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Ciarán Culligan A moment in time in Dundalk FC’s title-winning season. New York City FC Crest Design Alfalfa Studio took inspiration from the design heritage of the city itself. Przemek Niciejewski The Polish photographer documents the faces that make the Bundesliga great. Il Divin Codino The Italian master Roberto Baggio and the 1994 World Cup. Green, White, & Oranje Irishman Jack Kirwan was the first professional manager of Ajax FC. Students of the Game The spread of football in universities around the world. The Soho Warriors London’s team of graphic designers, photographers and illustrators. Yugoslavs & Rastafarians ‘The Home of Irish Football’ Dalymount Park’s most iconic games and events. The LA King How Robbie Keane conquered the American game.
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Africa in the Dutch Polders The Eritrea national team transplanted to a small town in the Netherlands. Stuart Roy Clarke The amazing work of the Homes of Football photographer. Samuel Bono The stunning artwork of the São Paulobased illustrator. A League Apart David Villa and the City Football Group’s impact on Australia’s national league. Poster Boy Is Brazil’s golden child Neymar Jr starting to live up to the hype? Base Football Players The Gaelic Athletic Association’s ban on ‘foreign’ games in Ireland. Does How You Win Matter? Johnny Hynes asks how important is style in football? The Numbers Game Sander Neijnens explores typography in shirt number design.
ISSUE 2 2015
Contributors: Ciarán Culligan Studio Alfalfa Przemek Niciejewski Osvaldo ‘Oz’ Casanova Samuel Byrnes Donal Fallon Planning Unit Geo Law Robert Mora Herman Joustra Thijs Brouwers Stuart Roy Clarke Samuel Bono Ian Kerr Aleksandar Jason Fenomeno Choi David Toms Johnny Hynes Ruben Gerard Sander Neijnens Editors: James Carew Kie Carew Contact: hello@pogmogoal.com Copyright 2015 Póg Mo Goal. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted without permission from the publisher.
The fall and rise of the Lilywhites. Manager Stephen Kenny guided Dundalk FC to the League of Ireland championship in 2014, two years after they survived a relegation play-off.
As well as being photographer for the Dundalk FC 2014 season review book, Ciarån Culligan’s work also features in the Dundalk Democrat newspaper. www.ciaranculliganphotography.com
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Inspiration for the NYC FC crest came from the rich graphic vocabulary of New York; subway stations, theatre marquees, advertisements, signage and urban artifacts such as manhole covers, subway tokens, architectural details and vernacular typography. Alfalfa Studio is a branding and graphic design firm based in New York City. www.alfalfastudio.com
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Covering non-league struggles in Poland and Germany or big stadium showdowns in Barcelona and Manchester, Przemek Niciejewski’s photography documents the people in and around the stadium. www.niciejewskiphotography.eu
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IL DIVIN CODINO
He entered the tournament in America as the World Player of the Year, but with the final kick of the World Cup in 1994, Roberto Baggio’s missed penalty saw his Italy side lose to the unloved Brazil team of Dunga and co. Known as Il Divin Codino, ‘The Divine Ponytail’, Baggio scored five goals including a converted spot-kick against Nigeria in the second round, as the Azzuri advanced to the final in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium in sunny California. Four years earlier, his move from Fiorentina to Juventus for a world record £8 million transfer fee outraged fans of the Viola, who rioted on the streets of Florence in protest.
Osvaldo ‘Oz’ Casanova is an illustrator based in Vicenza, Italy. He loves The Clash, bitter beers and Lanerossi Vicenza and hates those who call football “soccer”. www.thankyoufortheroses.com
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Baggio went on to play for both AC and Inter Milan with a spell at Bologna in between. He finished his career at Brescia having won the UEFA Cup and Serie A title with Juve in 1994/95 and the Scudetto with the Rossoneri in his first season following his move to the San Siro. When Italy again went to a penalty shoot-out in the quarterfinals of the 1998 World Cup, this time Baggio converted from the spot. The team suffered more heartache however, losing out to hosts and eventual champions France. Baggio’s Buddhist beliefs made him an outsider in a predominantly Catholic country, but in spite of his missed penalty in the ‘94 final, he is a much loved icon and considered one of Italy’s all time greats.
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GREEN, WHITE, & ORANJE THE STORY OF FORGOTTEN IRISHMAN JACK KIRWAN, WHO BECAME THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL MANAGER OF AJAX AMSTERDAM. With 33 Eredivisie titles, 18 KNVB Cups and four European Cups, the club with the world famous youth academy, Ajax of Amsterdam are the Netherlands’ most successful team. Three-time Ballon d’Or winner Johan Cruyff along with a host of the world’s best players including Marco Van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Brian and Michael Laudrup have all played for the Dutch giants. Rinus Michels’ Total Football became synonymous with Ajax and the Dutch national team. Cruyff, who played under Michels, would later go on to manage Barcelona and implement a version of the philosophy which laid the groundwork for Pep Guardiola’s Tiki Taka. Ten years after they were founded in 1900, Ajax were still an amateur outfit when the then chairman Chris Holst travelled to England in search of a British manager to usher in a new era of professionalism. He would return with an Irishman. Born on the 9th of February 1878 in Dunlavin, County Wicklow, Jack Kirwan’s playing career included spells with Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. He previously won an All-Ireland Gaelic football medal with Dublin in 1894. He was the first and only Irishman to manage Ajax. Kirwan left Ireland to join Southport Central before being spotted by Everton and signed with the Toffees in 1898. The winger played for one season scoring five times in 26 appearances. He moved to Tottenham Hotspur who played in the Southern League at the time, where he won the 1901 FA Cup. He scored 97 goals in 347 appearances while at Spurs before moving to Chelsea after six seasons at White Hart Lane. He made 76 appearances for the Blues scoring 16 goals for the west Londoners. They were second division runners up in the 1906/07 season.
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Kirwan played 17 times for Ireland, making his debut in a 2-0 defeat away to Wales. He was a member of the team that shared the 1903 British Home Championship. Before goal difference came into play, Ireland shared the title with England and Scotland, with Kirwan netting his first international goal in a 2-0 win for the Irish at Celtic Park. His move to the Netherlands in 1910 to become Ajax’s first professional coach delivered the Amsterdam outfit the second division title in his first year at the club. Promotion to the first division brought about a change to the team’s colours, with Ajax originally playing in an all black kit with a red sash tied around the players’ waists. A clash with Sparta Rotterdam’s colours and away jerseys not being in existence at the time, meant the club were forced to change to the now iconic, and instantly recognisable, white shirt with one wide red stripe down the middle. Kirwan’s initial success was short lived with relegation back to the second tier and the outbreak of World War I meant he had to flee the country. Returning to his native Ireland saw Kirwan manage Bohemians in 1921 and he guided the Gypsies to second in the newly formed League of Ireland. He followed this with a spell with AS Livorno of Tuscany in Italy for two seasons earning third and fifth placed finishes. Following his death in 1959 Jack Kirwan’s medals and other items of paraphernalia were donated to the Tottenham Hotspur museum by his family.
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STUDENTS OF THE GAME
Illustration: Samuel Byrnes
WHILE THE SPREAD OF FOOTBALL CAN, IN A NUMBER OF CASES BE ATTRIBUTED TO BRITISH SAILORS, RAILWAY WORKERS AND BUSINESSMEN TRAVELLING TO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, SOUTH AMERICA AND BEYOND, THE INFLUENCE OF UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENTS IN THE GROWTH OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME AROUND THE WORLD CAN BE SEEN IN SOME OF ITS BIGGEST, AND NOT SO BIG, CLUBS. It was in many of these forward-thinking institutions of learning that the game expanded around the globe. In the latter stages of the 19th century private schools in England like Eton, Rugby and other colleges were playing their own rules of football. At the same time the laws of the game were being codified for the first time. The world’s oldest club, Sheffield FC, were drawing up the Sheffield Rules which were adopted by teams in the north of England. The FA published The Football Association Laws in 1863 as football was taking root in England and beyond. Ex-students of some of these elite private schools and universities had formed a team in London called Corinthians. The club that once supplied the entire England team’s players went on a tour of Brazil in 1910 and inspired a new outfit in Sao Paulo to take the name of the visiting side. In the United States, Princeton and Rutgers universities were playing a variation of football that would eventually become American football. In Spain, one of the world’s most famous and successful clubs, Real Madrid owes its origins to students when, in the early part of the 20th century as football began to take hold in the country, students from the Institucion Libre de Ensenanza are credited with introducing football to the city and forming the Football Club Sky in 1897. A split a few years later saw the creation of two clubs; New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Madrid Football Club which would become Real Madrid.
