onthebench.net

The French Revolution

Being a French Paris St Germain fan cannot have been much fun in recent years. There has been a rapid decline in the quality of the France international team often the players attitudes destroying what could be a good team. This was a nation that was promising what Spain have now done and look like continuing to do. Being a Paris fan has been just as desperate, no league title since 1994 and rarely participating in Europe.

However things are looking a lot brighter for the future of PSG if not France. I wanted to know more about the new owners and what their investments will bring to PSG. The new owners are Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), this was announced at the end of May after months of speculation. It was known that the QIA would invest into a football club but it was expected to be in one of the big three league and probably in England.

PSG have already spent 43million euros and with the arrival of Patore from Palermo this figure will be more like 80million euros. These players have been of real quality that have either played or could play for some of the biggest teams in the Europe so why have they picked PSG? All of the new signings are pretty much guaranteed first team football and it was probably the best offer for them. However Pastore was a target for Chelsea so why did he choose PSG.

In my opinion there are several reasons, the money being offered was pretty much the same and Chelsea have champions league, but PSG is exciting the start of a revolution. There is almost guaranteed national trophies potentially European trophies and the prospect of rising the reputation of not just the club but a nations football. For me it’s not that strange decision.

People are already writing off any chance of PSG taking European glory but it can be done and that has been proved with Lyon being strong in the CL, Monaco reaching the final of the CL only to be beaten by Jose’s Porto. PSG can do it and with Leonardo as Director they have someone with links to the best players from Italy and Brazil.

If the English Premier League is anything to go on then there will be more investment for other clubs which could all potentially make the French league a massive competition again. But it could also affect the French national team negatively. Look at England and Since 2003 (When Roman took over Chelsea) there has been a decline in the quality of English player because the big teams need to invest big money in the best players and this is often abroad.

Malaga of Spain are very similar recently purchased by very rich owners with massive spending power but in an already very well respected league. Again for me this is great news La Liga needs more competition or it looks like fizzling into a two horse race every year like the Scottish league.

Very exciting times all across Europe.

Viva La Resistance

Let me use this first blog to introduce myself I am 25 years old a Liverpool fan but would happily watch any game. Football is a great passion of mine and let me make it clear it always has been however like all great relationships we have certainly had our ups and downs. Firstly there has been my personal relationship with Liverpool FC I have been a fan for about 18 years so as all other football fans know I have never seen them win the league, but special European nights and cup games have been truly precious, and they needed to be.

However passion for the actual game has struggled, a few years ago during my time as a student I completely fell for football I was already a big fan but having a lot of spare time meant that I could fill it with watching every game I could taking a big interest in other European leagues. Pub chat would always be football focused any exercise would be football related. The limited amount of spare money I had would also be put towards tickets to see Plymouth Argyle (worth it when they had Holloway). The obsession became so much that in a media degree filled with others who had no interest in any sport I focused completely on football in my third year, writing 13,000 words on the development of football in the media and doing a collaborative piece of work with Plymouth Argyle that included staff, players and fans I was completely taken in by the whole thing.

However while travelling in the US for 3 months I fell out of touch with “Soccer” there is very little coverage and still very little interest, games are hard to catch and with the time difference being 8 hours on the west coast games become even harder to see. On two occasions I found myself in internet cafes at 4am watching Liverpool (that was against Man U and Everton). This went on to be one of the best seasons Liverpool have had in the premier league finishing second, undefeated against the other top four and finishing second actually ended up being a bit disappointing. Still with this season I started feeling a lack of excitement for the game and interest in anything other than the premier league was all but gone.

Liverpool’s next season was full of problems on the pitch and on the board something no fan enjoyed, Liverpool fans were upset because of the direction the club were heading in and other fans were just board of the matter. To go with that Manchester City were starting to buy anyone they wanted it was becoming obvious that Liverpool were unable to compete. I moved into a new job position that saw me working all the time including evenings and weekends so watching football became harder, and I would rely on Soccer Saturdays and any other snippets of news I got from Sky Sports News. After over a year of having very little interaction with football I decided to make a conscious decision to watch more. Installing sky sports in my flat with facilities to record games I could watch as much as I wanted.

It wasn’t long before I was completely besotted again, I am back to what I feel is myself watching everything I can and conversations being dominated by the subject, and obviously it has come to the point where I know that football is not just something I love it is something I need, it has to be what I do as the passion I have for it is unlike anything else (apart from the girlfriend).

“But after the final I was happy it finished – I wanted to go home and stop with football and this team.” Dhorasoo

From my own knowledge and a little research I also found plenty of other international footballers that have had the same conflicting views. Vikash Dhorasoo made 16 appearances for the French national team but still made a film that showed the loneliness of a footballer dropped from the side and also the affect that it had on his own love of the game. Then there have been plenty of other footballers that have seen the profession as more of a job than a blessing, my favourite being Jason McAteer that when asked why he let Liverpool his answer was Houllier wanted us to train on a Sunday and that ruined my Saturday night drinking.

But there are problems deeper than mine and players, efforts have been stepped up to keep youngsters interested in the game in this country, children are feeling less interested because there is less attention on grassroots football which of course is where they are all playing.

The French also have a problem that the whole country seems to struggle backing the national team with less attention there is less coverage and therefore less love for the game.