta. Now that it's the Adidas, Visa, Coca Cola Budweiser, Macdonalds Fifa Club World Cup I don't see it on my 300 channel cable TV in Canada.
Hands up if you are a football fan in Europe or North America and you know that Kashima Antlers are playing Auckland City in Yokohama, Japan at 19.30 (local time) on Thursday in Fifa's premier, and only, club competition.
Yes, it's that time of the year again when Fifa try to steal the club spotlight for a couple of weeks and in attempt to create some buzz about it they assume that the rest of the world really cares. And in a weird psychological way they try and impose world club football fandom upon us.
In years gone by the tournament was the Intercontinental Cup, played between the European Cup winners and the Copa Libertadores (South America). My memory is of a match played at an odd time, in Japan, amid the constant sound of horns. Why were the Japanese fans blowing horns for 90 minutes, I wondered. And the South Americans always seemed to win. (This is completely non-statistical but Penarol and River Plate and a bunch of Brazilian teams were always the winners in my memory).
Then money came into football, serious money. The Champions League was born in Europe which saw the birth of many a meaningless first round group match for which clubs got paid a ridiculous amount of money from contracts that UEFA got TV companies to sign. And the TV companies paid for these contracts by charging gullible customers for the privilege of watching a meaningless group match while being mindlessly sucked into the product advertising in the pre-game/halftime/post game from companies that was also helping to pay for those UEFA TV rights contracts. And all the other continents followed suit and had their own Champions League.
And Fifa, who couldn't be left out of any money-making opportunity, had to be part of this action. So, under the guise of bringing the football community together, or helping develop football around the world, or wanting to be fair and break the establishment monopoly of the South Americans and Europeans, Fifa decided to bring all the Champions League winners together into their own money making competition.
“When I was starting out, I used to say that playing in the FIFA Club World Cup was my dream. I feel very happy to have fulfilled that dream now.” Kashima Antlers midfielder Shoma Doi.
Amy I really too cynical? But, also, am I alone in my cynicism. Please tell me that I'm not the only one who is amused by that and thinks that Shoma Doi was paid a lot of money by Adidas, or Coca Cola or Visa to say that. Was that really his dream. Shouldn't it first be that he actually wins the Asian Champions League? Kashima Antlers didn't. They are only playing as the champions of the host country. Or wouldn't it be that he plays for Japan at the World Cup?
But maybe it's just me, a European, that is not impressed by this Fifa CWC hype. I am a Eurosnob, after all.
As a postscript, the irony is that when the non-money making Intercontinental Cup existed I watched it every year on my TV served by a flimsy roof antenna in Malta. Now that it's the Adidas, Visa, Coca Cola Budweiser, Macdonalds Fifa Club World Cup I don't see it on my 300 channel cable TV in Canada.
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