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Playing in the Primera Division in Santiago, Club Universidad de Chile are one of the most popular teams in the South American country. With 17 league titles and an undefeated run in the 2011 Copa Sudamericana, they are also one of the most successful. Founded in 1927 by a group of students, the club and university were separated in 1980 by the club president and university rector, who had been appointed under the General Pinochet dictatorship. The team’s Owl logo was chosen for the wisdom and learning associated with the bird. It does not appear on the jerseys however. A red varsity-style U sits in its place instead. Club Universidad de Chile’s cross-city rivals, Club Deportivo Universidad Catolica are also one of Chile’s most popular clubs. Together they contest the derby known as the Clasico Universitario. Along with Colo Colo the clubs make up the ‘Big Three’. The team from one of Santiago’s more salubrious neighbourhoods was officially formed in 1937 but before that, former students had been reuniting since 1910, to play football matches together, often facing off against Universidad de Chile. Universitario de Deportes are Peru’s most celebrated club. The side, founded in 1924 by students and teachers at the National University of San Marcos, play their home games in the 80,000 capacity Estadio Monumental in Lima. Winners of 26 first division crowns, they were the first Peruvian side to reach the Copa Libertadores final. The club was initially formed as Federación Universitaria with small tournaments held between the different university faculties and departments. Their impressive results led to an invite by the Peruvian Football Association to join the league in 1928. The distinctive Universitario home kit came about after laundry workers turned their originally white jerseys cream by accident when rushing to get them ready for an upcoming match. The club kept the look when they won the game, considering the new colours a good luck charm.
Club de Fútbol Universidad Nacional AC play in the 68,954 capacity, Unesco World Heritage Site listed, Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City. One of the most popular clubs in the country, the Pumas, as they are commonly known, tog out in Notre Dameinspired blue and gold kits. The famous Indiana university’s Fighting Irish coaches helped develop an American football program in the school, it being the students favoured sport in the early part of the 20th century. The distinctive Puma crest stretches over the entire front of the shirt. The great Hugo Sanchez received a degree in dentistry at the University while playing for UNAM as an eighteen-year-old. Founded in 1895 as the Catholic University Medical School Football Club, and changed to University College Dublin in 1908 following a merger, UCD currently ply their trade in the second division of the League of Ireland. They played in the first ever FAI Senior Cup against fellow non-league side Shamrock Rovers in 1921, losing 6-2 to the team that would go on to become Ireland’s most successful club. UCD were the first Irish team to tour such far flung outposts as India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines. A partnership with the Vancouver Whitecaps of the North American Soccer League in 1981, then managed by John Giles, saw players linking up with the South Dublin club to play during the NASL off-season.
Samuel Byrnes is a left-footed, Sydney-based designer who loves witty design and illustration, simplicity, language and hand-done type. He has won international awards from bodies such as D&AD, AGDA, and New York and Tokyo Type Directors Club. www.samuelbyrnes.com
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THE SOHO WARRIORS
ESTABLISHED IN LONDON IN 2011 BY BROTHERS MATTHEW AND CHRIS DENT, THE SOHO WARRIORS ARE A FOOTBALL TEAM MADE UP OF GRAPHIC DESIGNERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ILLUSTRATORS WHO FORM A COLLECTIVE THAT PRODUCES FOOTBALLINSPIRED PROJECTS.
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Póg Mo Goal: What are your design backgrounds? Matthew Dent: We have two founding members, I work as manager and curator at Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch, London, while Chris is a freelance illustrator. The rest of the team works across the creative industry, from digital and graphic designers, photographers, directors, product designers etc. What are your football backgrounds? We have a complete mix of backgrounds and experience. Most have played at a decent level, while others have played semi-pro, and pro at youth level. We also have those who have never really played, so it’s a case of improving and working together as a team to get better. Where did the idea for a team of creative’s come about? The idea came about after me and Chris shared a studio for about a year. We were fed up with playing in Sunday league sides and weekly games that had no spirit or excitement within the team. We would turn up, play and leave without much interaction with teammates. While this isn’t always the case, we have come to realise that most people who have joined our team have felt this way with other clubs.
It’s important for us to give those players the opportunity to play weekly, with encouragement and without the normal Sunday league attitude and bullshit. We are now in our fifth year. We have played in tournaments across the world including New York, Berlin and Paris. We’ve also played competitive matches and tournaments here in London too. What are some of the creative projects you have worked on? Our most recent project was working with Adidas on a series of events in London. We put on a World Cup show, working on limited edition products and prints, screening games and films. We also hosted the first Adidas club cup, with a bunch of creative teams from across London. We like to make sure the quality of content we put out is consistent. We also focus on the team, so we like to make sure the football side of things is settled and running smoothly, before we take too much on.
You have travelled abroad to take part in tournaments organised by similar football collective; Chinatown Soccer Club in New York City. Could you tell us how these tournaments came about? We contacted them very early on. We were/are big fans of all the creative stuff they put out. Demo and Dan Funderburgh were two designers we had followed for a while. After a year or so, the coach got in touch with us as they were planning a show here in London. So we teamed up with them, Adidas and Vice to put on a one night show and Champions League final screening. Since then we have travelled over to New York twice to play in the Chinatown Invitational, which has been a highlight for us all. It’s also great to see some of our players going over there to play and vice versa. It’s good to have a relationship with a bunch of like-minded people. Not only the guys in New York but also with The Ringleaders in Montreal and Gastown FC in Vancouver. It’s always great to see those guys and I think we all inspire each other. They are definitely the people we enjoy following and have a lot of respect for. Adidas UK have been really supportive and seem to like what we do. We can really identify with the brand. They have been a breeze to work with and we have a good understanding creatively. So it’s all positive. Hopefully there’s more to come this year. Producing great work and linking up with good people is what we try and do.
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YUGOSLAVS & RASTAFARIANS FAMOUS GAMES AND EVENTS IN DUBLIN’S DALYMOUNT PARK, KNOWN AS THE SPIRITUAL HOME OF IRISH FOOTBALL. Words: Donal Fallon Illustration: Planning Unit
Donal Fallon writes for Come Here To Me, a group blog that focuses on the life and culture of Dublin City. Music, history, football, politics and pubs all feature. www.comeheretome.com
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Despite my heart belonging on Dublin’s Emmet Road with Saint Patrick’s Athletic FC, my house is across the city and up a hill in Cabra. Walking towards the city centre, I pass the floodlights of Dalymount Park, home of bohemians, on an almost daily basis, icons of domestic football that are undoubtedly nicer on the eye than the brutalism of the Phibsboro Shopping Centre and office complex which towers over the stadium. Dalymount Park was opened to the public in September 1901 by Lord Mayor Tim Harrington, a popular figure in the city who held the office for three successive turns. A crowd of over 5,000 watched Bohemians defeat Shelbourne on that occasion, with the game finishing up 4-2. Well over a century on, it seems that these two clubs may both ultimately find themselves as tenants of the Dublin City Council in the historic venue with a possible groundshare on the cards. Despite its current dilapidation in places, it has witnessed some incredible moments in Irish football history and indeed in broader social history, with Bob Marley famously performing there in 1980 at one of his last outdoor concerts. Here are a selection of iconic matches played at the Dublin 7 stadium, and even a ridiculous event for good measure.
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Ireland 5-2 Germany October 1936 The German football team had a perfectly pleasant time in Dublin, beyond the 90 minutes on the pitch in Dalymount. Hosted in the Mansion House by the ‘shaking hand of Dublin’, Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne, they endured something of a drubbing in Dalymount Park on 17 October 1936. The German side gave the Nazi salute as their national anthem was played in the ground. The Irish Times had nothing but praise for the Irish side, with their reporter noting that; “In my close on 40 years experience of Association football, I have not seen any Irish team play with greater verve, dash and persistency”. Copies of the match programme, complete with swastika insignia, have become highly sought pieces of memorabilia, fetching hundreds of Euros at auction. Ireland 3-2 Poland November 1938 We’re lucky in 2015 to have an Uachtaráin who lives and breathes Irish football, but in the 1930s it was considered sacrilege for the nation’s President to attend an Association Football match, as Douglas Hyde would discover. The decision of Ireland’s first President to attend Dalymount Park in the winter of 1938 caused something of a moral panic for many in the Gaelic Athletic Association, leading to Hyde’s removal as a patron of the sporting body. His crime? Breaking the infamous ‘Rule 27’, and the promotion of a ‘foreign game’’. The Irish Times was scathing in its criticism of the GAA, following the removal of Hyde, by insisting that “the loss will be to the GAA. Their little victory over President Hyde will be pyrrhic, because the head of the State will continue to be the representative of all the people, and not of any clique, however large it may be”. The crowd in Dalymount responded to the presence of Hyde at the Polish game with a standing ovation. Hyde, who had presumably committed some sort of ‘anti-national’ sin by attending a garrison game kick-about, watched the match beside Oscar Traynor, a veteran of the 1916 Rising and a former Belfast Celtic goalkeeper who would later become President of the Football Association of Ireland. Planning Unit is a London-based creative design studio founded in 2011 by Jeff Knowles and Nick Hard. They have created a series of football stadium posters covering teams from the football league and across Europe. The series of posters are available from www.print-process.com and www.formandglory.com including Daylmount Park commissioned specifically for this issue of Póg Mo Goal.
