Sociogenesis of Soccer

Soccer, or football as it is known outside of the US, was one of many different variants of "football" that existed in the U.K for over a millenium. Many of these variants allowed the use of hands and forward passing, while others banned both of these actions. Eventually, groups in England came together to come up with a set of rules that everyone could embrace. The Cambridge Rules, created in 1848 and revised in 1863, are often cited as the beginning of modern association football. The 1863 version is often cited as being the first official version of soccer ever played. The use of hands and arms were banned, and they used goal posts instead of nets.

Toward the 1870's, a large group of people split off from this revolution and created their own type of football that allowed the use of hands (but no forward passing), which became known as rugby. Rugby, in turn, was the primary inspiration for American football (which added forward passing). In the meantime, soccer grew and grew within the UK and in the late 1800's the game spread around the world, first through the UK's vast collection of colonies (because being a naval superpower is awesome) and then to the neighbors of those colonies. Eventually, the other countries developed a talent for the sport, and the World Cup was born in 1930 (which was hosted and won by Uruguay).

The uniform was a bit different in the 1800's- the shorts were knee-length, a fact which would change several other times in the sport's history. The button-up shirts were gone by the 20th century. The length of soccer shorts has varied, having been far shorter in the "old days" before getting baggier in the '90's, around the same time that basketball shorts also became far baggier (a trend often credited to hip-hop culture).

One of the main appeals of the game since its inception is its simplicity. All you need to practice is a ball, and all you need for a game is an empty, flat space of land, a ball and a way to improvise goals. It's a sport that literally anyone can pick up and play, which has led to soccer becoming the most popular participation sport in the world. Professional leagues, particularly in Europe, have given chances to the poorest of the poor, allowing street kids from South America, Europe and Africa a chance to make their own way.

Soccer has accumulated a vast wealth of history due to the number of nations that play soccer (basically, every country that has open fields- even the US is starting to come around). Each nation has its own league, and each of the big European leagues (the British Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, and Italian Serie A are the biggest leagues) has roughly a century of history per team, which has resulted in some very old, bitter rivalries around the continent. The modern game is extremely lucrative thanks to its global popularity, with television contracts running in the billions of Euros.

Unfortunately, the amount of money in the game causes some pretty serious problems. The amount of corruption in FIFA is pretty ridiculous, as the human rights abuses, bribery and leadership issues pile up, which has led to a popular uprising against the World Cup in Brazil, a country that has won more World Cups than any other. Match fixing has been a persistent issue; the 2006 Serie A champions, Juventus, were actually stripped of two titles and relegated (sent to the second division) after revelations of referee tampering (the Calciopoli scandal was a massive scandal throughout Italy, and it all went down right before the 2006 World Cup, which was won by... Italy). All that being said, soccer is still the world's most popular sport, and if FIFA can ever clean up its act, soccer should be in pretty good shape going forward.

Sports Pages #4: Ancient Rome and Greece

Ancient Greece:

• Types of sports: Various -The ancient Olympics included various lengths of foot racing, chariot wrestling, boxing, wrestling, and several others.
• Characteristics: The games were a part of a five-day festival (three days for competition, two days for religious ritual). The winner of each event would receive an olive branch, as well as lots of money and olive oil from their home village (comparable to modern-day endorsement deals).
• Role in society: Mostly entertainment, but with political and religious elements as well -politicians would use the games to announce alliances, and ritual sacrifice was used by priests to aid their country’s athletes.
• Participant demographic: free men only

Ancient Rome:

• Types of sports: Various – gladiatorial combat, beast fighting, chariot racing, naval battles, hunting, wrestling
• Characteristics: Many games and sports were a part of the Circus Maximus, which featured a variety of entertainment in the old Coliseum. They would occasionally flood the stadium for actual naval battles called Naumachia, which sounds like an awesome sport. The ancient Romans had a test for pretty much every type of athleticism they could think of.
• Role in society: Mostly entertainment. Many historians have said that the Circus was a major contributor to the downfall of Roman society as the often extremely violent games distracted citizens from Rome’s many growing issues. While this may be an exaggeration, sports were certainly a vital part of Roman society, much as they are in the modern-day.
• Participant demographic: Free men (in the mostly non-lethal events), women (ball sports and swimming), and criminals (all the lethal sports, also handy for public executions in other parts of the Circus)   

Sport, Society & Me

1. I have always been a fan of American sports since I was young, but recently I have gotten more into soccer, especially the European leagues. While I will always love American sports, the Beautiful Game has become an obsession, and right now, watching soccer plays the vital life role of getting me out of bed on Saturday mornings. I am also well aware that this 'journey' would have been far, far more difficult before the Internet.

