The Dirty Side of Football A.K.A Politics

This past Sunday I witnessed a game that I'm sure would have every American crying out for justice, if only it hadn't of happened in a place all too familiar with football violence. I'm talking about one of Turkey's biggest games. It's the Besiktas v. Galatasaray derby, of course. Just imagine over 70 thousand fans filled inside Besiktas' Ataturk Olympic Stadium (The namesake couldn't have fit any better for what ensued) as they faced their bitter rivals Galatasaray. The visitors from the other side of the Bosphorus were winning 2-1 with stoppage time approaching when all of a sudden Galatasaray's Felipe Melo got a red card. Things were heating up as people slowly started to jump out onto the pitch with one person even running up and trying to hit Galatasaray's Emmanuel Eboue. All this madness took place while the stone faced referee waited to take action since there were only 2 minutes left. However, things got way too carried away and soon fans equipped with plastic chairs stormed the pitch. After watching all the clips of the mayhem online I realized this was nothing new to Turkish football, but then some of the comments written by the Turkish faithful made me think more in depth. Judge the credibility yourself, but according to some comments online a pro government group was apparently responsible for inciting the pitch invasion. This so-called pro government group's goal was to make the Besiktas Ultra fans, known as Carsi  Group, look like the ones responsible. All this ties in to the protests against the Turkish government back in the summer. The Corsi Group doesn't shy away from their involvement in the protests with chants like "Taksim is everywhere" and "revolution is everywhere." Hence, the irony involved with the namesake of the stadium Ataturk. The protesters are against a government that's slowly and manipulatively trying to get Turkey away from Ataturk's Western ideals and more towards a secular Muslim state. Still, without getting too in depth on the history and issues lets stay focused on the football. The point is, one of the biggest games of the season  in the Turkish league ended with the match getting abandoned with politics being the perpetrator. One might argue that it's Turkey and these types of things happen there all too often. That might be the case to some extent, but the Turkish league has really grown in the last couple of years to include huge names in football like Dirk Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba, who was one of the players that had to run off the pitch during the ensuing mayhem. Even the sidelines had their draws with the likes of Slaven Bilic (Croatia's former smoking rock star coach) and Fatih Terim (coach of Euro 2008's comeback kings Turkey). Basically the idea here is that no matter how big of a spectacle football is it sometimes is too representative of a society's ills. One doesn't have to look too far from Turkey to get that impression. Just look at the 1990 game between the Yugoslavian League's two biggest rivals Dinamo Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda. Long story short the fighting between the Croat and Serb fans on the field that day showed just how much football was intertwined with politics. Many people to this day still believe that match was a catalyst for what would be the war in the Balkans. However, it never is solely the football that leads to such political tension. It's more like the football stadium and the pitch are the ideal place for any unrest to take place since even in times of peace it's the hotbed of any gathering of peoples. With regard to the fighting in Zagreb, just weeks before the match Croatia had voted in a pro nationalist party, which focused on Croatian Independence. All it took was the perfect place like a football match against your bitterest rivals to incite unrest. Even the World Cup qualifier between El Salvador and Honduras, leading up to Mexico 1970, was regarded by some people as the match that led to war. Though a war did ensue after the heated game it was years of tension between the the countries that really led to the bloodshed. The match itself was just another example of how much a football match brought out the tension within people. In that case, football has to be looked upon as something that can go either towards the good or the bad. It can lead to seeing the beautiful game and feeling the most compelling emotions or it can lead to the dirty side also known as politics.

The Belgian Revolution Part Deux

Vive le Belgium! With World Cup qualifications nearing an end next month the group leading Belgian national football team is really getting ready to shock the world this summer. In the past decade they couldn't even come close to matching their powerhouse neighbors France, Germany or Holland. Now, the rise in Belgian talent has made the country the third most expensive team in Europe. Just looking back ten years ago they couldn't even break the top 60 in the world ranking, but now they're in the top ten. How did all this happen or better yet where do other countries find this type of luck? After doing some research it turns out it isn't based on luck at all. The Belgians actually made their country into this endless supply of talent all on their own. With only 11 million people in the country, here's how they did it. Belgium was pretty good for many decades always qualifying for the big two, World Cup and Euro tournaments, but they never really made a huge mark on world football like their neighbors. Then in 2000 they got the chance of a lifetime to host Euro with Holland. There was hope for the Belgians just like with any host nation, but they got knocked out of the group stage early on. Belgium was quickly becoming another washed up former contender until Michel Sablon, some big shot in the Belgian FA, came along. His staff would talk to the powerhouse neighbors, learn from them, then they would force all the major Belgian clubs to bring up their youth players through their blueprint. This blueprint became a booklet that Sablon passed out to all the Belgian clubs. The aim was to create talent not through winning, but youth development. It didn't matter if your teams lost, as long as your players kept learning and getting better, but wait that must have been crazy. All of a sudden the top teams like Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Standard Liege had to develop players based on some little brochure. Well, that's exactly what happened, but not without controversy and disagreement, still in a miraculous way the clubs followed the blueprint. Fast forward and holy crap I can name over 11 players in the national team even though, while writing this post, I have yet to watch a single Belgian national team game. The miracle doesn't end there though. For such a small country Belgium has had some history of tension between its two major linguistic groups; the French speaking Walloons and the Dutch speaking Flemish. Still, they have been able to manage their differences through coach Marc Wilmots, former Belgian football star and politician, along with Captain Vincent Kompany, better known as the Belgian patriot. In fact, the team is made up of all sorts of different ethnic groups from Fellaini's Moroccan background to Benteke's Congolese roots. The beauty behind all of this is how the national team has been able to use all the diversity to add to their style of play. They can play like a Barcelona tiki-taka team, but they also have the speed and tempo since many of their players play their club football in the Premier League. With all the newly found talent through the Belgian system I only wanted to know one thing. Why don't other struggling countries do the same if it worked for Belgium? Remember, this was all done through the youth development in the Belgian league and all in the past decade. I guess, Belgium does have one advantage or bit of luck that the rest of Europe might not. It's located in the West. It's main city Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union for Christ's sake. Basically, they have the mentality and means to bring something like this together. I simply can't imagine all major clubs in countries like Poland, Bulgaria or Hungary coming together financially to base all their development on one unified theory like this. Instead, all I can imagine right now is just how big of an impact these Belgians can make in the World Cup. No matter what they achieve or how far they make it I know one thing for sure now. Hazard, Benteke, Fellaini, Vertonghen, Mignolet, Lukaku, Witsel, Mertens, De Bruyne, Van Buyten, Mirallas, Kompany, Vermaelen and countless others will all be names mentioned on repeat by the footballing public during this World Cup. I for one will be watching this second Belgian revolution unfold this summer.