A "Feeling" On Clubs, Players, and Fan Loyalty

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The industry of sport benefits from a "mystique" generated to claim the attention of a global audience.

The slick marketing machine lathers one with reasons to be enamored with your team; the chronicles of an organization’s history, astute positioning of logos and legendary players, pride in obtaining paraphernalia, the "glow" of the stadium/arena, and the resultant good natured slogs at opposing fans in sports bars and streets across the globe.

It is part of the fantasy of tuning out the real world for a few hours, living vicariously through the rise, fall, and rise again of the fortunes of a team of one’s chosen passion. Through carefully sculpted media you believe wholeheartedly that nothing matters but pure love of the sport itself, loyalty to club, and the individuals gathered to celebrate and participate be they fan or player.

Of course every so often that fantasy is pierced with moments of commotion. The fans pontificate on why our player heroes don’t "work hard enough in practice," "don’t show commitment," "are greedy," or any number of catch phrases assigned to a player who "isn’t performing up to expectation."

Why who wouldn’t give an arm and a leg to play our chosen sport to make an incredible living and gain worldwide acclaim!? Why is someone who is given the opportunity letting it slip?

The reason is the sports world is not a prism though which to see a refracted vision of life, it is very much like the regular working world. Sport is big business with billions of dollars at stake.

Players work for large clubs to earn their living. In that climate certain organizations have shown themselves ruthless, unaffected and manipulative: of players (a dime a dozen) and of course us, the fans. Players are bought and sold with impunity and then the fan is lied to until convenient to the organization, isn’t that so Fergie?

If we look at football there are multiple scenarios where under one administration a player can be in favor and under another out of favor despite performance.

We are not far removed from the age where the footballer was a commodity. The book “Football: sociology of the global game" By Richard Giulianotti makes this point, “…players were effectively ‘owned’ by the clubs. Greater freedom of contract was won gradually in Europe from the 1960s as a process of labor market modernization.”

It is not unthinkable to conclude that this mentality still prevails in football today. Cast a gaze to the luxury suites at any stadium and consider the point. Even casual football fans can name a handful of players who were "excused" from their favorite clubs with no clear reason. The footballer was only to be concerned with results and nothing else. Thus perhaps it is that the mentality pervades and my theory is that a certain African striker in Spain offended many with his outspoken views.

This is a case that troubles me personally because it involves a club that I support and one of their most dedicated servants. The case of Samuel Eto’o.

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