Yugoslavia 4-1 Ireland October 1955 It is not often that one has to pass a Legion of Mary picket on their way into a football international, but that is exactly what confronted those who attended Ireland’s friendly with Yugoslavia in October 1955. Dublin’s Archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, was a seemingly unstoppable force in Irish political life, hell-bent on keeping Catholics out of Trinity College, sex education out of school and communists out of Dalymount Park. Yugoslavia had emerged from the Second World War as a Communist state under General Tito, and the perceived ill-treatment of Catholics in that country had brought thousands onto the streets of Dublin at demonstrations in the 1940s. When the FAI extended an invitation to Yugoslavia to play in Dublin, McQuaid publicly called on Dubliners to boycott the game. Did they? Almost 22,000 attended the clash, meaning that it’s fair to say McQuaid took a greater hammering than the Boys in Green on that occasion. Philip Green, the celebrated RTÉ match commentator, famously refused to commentate on the match, citing his Catholic faith. Liam Tuohy, who was lining up for Ireland, would later recall that the Yugoslav players blessed themselves in the tunnel before the game, leading him to remark that “there were nearly more Catholics on their side than there were on ours”. Shamrock Rovers 0-6 Manchester Utd September 1957 A huge crowd of 45,000 saw the Busby Babes of Manchester United take on Shamrock Rovers in 1957. One of the names on the scoresheet on that occasion was Liam Whelan, a local lad from only a stone’s throw away in Cabra. Whelan lined up for United, and sadly was one of eight players to die in the Munich Air Disaster a year later in 1958. The Hoops went in only one nil down at half time, but the class of United was just too much and after the break the floodgates were well and truly opened. Four goals came in the last twenty minutes. One young man who was in the crowd was Eamon Dunphy, who remembered years later that there was a great buzz in the city with the visit of the Manchester side; “Rovers’ fans were a minority among the crowd. Most simply wanted to be there to see the English champions we had read and heard so much about”.
Bohemians 3-2 Glasgow Rangers September 1984 The chant ‘3-2 in the 84’ has entered Bohs lore, and while the Phibsboro side have disposed of Scottish competition in Europe in the past (just ask Aberdeen), they were ultimately knocked out of Europe by Glasgow Rangers in 1984. Still, their home victory in the first leg was a huge achievement for the Dublin club. However it was totally overshadowed by the atmosphere inside the stadium, where Union flags and Vatican flags were to be found burned in opposing ends of the ground. In a colourful account of what it was like in the away end on that night, a Glasgow Rangers fan recalled on the 25th anniversary of the game “I noticed what appeared to be a railway sleeper being positioned by our supporters near the edge of a wall above the tunnel from where the police had emerged, ready to be dropped on the next police charge”. Bohs came from behind twice in front of a huge crowd, and Rangers boss Jock Wallace had little good to say of the travelling support, stating that; “what we saw here tonight was a disgrace to football and a sad reflection on Rangers club”. At a recent function to mark the 30th anniversary of the fixture, David ‘Rocky’ O’Brien who scored against the Glasgow side, recalled, “I remember the goal I scored against Shamrock Rovers the Sunday before because I hate Rovers more than I hate Rangers”. ‘Football With The Lid Off’ 1950s Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin are two names you may not expect to pop up in an article looking at historic matches in a Phibsboro football stadium, but they’ve both graced the pitch of Dalymount Park. In a way. In the 1950s, an annual charity match between members of the press and stage drew big crowds. Actors dressed as Éamon de Valera, Churchill and Stalin ran around madly on the pitch in 1952, with the goals barricaded and TNT ‘explosives’ adding to the festivities of the occasion. The game remained an annual event for much of the 1950s. The Irish Times report of the 1957 fixture noted that “Nobody knew who won the game, but the referee, Dr. Kevin O’Flanagan, announced that it was a draw. Brendan Behan led a movement for the ref’s hanging: this was almost carried out”.
www.planningunit.co.uk
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THE LA KING If David Beckham became royalty in American sport, AS SOCCER CONTINUES TO CONQUER HEARTS AND MINDS, HIS SUCCESSOR IN LOS ANGELES NOW REIGNS SUPREME. RECENTLY VOTED BEST FOREIGN IMPORT EVER, ROBBIE KEANE’S WINNING GOAL EARNED LA GALAXY A FIFTH MLS CROWN, AND HIS THIRD, AS THE DUBLINER WAS NAMED 2014’S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER. IN THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS, FAR FROM FADING, THE IRISH CAPTAIN’S STAR CONTINUES TO SHINE. Words: James Carew Illustration: Geo Law Photography: Robert Mora
Geo Law is a freelance illustrator who hails from the steel city of Sheffield. Using his trusty pens he has worked for clients such as Facebook, Microsoft and Converse. www.getaloadageo.co.uk
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T
hey called it the David Beckham factor. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, cynicism initially met the news of the England star’s departure for Los Angeles in 2007. Many felt he still had something to offer at football’s top level. America was where retiring footballers went to die. The league was deemed inferior. The Americans used phrases like ‘PK’ instead of ‘penalty’, and were obsessed with assists and other statistics as if they made up for a lack of the real currency in football, goals.
Yet, Beckham succeeded in his aim to raise the profile of the world’s most popular game in a sports-mad country that had threatened but largely failed to embrace it in the past. What’s more, the increased coverage of Beckham’s exploits, and by extension the league, lent American soccer a new credibility. We knew the US was a powerhouse in women’s soccer but we were also aware that many sports followers there saw the male-equivalent as a less manly game, not like the rough and tumble of grid-iron or basketball. America may have hosted the World Cup in 1994 but the media coverage then was interspersed with vox pops with locals who were unaware that the biggest sporting event on the planet was taking place on their doorstep. But, despite the lingering ignorance of outside observers, all that has changed. Soccer is now the number one participation sport for young Americans while a recent ESPN poll named the game second in popularity among 12-24-year-olds ahead of baseball, basketball and college football. David Beckham’s massively successful stints at AC Milan during the MLS close-season surprised many who felt his standards would drop playing in a poorer league Stateside. His oft-repeated desire to remain in the England squad struck a chord and for a short period, the then national manager Fabio Capello obliged the icon’s wishes. What it also demonstrated was that distance and travel was not the obstacle many had once thought. Thierry Henry followed in Beckham’s footsteps lending further credibility while MLS games became increasingly available on television in Europe. The US national team, many of whom are drawn from the domestic game, have also grabbed headlines, consistently qualifying from the group stages at the World Cup and reaching the final of the 2009 Confederations Cup, eliminating Spain in the semi-finals, before losing 3-2 to Brazil. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil saw an explosion in interest for the men’s national team (and its ubiquitous social media hashtag #USMNT) with tens of thousands attending public viewings across the nation. US supporters were among the largest fan contingents in South America and a heroic display by Jurgen Klinnsmann’s team against Belgium fired the imagination of previous oblivious Americans.
If Beckham became the prince of the US game, it was a Dubliner who emerged from his shadow to be crowned king on the pitch. Ireland has had its connections with soccer in America in the past. Players like ex-internationals Paddy Mulligan and John Giles spent time there. Former record goal-scorer Frank Stapleton managed New England Revolution. In more recent times Darren O’Dea and Andy O’Brien have plied their trade in the US, now Sean St Ledger and soon Kevin Doyle. But it was Robbie Keane’s transfer to LA which sparked headlines. Some were sceptical of the move. Others could hardly fault him for choosing the Californian sun and Hollywood lifestyle over another season in, say, Glasgow for example. But it was Beckham’s trail-blazing that softened many Irish observers’ stance. Keane’s insatiable appetite to turn out for his country also drew admiration, helped in no small part by the striker’s red-hot form in an Irish shirt when he fired the crucial goals to help the Republic reach a major finals for the first time in a decade, Euro 2012. At a time when many footballers, even those unable to hold down first-team places at their clubs, increasingly see international duty as an irrelevance, Keane was scathing about players pulling out of the national squad. “If people don’t want to play for Ireland, don’t declare yourself to play for Ireland. It’s simple. I have never once pulled out of a squad for any reason apart from being injured. I am a proud Irishman. As a kid growing up it was always a dream to play for my country. I still have that same hunger and enthusiasm that I had when I first had the opportunity. That will never change for me”. Cynics looking for ammunition to parody both Keane and Americans’ ignorance about the sport were afforded a dream scenario when a media outlet captioned him in a photograph as ‘an unidentified fan’ alongside David Beckham at an NBA game in 2012. Keane had only arrived in California the year before but Beckham was about to take his leave from the States, at least in a playing sense. With MLS soon coping with a Becks-sized gap in its pulling power, Ireland’s recordgoal scorer capitalised on increased exposure to forge a new identity. The Tallaght native assumed the Galaxy captaincy from the darling of the US game Landon Donovan, following the American’s self-imposed exile. Keane now held the armband for both club and country. His image was emblazoned on billboards, buses, and the mlssoccer.com homepage.