2. Sport in US society plays a very complex role. It can be beneficial as a provider of social mobility, and not just for athletes (sports management executives, scouts, analysts and coaches don't exactly work for free). They can be great tools for unifying communities, becoming symbols of the communities themselves. But they can also be very exploitative, which has been the case all too often in recent professional sports as teams desperately try to avoid paying for their own arenas. The 2008 move of the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City is a great example of how pro sports can be used to blackmail a community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_SuperSonics_relocation_to_Oklahoma_City), as well as several other team relocations in sports history (The Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore is another good example, and there are numerous others). Whether or not a team benefits a community depends heavily on the team and the community.

Pro sports teach us that hard work, co-operation, self-sacrifice and knowledge are essential to success, but a giant pile of money will do the trick as well, if you have one lying around. Sports contain a lot of mixed messages, especially for younger viewers. That said, sport also provides opportunity for a variety of people. So sports are fairly important, on average (more important to fans than to people who don't care about sports); I would say about as important to society as any other similarly valued private enterprise.

Athletes occupy a variety of places on the American socio-economic spectrum; while there are some pro athletes who managed to save and handle their millions wisely, there are many others who merely spent all their paychecks once they got them, ending their careers exactly where they started, only with more debt and health issues. Most people in this country respect pro athletes, understanding that the amount of hard work, talent and discipline it requires to get into a top-tier sports league goes far beyond what the average person is capable of. The fact that NFL/NBA/etc. salaries are multiple-millions on average allows many players to enjoy an upper-class lifestyle, and its many related perks. Some of these players are virtually worshiped by millions, as evidenced by jersey sales, global merchandise revenues, ticket sales, and other figures. This shows that players are usually quite highly valued by many, and that the voices of those who claim that pro athletes get paid too much have been all but drowned out by the free market.

The Sport Ethic

• The sport ethic is a sort of unofficial criteria used by athletes to determine who is a "real" athlete. It provides athletes with a greater sense of camaraderie amongst their peers while also leaving them uniquely vulnerable to deviations, like drugs.
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• There are 4 dimensions of the sports ethic:
• - Making sacrifices for ‘the game’
• - Striving for distinction
• - Accepting risks and playing through pain
• - Refusing to accept limits in the pursuit of possibilities
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• Athletes do this because, in most cases, they are obsessed or nearly obsessed with their ideals and their goals, and this single-minded focus makes them better athletes and teammates. Unfortunately, this "whatever it takes" mentality can lead to some pretty awful places if followed through to its logical conclusion- which is why professional sports leagues in the US have been dealing with various drug issues for many decades, from steroids & amphetamines in baseball to crack cocaine in basketball (although pot is more of a "problem drug" in the NBA these days) and so on. 
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• My experience to the sport ethic is very limited; I am not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully this doesn't get in the way of my striving for distinction in this class.

Sports in the USA

Hello, Mr. British Guy, and welcome to America.

Basically, the NFL is king here. Gridiron Football is the most watched sport in the states, particularly in the South and Midwest states. Basically, think rugby but with bigger players, forward passing and more head injuries (and also far more money). A typical gameday involves getting to the parking lot of the stadium a couple hours before kickoff to tailgate, a wonderful tradition that involves grilling meat and drinking beers in the middle of winter.

Once you head for the coasts and the bigger cities, basketball starts to take over. Basketball is the most popular participation sport in America, but trails behind the NFL and baseball in terms of top-flight (the pro game) revenue (http://www.plunkettresearch.com/sports-recreation-leisure-market-research/industry-statistics). Basketball isn't quite identical to soccer; it's on a smaller playing surface, and they have to use their hands (in addition to the numerous aesthetic differences). Other than that, the back-and-forth natures of the games are very similar. Gamedays in basketball are more muted, on average, because there are a lot more regular season games (82 games per team per season in the NBA, versus 16 in the NFL).


Baseball and hockey are also very popular in plenty of places in the US. All these games (except baseball) are very physical in nature with an easy-to-follow back-and-forth flow that allows for drastic swings in momentum and, potentially, plenty of tension if the game goes down to the wire. The values reinforced are complex; most often, these games can encourage players to work together as a team, reinforcing humility and hard work. In other cases, players will use the game as a vehicle for their own ego, which promotes consumption.