Robert Mora is a photographer based in Los Angeles, California. He has worked for the LA Lakers and LA Kings and is team photographer for the LA Galaxy. www.moracreativestudio.com
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And yet in his homeland Irish fans could be scathing in their criticism. Despite consistently being the country’s most in-form striker at club and international level, there were constant suggestions his days in an Irish shirt were over. Yet, as recently as 2013, he was named senior player of the year for his eight goals in a campaign that saw him become Ireland’s mostcapped player. Keane notched an incredible 125 Premier League goals during his time in England and was voted club player of the year three times at Tottenham Hotspur, an award he also won at Celtic. He is the highest-scoring striker in European Championship qualification history, and top scoring active international. On 4th June 2011, Keane scored his 50th and 51st international goals in Skopje, Macedonia, in a Euro 2012 qualifier eclipsing Bobby Charlton to become the highest goalscorer from the UK and Ireland. The striker is among a select list of footballers to have scored in three successive matches in the World Cup finals sharing the distinction with luminaries such as Pele, Jairzinho, Ronaldo, Eusebio, and Mario Kempes among others. Prior to Ireland’s qualifier for the 2014 World Cup with Germany, striker Miroslav Klose, who would go on to become the tournament’s record scorer, hailed the exploits of his Irish counterpart. The then Kaiserslautern forward, of course, headed the opener when Ireland faced Germany in that memorable encounter in Ibaraki in 2002, when Keane’s last-gasp equaliser truly announced his arrival on the world stage. Brazil’s Ronaldo was the only other player who managed to beat goalkeeper Oliver Kahn during the tournament when they faced the Germans in the final. Nowadays, Keane has begun taking his coaching badges, having declared a desire to one day manage his country. In a recent interview he told former international colleague Kevin Kilbane: “If I was English would I be respected a bit more? Yes, I think so, that’s the truth”. In 2014, the thirty-four-year-old Keane enjoyed his best season since his arrival in MLS, being named Major League Soccer’s Most Valuable Player. He has now helped the Galaxy to three MLS Cups while coach Bruce Arena hailed the striker’s contribution. “He’s not only our most valuable player, he’s our captain as well, and he’s a great leader”. The Dubliner has no intention of hanging up his boots any time soon, expressing a desire to continue for several more years, but perhaps beyond MLS. “For me, it’s not about the money, I’d play for free. When I’m done playing and I go back to Ireland as a manager or whatever, I’ll keep playing in a Sunday league with my mates. That’s just the way I am.” Long before Robbie Keane was named MVP, coach Arena consistently praised him as the best player in the American game, a point emphasised when Sports Illustrated recently hailed him as MLS’ greatest ever import, not Beckham or Henry. The winning goal in extra time to seal a fifth MLS Cup cemented Keane’s place in the Galaxy record books and the Irishman has since been bestowed with the nickname ‘King of LA’. David Beckham may have abdicated the MLS throne but his crown has been taken up by a new monarch. Long live the Keane.
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AFRICA IN THE DUTCH POLDERS Words: Herman Joustra Photography: Thijs Brouwers
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A CHILLY AUTUMN EVENING IN GORINCHEM, A PICTURESQUE DUTCH CITY ABOUT 30 KM EAST OF ROTTERDAM. THE LAST RAYS OF THE SETTING SUN CAST A GOLDEN GLOW ON THE BLACK TARMAC OF THE KLEINE SCHELLUINSEKADE, A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A DUTCH STRAIGHT-AS-AN-ARROW ROAD ALONGSIDE A TREE-LINED CANAL. A WINDMILL UP AHEAD. AND A TOUCH OF AFRICA. WWW.POGMOGOAL.COM
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or there comes pedalling on his bike Samuel ‘Sami’ Alazar, goalie and former member of the Eritrean national squad, snowy white Nikes on his feet and already wearing his football kit. He stops at the gates to the Molenvliet sports park, where football club SVW is based, and stays seated on his bike, a sturdy U2 Cortina.
He is the first to arrive, the gates are still closed. He takes out his phone to contact his mates on the Dutch Soccer Team Eritrea, the new moniker for the former national team of the East African country who now train at the SVW grounds. It’s only a short wait, for not a minute later Daniel Goitom, the team’s other goalkeeper, arrives on his bike, his gloves secure under the carrier straps. And there we have Aman Habteslus, on his Multicycle bike. “Nice bike, right? All of us on the team got one from the mayor”. A nice gesture from the mayor of the blue-collar city where the Eritrean national squad finally settled in May. Sixteen team members in all, plus the team’s doctor and a sister of one of the players, traded the palms of Asmara for the elms of Gorinchem. In December 2012 the group defected after playing an international tournament in Uganda, from where they moved to Romania, in search of a better life. In the end, the Dutch government extended a lifeline to them, granting them political asylum and obviating the need to go through lengthy procedures.
At one time they were professional football players in Eritrea, even though their salaries were trifling; these days they are unpaid amateur players in a Dutch provincial town, earning no match bonuses and living on welfare. A free bike is bound to make you happy then. “Of course”, Habteslus says, laughing. “Though the difference is not as big as you might think. Back in Eritrea, we’d often bike to practice too, taking the car only the odd time”. But isn’t the Netherlands the country where immigrants are given biking classes? Well, maybe, but Eritreans don’t need any municipality-appointed coach to teach them how to ride a bike. For over fifty years, between 1885 and 1941, Eritrea was a colony of Italy, causing its inhabitants to develop a taste for cappuccino, the occasional pizza and, above all, cycling. “Yeah, they’re dead chuffed with those bikes”, counsellor Sjaak Pellikaan confirms, gently putting down a few white plastic garden chairs on the sideline to watch practice from. “As they are with the kits and boots a sponsor provided for them”. Pellikaan is a local police officer who’s taken an interest in the lot of the Eritreans from the moment they arrived. “They came here with almost nothing and it’s still hard for them. They have to make ends meet on a few tenners a week, including their clothing allowance. So every little bit of help and support is welcome for them”.
Pellikaan took the squad under his wing together with club manager Robertino Lotto. “At the time, Robertino was SVW’s technical coordinator, not yet its manager. So I had a lark with him, saying this was his chance to become the They were extremely lucky. Only 500 manager of a national team. He actually refugees are granted legal status relished the idea. The problem was, every year, most of them through the we had no idea of their level of play. One mediation of the United Nations High rung below top amateur level, perhaps Commissioner for Refugees. The players two? Well, suffice to say our jaws will not, on any account, discuss politics dropped in utter surprise when we saw in their home country or their reasons them play. Their passing speed, their for fleeing. It’s because they’re likely combination play, it was just amazing. to be under close surveillance from the Eritrean consulate in The Hague, they say, We knew instantly that theirs was way above any level we had ever managed. and they fear for the lives of the family Robertino immediately guessed they members they left behind in Eritrea. But apart from that they are happy to chatter could play at the highest amateur level, if not higher. Still, that was only practice. about all manner of things. About the Exactly how they would hold up when injera, a kind of pancake served and facing a team of burly, hairy-legged topped with vegetables, herbs and Dutchmen was anybody’s guess. By now usually meat stews, the quintessential we had played eighteen matches or Eritrean national dish, which they just so and things were going very well. We prepared at home. About the best Dutch beat Sparta Rotterdam’s U-21 team, lost food (“kebab, yummy”), the Dutch narrowly to RKC’s and Willem II’s youth language (“very hard”), about the cold, teams, creating but squandering one but mostly about how their footballing opportunity after the other. But that’s careers took such an unexpected turn. no surprise, as we didn’t really have a good striker”. He says laughing; “He was the only one who did return to Eritrea from Uganda”.
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At one time they were professional football players in Eritrea.... these days they are unpaid amateur players in a Dutch provincial town, earning no match bonuses and living on welfare.
Darkness has set in with practice in full swing. The moon’s crescent is suspended above the glittering artificial turf like a gleaming pendant. “I prefer real grass”, Hermon Tecleab says. “The ball bounces differently, rolls differently. Better, if you ask me. But it’s not like we are not used to playing on artificial turf, you know. We’d sometimes play on it in Eritrea too”. That would be at the Cicero Stadium in the capital Asmara then, home to the clubs Red Sea FC, Adulis, Hintsa and Edaga Hamus, as well as the national team. Back in Eritrea, key player Tecleab was admired for his fine technical skills and his ability to read the game but is unlikely to play any international again, having fled his native country. He is now quietly hoping to continue his career in the Netherlands. “Yes of course I want that, I’m a professional. Football is my life”. That goes for his team mates as well. They run up and down the field as if possessed, firing one shot after another at the two goalies, Alazar and Goitom, who in turn leap from left to right, top corner and back, laughing and crying in innocent pleasure. Beaming, Lotto watches them. “It’s an absolute pleasure working with them. You never hear them using expletives or cussing at one another, they’re friends through and through, on and off the pitch. We have four training sessions a week, but if it Were up to them, we’d be practising everyday. And when I want to call it a day after two hours, they’d rather go on. They’re bursting with energy. In a positive way, that is. And they’re pretty good football players to boot”. That fact did not go unnoticed for long, Pellikaan found out quickly. “After the first match against Kozakken Boys, a top-league amateur side, the opposition came to us with a list of four of our players they wanted to sign. Hermon was one of them. We graciously declined the offer at the time, but we have changed our minds since. You cannot stop these boys from leaving, not with their skills. I really believe the team will start falling apart soon”.
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Tilburg-based Eredivisie side Willem II, against whose U-21 squad the Dutch Soccer Team Eritrea impressed despite a 2-1 loss, is said to have made a tentative offer for Tecleab’s services. “Oh, he could definitely play at that level”, Pellikaan says frankly. “He, and maybe a few others on this team too. In my opinion they can easily play in one of the lower-rung Eredivisie clubs, or one of the clubs at the top of the Jupiler League, the second tier of Dutch professional football”. That’s for the future, however. Right now, the Eritreans would love to show off their skills in a top amateur side. Unfortunately, even that is off limits to them. Pellikaan says; “We’d like to set up a Sunday team for them, as the club doesn’t have one yet. The trouble is, the team would have to start all the way at the bottom of the amateur leagues, which is far below their level. The club’s board asked the Dutch football association for dispensation, so they could start playing three or four tiers up, but this request was denied. In that case it would take three, four years for the team to play at an acceptable level. An alternative request, for the team to be assigned to one of the professional U-21 leagues, was denied as well”. Which means the team will have to settle for friendlies for now. Eritrea playing the likes of Kozakken Boys, Wateringse Veld and Smitshoek. Bizarre, unreal line-ups, but created by force of circumstances. “Well, it does have its advantages”, Pellikaan adds. “This way they have more time to adjust to life in Gorinchem, to life in Holland”. Which is no picnic, the players admit. They live in ordinary houses on ordinary Gorinchem streets among the locals, attend Dutch language class every day, yet still life in Holland has the odd surprise in store for them. Just ask Alazar. He was slapped with a pretty hefty fine one day, having picked a tree along one of Rotterdam’s main streets to urinate against. “In the end I paid that fine for him. I mean, where is that boy going to get €140 from?” Pellikaan asks.
Jonathan Moremi, writer, blogger and journalist for the Daily News Egypt and other newspapers, provides a depressing list of refugee Eritrean footballers in an article on his Words & Swords blog. Four players fled the country in 2006, twenty-one in 2007, nine in 2008, twelve in 2009, thirteen in 2010, sixteen in 2012 and ten in 2013. That makes 85 players in a span of eight years, most of them absconding after playing matches for the CECAFA Cup, a tournament for nations in East and Central Africa, with alternating host countries. The Eritrean government has tried to stem the tide, so far unsuccessfully, by introducing a $6,500 deposit players have to put down if they want to be eligible to be selected for matches or tournaments played abroad. “There is no doubt that the lean, well trained football players of Eritrea are excellent runners. Unfortunately for the president and his regime of suppression most of them run what he believes to be the wrong way”, writes a scornful Moremi. If their dream of playing professional football in the Netherlands becomes reality, the players of the Dutch Soccer Team Eritrea have an ample income to look forward to. This is the direct result of the measure introduced by the government in 1996, the aim being to reduce the number of cheap football players from outside the EU and, in doing so, to protect the employment status of EU players. Any professional club that wants to sign a player from outside the EU over the age of 20 is required to pay that player at least 50% more than the average annual salary of €276,000 paid to EU-born Eredivisie players. It follows that the minimum salary payable to nonEU players is €414,000. Players under the age of 20 receive half that amount, or €207,000. Given the less than rosy financial situations of many Dutch top flight clubs, the odds that the Eritreans will find employment in the Dutch professional football leagues are quite small, even though in this specific case the clubs would not have to pay any transfer fees.
A HARD LIFE IN ERITREA
What could have possessed sixteen Eritrean football players to seek political asylum in Uganda, leave behind their homes, their families, and go for an uncertain future in strange lands? Since arriving in the Netherlands the sixteen have categorically refused to answer that question. However, not long after they absconded, in 2012, a Ugandan official in charge of refugee affairs in his country told DPA and BBC journalists that they had fled the country on account of “the forced army conscription”. One of the players, who remains anonymous, reportedly gave the same reason to a Radio France Internationale journalist. Habtom Yohannes, a Dutch reporter of Eritrean origin, is not unfamiliar with this motive. “That is a big problem, it is true. The constitution of Eritrea provides that national service lasts eighteen months, comprising one year of political education and six months of military training. However, I know people who have been on national service for ten years or more. All because there is still supposed to be a border conflict with Ethiopia. By presenting Ethiopia as a continuous threat, President Isaias Afewerki can keep all Eritreans mobilised”. “Life in Eritrea is hard enough as it is,” Yohannes adds. “Electricity, fuel, water are all in low supply and wages are excruciatingly low. You can buy food and fuel on the black market, but only if you have money. In addition, the political situation in Eritrea has been horrible for 23 years”. “Officially, Eritrea achieved independence in 1993, although by then it had already been a free country for two years. Ever since there has been only one man in power, President Afewerki, who rules through a single party, the Marxist-Leninist People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and together they aim to control really each and every aspect of life in the country. It’s labelled a national front by the president; that way he and his clique can suppress a multi-party democracy”, says Yohannes. Protests are not condoned, the journalist continues. “Anyone openly criticising the president or the party either disappears without a trace or ends up being jailed. When, in 2001, after the disastrous border war with Ethiopia, fifteen of the president’s confidants told their stories in a number of independent newspapers, saying this situation could not last, they and all independent journalists were rounded up. To date their fate is still unknown. Some may still be in prison, others may not even be alive anymore. Those in power refuse to answer any questions about these people. The president still refuses to implement the constitution, which was ratified as early as 1997 and which I helped to write. The country is without a parliament, has no other public institutions and no free press”. As such, Eritrea occupies the rather unenviable 180th, and last, place on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Below even North Korea. The Netherlands, by comparison, is ranked second, behind Finland.
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This article first appeared in Staantribune, the Dutch magazine about football culture. www.staantribune.nl
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STUART ROY CLARKE
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Ever the purist I believe that the photographs are there already. As if encased in rock. Just waiting to be found when the conditions are right.
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Words: Stuart Roy Clarke
Football is a communal thing, a great coming together not realised anywhere else on such a scale with such intense meaning. We are really coming together to kick the world around. Or the moon. Or the sun. Or someone’s head in wicked times. In the middle at whatever scale is the round small football, then a number of players, amidst a field of green or sand or desolation, and then bring on the crowd which may number one man and his dog or may number many, in which case they will have likely built stands to accommodate people. This is replicated all over and it’s always a bit different in each case. People are busy being different when they are not busy being the same, and this dynamic is what appeals to me and makes Homes of Football an easy thing to do, as in, a natural thing to do.
Stuart Roy Clarke is an English photographer whose thirty year project travelling to grounds across Britain has documented the changing face of football. His work is on permanent display at the National Football Museum in Manchester.
When I see a group of young men, particularly men, warming up to play football on some windblown field, I am so pleased that they play in peacetime, that they are defending their goal and not their country and are not fixing bayonets to kill (their equal). When I get hired, commissioned or slapped on the back it’s usually with the words “Do what you do” as if there is some Stuart Roy Clarke style, something authentic, personal, shared, passionate, immediate, crucial, seminal. My approach is ridiculously purist. If I had my way I would blink into a small light box which would click and receive my vision. Indeed, that is what I do. I use an old box Bronica I have had for 25 years and a Canon 35mm I have had even longer. I use the standard lens on each, only. No filters. I use film and limit the amount I take with me, even on commissions. Max 100 shots per subject. I take only landscape-shaped images correlating to the wide vision of having two eyes. I don’t take portrait pictures for that would be to look someone up and down. Back in the studio I have to scan the film positives, but insist on no cropping and no photoshopping.
Ever the purist I believe that the photographs are there already. As if encased in rock. Just waiting to be found when the conditions are right and when the finder is in inspired form. Please let it be me! The film cameras slow the process. I guess at all the exposure levels so that I believe it’s me only versus the light.... then comes the scene, then comes the ‘actors’, then comes the moment. Simple. Rare. Special. Magical. Photography! Football! We’ve got a game. The photographs. My photographs, have their own texts to offer which translates to you the audience making your own interpretation of the imagery. They are not illustrative of facts and vital moments but rather the stuff of imagination. Beauty even. There is such ‘beauty’ at all levels of football. I can’t quite decide which level or in which part of the world I like football the most.
www.homesoffootball.co.uk
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Samuel Bono is a Brazilian illustrator based in São Paulo. www.samuelbono.blogspot.com
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A LEAGUE APART Words: Ian Kerr Photographer: Aleksandar Jason
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DAVID VILLA ARRIVED INTO THE A-LEAGUE TO MUCH FANFARE BUT THE CITY FOOTBALL GROUP’S OWNERSHIP OF MELBOURNE CITY marks a new development for the game in Australia, while the effects remain to be seen. WWW.POGMOGOAL.COM
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bitter wind blew in off the bay and through the empty stands of Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium. The local press corps stood at ease while waiting for the stars to be paraded at the A-League season launch. But despite the media’s outward nonchalance, there was anticipation in the sharp spring air. World Cup winner David Villa was due to make his first appearance in Australia ahead of his advertised ten-game guest stint for Melbourne City.
Villa’s arrival was touted as a sign of the domestic league’s growing maturity and quality, as well as a signal to the world that the A-League is no longer an elephant’s graveyard. Alessandro Del Piero played two seasons for Sydney FC, where he won hearts and free-kicks but little else. Romario spent time at Adelaide United chasing his 1000th goal. Dwight Yorke fully lived up to his nickname ‘All-Night Dwight’ during his time in Sydney, but at least he managed to win the league while there. But as Villa was paraded before the cameras we were left under no misapprehension: here is a World Cup winner, whose previous club game was the Champions League final, 31-years-old and not on his last legs, set to dazzle Australians around the country. It didn’t quite work out like that. Hours after Villa’s fourth and final game for Melbourne City he was on a flight to New York for “promotional duties” with his parent club, New York City FC. He didn’t return. Villa scored two goals in his four games for Melbourne City. Two draws and two losses, including a 5-2 thrashing by Melbourne Victory. His impact was minimal. It seemed that Australia hadn’t moved on from the days when we saw guest stints from Peter Beardsley (two games for Melbourne Knights) and Ian Rush (three games for Sydney Olympic). So how did a player like David Villa wind up playing four matches for a team in the A-League? The answer; oil money. Melbourne City’s majority owner is City Football Group, the owners of Manchester City and one of the MLS’ newest franchises New York City FC.
Ian Kerr is the editor of Thin White Line, the football culture magazine from Australia.
The National Soccer League, the A-League’s predecessor, kicked off in 1977 consisting of the most powerful and ambitious clubs from the various State Leagues. It was Australia’s first national club league, before Australian Rules Football and Rugby League set up their own national competitions. Foundation sides such as Adelaide Juventus and South Melbourne Hellas had ties to ethnic communities. While those clubs were the powerhouses of the competition, there were multiple efforts by football administrators over the years to “de-ethnicise” the league by forcing non-ethnic names upon the clubs, such as ‘Knights’ and ‘Lakers’. Re-naming the clubs would draw new fans to the game, or at least that was the theory. The clunky re-branding did nothing to shed teams’ ties to their immigrant communities or grow crowd figures. Instead, it served mostly to alienate those who had contributed to the development of the game. While junior participation grew, the NSL seemed to have plateaued. The Australian Football League and National Rugby League competitions were growing in leaps and bounds, with crowd figures increasing and new stadiums being built. In the 1990s the league experimented in forming new clubs such as Carlton and Collingwood that were aligned with Australian Rules football clubs. This failed. Both clubs folded, in the case of Collingwood, after just one season. Television rights were a contentious issue for the NSL. National government-owned multilingual broadcaster SBS broadcast highlights and analysis, and in some seasons live games, but did not bring the league the national attention that it needed to grow. A disastrous deal with a national commercial network led to games not being shown on free-to-air television at all (the same network held the rights to the Australian Rules national league), and football in Australia entered a dark period.
Such was the level of crisis in football in Australia that a government-backed inquiry was set up to investigate the state of the game, in particular governance matters. The Crawford Report was published in 2003 and led to the complete overhaul of the administration of the game and the establishment of the A-League. The NSL folded in 2004 and after a one-and-a-half year hiatus, the eight-team A-League was launched with teams from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Gosford, Newcastle and New Zealand. Only three teams, all ‘non-ethnic’, were survivors from the NSL. The other NSL teams joined local State competitions. The A-League franchises were set up on a ‘one city, one team’ basis and guaranteed five years of exclusivity in their city. Melbourne Victory was the southern city’s founding club and became one of the competition’s dominant forces, with the highest average attendance and membership numbers. Pay television network Foxtel signed on to broadcast all matches live. In recent seasons their coverage has been supplemented by SBS broadcasting one match live per week. Foxtel’s cash has helped underwrite the A-League. With a mid-October kick-off, the ten-team summer competition lasts only a few months, 27 games followed by a finals series in early autumn and then a long off-season. Melbourne Heart entered the A-League in 2010 and struggled to attract supporters. The club limped along, making the finals only once. It seemed doomed to live forever in the shadow of Melbourne Victory. At the beginning of 2014, a consortium including the City Football Group acquired the Melbourne Heart licence and the club was re-branded as Melbourne City FC. The club was bottom of the league at the time, and the prospective injection of serious cash gave supporters a swagger. The acquisitions of Damien Duff, Robert Koren, and David Villa for the 2014/15 season were a sign of intent from the owners but despite this, little has changed. Numbers increased slightly, but remain dwarfed by those of its neighbour. The salary cap helps maintain some parity in the league, and this is reflected in the fact that five teams have won the A-League grand finals in the first nine seasons. Cheating the salary cap is a great Australian tradition, so when reports broke in 2014 that Perth Glory had allegedly been in breach of the cap, no-one even pretended to be surprised. Nonetheless, the salary limit makes it difficult for a cashed-up club to simply buy titles.
www.thinwhitelinemagazine.com
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Apart from a couple of overseas trips courtesy of the club’s sponsor, melbourne city seems to have reaped little so far from the new CFG ownership. The advantage that they will have over other A-League clubs will be off-field for the time being at least, including plans for an academy and an extensive scouting network. Txiki Begiristain, Manchester City’s director of football, sees an academy as a crucial part of Melbourne City’s future. “The key with the first team is to make improvements fast, but we also need a strong academy”, he said. A-League clubs are currently restricted to five ‘visa’ players, forcing them to field home-grown talent. “We have to play with 14, 15, 16 Australian players, and we need to develop them at home. First to scout and find them, then develop them”.
APArt from a couple of overseas trips courtesy of the club’s sponsor, MELBOURNE CITY SEEMS TO HAVE REAPED LITTLE SO FAR FROM THE NEW CFG OWNERSHIP.
Clubs owned by CFG will also share the same scouting network. As Ferran Soriano, CEO of Manchester City, said, “This club is going to have an advantage, which is to use the global resources of City”. In July 2014, manager John van ‘t Schip and his squad travelled to the UK for a 17-day pre-season training camp at Manchester City’s Carrington training centre, which included matches against Bury and Oldham Athletic. The squad flew to the UK courtesy of the club’s major commercial partner, Etihad Airways. A five-year sponsorship deal was signed in 2014, which might not match the eye-watering £400m deal Etihad signed with Manchester City but promises to inject money into various community and grassroots projects. In January 2015 the club spent the midseason break at the New York University in Abu Dhabi for a training camp. The team played friendlies against local outfit Al-Jazira and Ukrainian side FC Dnipro.
Association football remains a minority sport in Australia, lagging behind the most popular codes Australian Rules football and rugby league. Socceroos games draw large audiences, Australia’s win in the Asian Cup final peaked at 5.3m viewers but the A-League seldom draws a viewing audience of over 100,000. The current broadcast deal with Foxtel is worth $160m over four years and is due to expire in 2017. A league that draws small television audiences and is subject to a salary cap hardly seems like the most attractive target for a cashed-up investor. This didn’t stop CFG, but perhaps with its network of clubs including Manchester City and New York City FC its motivations are different to those of, say, a Russian oligarch. According to its 2013/14 financial return, Manchester City provided £246,000 in services to Melbourne Heart in 2013/ 14 and a loan of £1.598m. Melbourne City contributed £2.183m in revenue and £1.118m in losses to Manchester City, a drop in the ocean compared to the Manchester club’s overall revenue of £347m and its £63.4m loss. City Football Group’s intentions may only become clear when, years from now we can assess the performances of Melbourne City New York City FC. If league results are poor, and financial losses are high, then fans of those clubs will start asking questions of the owners. There is pressure on coach John van‘t Schip to deliver. The oil money has raised fans’ expectations.
Aleksandar Jason is an Australian photographer who has worked for clients such as Oakley, Puma, Nike and Vice. The Turf is a website focusing on Australia’s growing football culture, while also including stories from Europe and beyond. www.aleksandarjason.com www.theturf.com.au
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POSTER BOY He’s the darling of the Brazilian national team and the poster-boy for a country in need of a post-World Cup good news story. Prior to the FIFA carnival in his homeland, in Europe at least, they questioned if Neymar deserved the hype after a difficult first year at Barcelona, but stepping out of Lionel Messi’s shadow in his second season at Camp Nou, Neymar could yet live up to the legend that it seems has already been created for him. Like the crown of the one known as ‘o Rei’, the King, the number ten shirt of the Selecao weighs heavily on the shoulders of those who follow in Pele’s footsteps. Every Brazilian football team has had a star. Some failed to live up to the names of yesteryear, others such as Zico, Rivelinho, and Ronaldinho became icons. Neymar’s face is everywhere in Brazil from milk cartons to ads for flat-screen TVs but his quiet demeanour, humble words when unveiled at the Nou Camp, and generosity to supporters at Brazil’s training sessions were at odds with the impression of him before he arrived in Europe. Viral videos of outrageous pieces of skill always came with the qualifier that Neymar was playing in a far inferior league, in the Campeanato Brasileiro. “This very same league has generated some of the most famous legends in football”, says Elie Sarkis of @BrazilStats. “Today Brazil is the country with the most players participating in the Champions League behind Spain. The majority of these started their football in the Brazilian league. People thought that Neymar would flop in Europe for the sole reason that he comes from this league, which is an absurd way of thinking, considering the talents generated here both recently, as well as throughout history”.
Words: James Carew Illustration: Fenomeno Choi
At just 19, Neymar was named South American Footballer of the Year, the same year he became a father to baby boy David Lucca. He scored 54 goals in 103 appearances for Santos in Brazil. His comments when joining Barcelona conveyed a humility that goes against the image of a giant ego. He continually repeated that he was coming to play with the best player in the world in Lionel Messi. There were weaknesses, however. The histrionics, the diving, unfortunately can be found in Neymar. It is one of the real flaws in his game and existed since he played in São Paulo. But whereas Cristiano Ronaldo can flex his bare torso in an extreme exercise of posturing as he did in the Champions League final, Neymar dances in celebration with his teammates. Devastated by the injury that cut short his World Cup, he has since begun to produce the type of performances that dazzled Brazilian crowds.
Fenomeno Choi is director of H9 Sports Art Pitch, a sports design studio based in Seoul, South Korea. www.h9pitch.com
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“In the 2014/15 season, Neymar’s stats are even better than his league numbers in Brazil’s Série A. He is enjoying his best spell as a footballer. As long as he remains injury free he will only get better. He is a typical Brazilian, famous for expressing his belief in God on the pitch and playing for joy. Neymar represents Brazilian football as both a player and as a person”.
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BASE FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE REMOVAL OF THE GAA BAN ON FOREIGN GAMES IN IRELAND.
Playing and enjoying football has long drawn criticism from those in positions of power. Such was the low view in which football was once held in England that its most famous playwright, William Shakespeare, had one character insult another by calling him a “base football player” in King Lear.
Words: David Toms The folk tradition of Shrovetide (that’s Pancake Tuesday to you and me) football in Derby was outlawed in the 1860s. Soccer in Ireland began to be played from the late 1870s onwards, but was not without those who attempted to prohibit it, even if it wasn’t exactly outlawed. From the time the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded in late 1884, there was much debate about who could and could not be a member. Relatively early on in the organisation’s history, a ban was placed on members of the military and the Royal Irish Constabulary (the name until 1922 of Ireland’s police force) from joining the GAA. But in 1905, a new ban was enacted that forbade any member of the GAA from either participating in or even watching ‘foreign’ games. Of course, the foreign games being referred to weren’t all foreign games. In reality the ban imposed on the GAA membership was explicitly about them playing cricket, hockey, rugby or soccer. The ban on foreign games wasn’t a straightforward affair however and its long and tangled history came to an end in 1971, when it was decided at that year’s annual GAA Congress to delete the ban from the rulebook. But attempts to have the ban removed had occurred prior to its deletion in 1971. Immediately following Irish independence, in three successive years, delegates from various county boards sought to have the rule deleted in 1924, 1925, and 1926. The question of foreign games spun thousands of words in newspaper columns and speeches at committee meetings in that era. Some saw the ban as the last defence against the increasing anglicisation of Irish culture. As one commentator in the provincial press had it in the 1920s “There is grave danger of a big land-slide towards West Britonism as exemplified by the Jazz-Soccer-Golfstick mentality which is on the increase in this country today”.
Others saw it, in a post-independence Irish Free State, as a relic drawn from a different time, but it would take almost another fifty years before the ban was lifted. Amid all of this rancour, the ban persisted. In what must surely stand as the most famous example of its application, 1938 saw Douglas Hyde banned from the GAA for attending an international soccer match. Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League, then President of Ireland and long-standing patron of the GAA, the man who said in 1892 that “the work of the [Gaelic athletic] association in reviving our ancient national game of camán, or hurling, and Gaelic football, has done more for Ireland than all the speeches of politicians for the last five years....” was removed as a patron of the GAA in 1938 following his attendance of an Irish international fixture between Poland and Ireland at Dalymount Park. Despite the seeming lunacy of insisting on banning Hyde, this did not deter the GAA, nor did it stymie the continued enforcing of a rule considered anachronistic and increasingly recognised more in the breach than in the observance. So-called vigilance committees were operated in some places that sent trusted club servants out to soccer and rugby matches to spy on the crowds and players in case they should find any members enjoying these ‘foreign’ games. If you were caught, you were liable for suspension from your GAA involvements. However, as Donal McAnallen has pointed out in his history of the GAA at third level institutions, the rules were applied more liberally in certain cases. Famously, Moss Keane, one of Ireland’s great rugby players, only began his rugby career in college, while also playing Gaelic football. So it was that by the late 1960s, the ban on foreign games had all but run out of steam. Yet, its death was a slow and strange one, played out in the national press. Its decline and eventual deletion came amid growing tensions in Northern Ireland following an escalation of violence there as a civil rights movement turned into open sectarian conflict. Whether they would have wished it or not, the GAA found itself in a changed and changing Ireland. Soccer was no longer to be found alone in those enclaves of the game like Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, or Derry.
David Toms is a sport historian who focused his PhD on the emergence of soccer in the Munster region of Ireland from the 1880s to the 1930s.
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The days of leading double lives between your passions for two types of football were at an end in Ireland.
It was increasingly a phenomenon experienced by those who had never attended a League of Ireland game in their lives. Anyone with a television and a half decent signal could watch soccer in Ireland with increased regularity from the 1960s onwards. In 1966, RTÉ relayed almost 18 hours of television coverage of that year’s World Cup, hosted and won by neighbours England. In 1970, the number of hours devoted to televised coverage of the World Cup had grown. That World Cup was also a chance for RTÉ to show off its ability to broadcast live television in colour. With hours of soccer on television, and with new soccer clubs popping up in territory once staunchly GAA like Bridge United in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare in 1967, the tide was very much against the maintaining of the ban on foreign games in the GAA. One early sign in 1970 that some felt action needed to be taken against the ban saw a small group of players and ex-players from Drogheda wielding placards outside Croke Park on the day of the Leinster Gaelic football final between Meath and Mayo. The protesters, according to the Sunday Independent newspaper report, also had hopes of organising a one-day strike against the ban’s continued existence. It was in this milieu that the GAA gained a new president, Pat Fanning, from Waterford. Fanning would have the unenviable job of ushering in a new era, and would oversee the eventual deletion of the ban from the GAA rule book. A few months after the Leinster final protest, two GAA clubs in Monaghan tabled a motion for their upcoming county convention to have the rule deleted, followed in December by a similar vote being put by a Wexford based hurling club, the Enniscorthy Shamrocks, in December of 1970, according to the Irish Independent. As Christmas time approached, Sport in Action, a magazine programme on the state television service hosted a debate on the rule. The critical mass for the ban’s deletion was mounting, even if some within the GAA wished to see it maintained like Killarney Legion football club and Killarney hurling club. It is perhaps ironic then that one of the key drivers of the change was also a Kerryman, Tom Woulfe, who had spent much of his life and career in Dublin and was a founder member of the Dublin Civil Service Gaelic football team in the 1930s. Woulfe was a passionate advocate of removing the ban, following his experiences with fellow Irishmen in the Second World War, who happened to be rugby and soccer players. Woulfe had a letter urging clubs to seek the ban’s removal printed in some fifty provincial newspapers.
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Around the same time, a special meeting was set up between Pat Fanning, the GAA president, Neil Blaney TD, president of the Football Association of Ireland, Judge JC Conroy, chairman of the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union and Ronnie Delaney who won gold for Ireland in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympic games in the 1500 metres. Part of this historic bringing together of these major figures in Irish sports and public life was to discuss the future of Irish sport and the future of the ban. By February of 1971, some 19 different county boards (including London) had voted in favour of getting rid of the ban. With pressure mounting on the issue, that year’s annual congress of the GAA saw the momentous decision to remove Rule 27, the ban, from the rulebook of the organisation. That year’s congress was held in Belfast, and there was an undoubted symbolism about a rule that had become emblematic of the GAA’s commitment to Irish nationalism being removed in a city that like the rest of Northern Ireland was being torn apart by civil conflict over national identity. Pat Fanning’s speech on the occasion of the lifting of the ban reflected as much. In the weeks, months and years following the removal of the ban, it took time to disentangle people from it and in the initial period following the decision to remove the rule, the daily newspapers carried stories of those affected by the ban’s end. One such story was that of Michael Taaffe, who was selected to play for Louth in July 1971 in their Gaelic football minor match against Dublin at Croke Park while also being in the Drogheda squad in soccer, recent winners of the FAI Youths Cup. Just a season earlier this would have been an impossibility. The days of leading double lives between your passions for two types of football were at an end in Ireland. No more would vigilance committees be seen scanning crowds at soccer grounds Dalymount Park, Kilcohan, Turner’s Cross or the Market’s Field. No more were the footballers of Ireland base football players.
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DOES HOW YOU WIN MATTER? Words: Johnny Hynes Illustration: Ruben Gerard
“Chelsea were shite, they came for 0-0”. “It doesn’t matter. We won”. “I wouldn’t want to win like that”. “The final score is all that matters”. “I’d be embarrassed if my team ‘played’ like that”. “I don’t care, we won”. “You put every man behind the ball and waited for a mistake”. “And the mistake happened for the first goal when Steven Gerrard slipped....” “But if it wasn’t for the mistake you never would have scored....” “2-0, that’s all that counts”. “With the money you’ve spent you should be able to play some great football”. “I don’t care about that once we win....” And on and on and on it went via social media. The views of the two managers involved were also directly opposed. “They parked two buses rather than one”, Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers argued. Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho countered by saying it was “a beautiful, magnificent victory”. Leaving all allegiances aside - if that’s possible in football, you can see where both teams were coming from. The argument of the one-time colleagues is part of a long running one; does it matter how you win?
“BEAUTY COMES FIRST. VICTORY IS SECONDARY. WHAT MATTERS IS JOY”. - SOCRATES As kids we all played football for that simple joy, the joy of scoring goals. During those formative years, none of us tried to adopt ‘a five at the back, keep it tight’ style. Instead we all wanted to score goals, lots and lots of goals. That’s what gave us excitement and made us cherish the sport; games on summer evenings that lasted until it was pitch black outside and nobody was quite sure if the scoreline was something like 24-23 or 24-24. Or kick-abouts that concluded in ‘next goal wins’ because the owner of the football had to go in soon and was too tight to leave the ball behind. Purists such as Rodgers want their teams to produce something similar; great passing football while outscoring the opposition, a formula that worked very well for him in 2014.
Johnny Hynes writes for LFC Magazine and is the author of two books The Irish Kop and Alright Aldo - Sound as a Pound.
Ruben Gerard is a Paris-based illustrator whose clients include Nike, GQ, Puma and L’Equipe Mag. www.ruben-gerard.com
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“YOU CAN PLAY 10 AT THE BACK OR YOU CAN PLAY 10 AT THE FRONT. IT DOESN’T MATTER. WHAT MATTERS IS THE RESULT”. - DIEGO SIMEONE If you have Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Villa or that type of multi-talented quartet in your team it’s obviously easier to produce playground style, all out attacking football. The reality is most managers don’t have such individuals at their disposal. And with relegation, promotion, titles, cups or qualification for major tournaments at stake, not too many of them are going to send out their team to attempt to entertain only to take a hammering. If they did they’d soon be out of a job. So instead they develop ways of gaining the best results to keep them in employment. Sometimes that involves constructing a unit that is able to overpower or outfight opponents. Sometimes it’s downright ugly football, where the only short pass on display is the kick-off. A prime example of this is probably the Ireland team under Jack Charlton during the late 80s and early 90s. In reaching three tournaments in half a dozen years they didn’t exactly dazzle us with their style of play. They battled and fought and frustrated the opposition and occasionally produced a moment of genuine quality to earn a win. One Night In Turin, the documentary on Italia ’90, referred to the team’s style as “prehistoric”. As a kid watching that tournament I didn’t care. I don’t remember too many people, apart from pundit Eamon Dunphy perhaps, complaining either. Ireland were in a World Cup. Ireland reached the last eight. That was all that mattered. Greece at Euro 2004 were the same. Do any of their fans worry about how they surprised even themselves to become champions of Europe? Of course not. That summer is something Greek fans will remember forever. In years to come, grandkids will hear about the victories in Portugal and feel proud. They won’t be embarrassed by the manner of the triumph. While great performances live in the memory for a while, there is no asterisk beside a trophy on an honours list to say Barca produced incredible football or Greece bored us all senseless. All it says is the competition, year and team. And surely that’s all that matters?
In recent years Barcelona have been the pinnacle of that ideal. Pep Guardiola’s formidable unit claimed 14 trophies and did so with a possession-based game that Alex Ferguson once described as a passing carousel. At times it was stunning to watch, as opponents simply couldn’t get the ball. And when Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and David Villa had ownership of it for so long, they inevitably put it in the net. Football costs so much now that whenever we go to a game there should be plenty of that type of entertainment on display. It shouldn’t be a case of just winning; it should be a case of winning with style and panache. There should be goals, skills, tricks and excitement. Surely that’s the least us fans are entitled to?
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88 The Numbers Game Words: Sander Neijnens
In 1991, I bought my first desktop computer. On board were eight typefaces, a miracle at the time. This purchase triggered my typographic brain centre and shortly after I was looking for new and outstanding fonts in magazines, journals, advertisements and font catalogues.
It was the beginning of a harmless but incurable neurosis: I can’t resist the urge to identify the typefaces that surround me. It was during Euro 96 in England that I first noticed typography on football shirt numbers. To be precise, the German football team used a very legible font that made it easy to recognise the individual players: Monotype Footlight. Moreover, this is a typeface that you wouldn’t expect on a football shirt. The German jerseys showed that the legibility of shirt numbers can be improved by reconsidering the typefaces that are normally used. LEGIBILITY With most shirt names and numbers built on a grid of two octagons, when they are moved back and forth and when they are wrinkled when the player is in motion it becomes hard to see the difference between for instance 1 and 7 or 3 and 8 or 5 and 6. Monotype Footlight figures have far more individuality and are relatively light, allowing for big inner shapes in 4, 6, 8, 9 and 0. Individuality and big inner shapes are the two primary elements to keep in mind when judging or designing shirt numbers. DIMENSIONS For good legibility it’s important that the numbers are big. Most football regulations prescribe a height of at least 25 cm. When a standard typeface is printed at this size the figures become too wide to accommodate two figures on the back of a shirt. As a rule we can state that the maximum width of the figures should be 60% of the height. COLOUR It seems obvious that the colour of the shirt numbers should clearly contrast with the colour of the shirt. But there are still teams playing with red numbers on a blue shirt, light green numbers on a white shirt or grey numbers on an orange shirt. So using contrasting colours can’t be stressed enough.
Sander Neijnens is a typographer, living and working in Tilburg, the Netherlands. On his website you can find a section dedicated to football shirt numbers. He is also the author of the book Shirt Numbers. www.letterbeeld.nl
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NAMES From a typographic standpoint names on the back of a football shirt are less interesting than the numbers. As the numbers are the primary method used to identify the player and not the name, the readability and typography of the names is relatively irrelevant. PROGRESS In 2004 I published a booklet about shirt numbers, in which the above mentioned ideas were elaborated. Sometimes I imagine that the book has had a positive effect on the design of shirt numbers. Every now and then I get an information request from graphic design students who have chosen shirt numbers and names as a topic for a thesis or a practical assignment. Furthermore, in the past decade Puma have used numbers that were specifically designed for them by the type agency Dalton Maag (Puma Pace) and by type designer Paul Barnes (Crepello and Gabriello). Nike commissioned renowned designers Wim Crouwel and Neville Brody to design typefaces for the Dutch and English shirts for the World Cup in Brazil. More than just numbers the main function of shirt numbers is to make football players identifiable from the back. But it also gives the shirt a specific outlook and style. As there are many teams playing for instance in a red shirt, the specific typeface used for the shirt numbers is an ideal means to make a jersey unique. The typeface can be the distinguishing feature between the shirts of Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Nowadays the design of kit numbers is often defined by companies such as Nike, Puma and Adidas. As a result many teams use the same shirt numbers. The numbers become a kind of advertisement for the manufacturer. In my opinion it would be more appropriate for the design to be specific of the team. Or seen from a more egalitarian standpoint, all teams in a certain competition should be obliged to use the same (league specific as in the Premier League and MLS) typeface on their shirt. I realise that the design of the shirt number is of minor importance in relation to all aspects concerning the performance of a football team, but if we can design shirts with appropriate, legible, nice, characteristic numbers, why shouldn’t we?
PERSONALITY Besides legibility it’s important that shirt numbers have personality. The design should in one way or another refer to football in general or to (the history of) a specific team. But the personality can also be linked to the football game itself. Take for instance the figure 8. For me this figure represents the player in top condition. It is often drawn as two circles on top of each other. But then it looks like a snowman. He stands still and is slowly melting. This is not an appropriate symbol for a football player. This player is constantly active, so the figure 8 should be drawn as an ongoing line.
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