When the draw is made for a tennis tournament, the seeding system tells us that some players cannot possibly meet in the final. Knockout cup football works differently, and some argue that a seeding system would benefit the game, ensuring that the biggest teams could be kept apart.
In a world where super-rich owners and unfathomable TV revenue have already made the playing field unequal, do we really want to take away another element of surprise? This weekend in London, unfashionable Wigan Athletic will play unfashionable Millwall in one FA Cup semi-final while the mighty Manchester City and Chelsea meet in the other. Would it really benefit the sport for Wigan or Millwall to be denied their moment in the sun?
Meanwhile the world’s biggest and richest club competition is also reaching its endgame, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund awaiting the draw for the Champions’ league semi-final.
We could have a final between two Spanish clubs whose rivalry has led to players being pelted with dead pigs’ heads during matches.
We could have a final between two German clubs whose rivalry is fierce, but allows room for mutual respect and support.
Or we could have a final between the best of Germany and the best of Spain, with all the international rivalry this implies.
The rivalry between Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid is steeped in political and cultural conflict. Barcelona is seen as a standard bearer for Catalonian independence, and supporters’ flags have often transformed the club’s Nou Camp stadium into a giant red and yellow Catalan emblem.
For Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich the on-field rivalry is equally intense but off the field things have been less antagonistic. Dortmund were 1997 Champions League winners but as recently as 2006 the club faced bankruptcy. A time for their rivals to gloat? No, a time for them to show football’s more honourable face. With Dortmund facing the abyss, Bayern Munich offered the timely gift of EUR 2 millionto help with payment of overdue wages.
One thing that distinguishes all four clubs is a multilingual coaching and playing staff. Jose Mourinho the Real Madrid coach began his career at Barcelona as interpreter to the club’s English manager Bobby Robson. More recently, the importance of effective communication on and off the field has led to the creation of the Real Madrid Foundation Campus, where children of all cultures and backgrounds are offered residential programs which include intensive English and Spanish language lessons.
The language skills of Britain’s footballers have always suffered by comparison with their European counterparts. When Jurgen Klinsmann came to the Premiership to play for Tottenham after the 1994 World Cup he proved so articulate and charming in English interviews that journalists sometimes forgot that he wasn’t speaking his native language. The Englishman abroad has fared less well. The decisions of FC Twente manager Steve McLaren and Marseilles player Joey Barton to speak English in exaggerated Dutch and French accents made them a laughing stock.
Britain’s sportsmen are a product of its education system, and while it’s compulsory for schoolchildren across most of Europe to learn a second language, in the UK it’s a matter for debate.
At a time when 95% of London employers have told the CBI that language skills are important to the economy, perhaps we should take the hint? Perhaps we should accept that in a global economy, speaking to the world in a language the world can understand is the least we should do.
We have no shortage of role models for supportive, culturally inclusive behaviour in sport and in life. The luck of the draw hasn’t always favoured the people of Liberia, but in the 1990s a country devastated by civil war found a benefactor in George Weah. Voted African footballer of the century in 1996, Weah used his fame and spent his money promoting education for children in his native country. When he formed a junior football club in Monrovia, its requirement for membership was that the children must attend school.
More recently and closer to home, in July 2012 Germany’s education minister announced plans to offer apprenticeships with German companies to Spain’s young unemployed. Spanish football rules the world but economically, Spain is one of the sick men of Europe, and the luck of the draw has put Spanish teenagers at risk of long term unemployment. Germany and Spain may be rivals for football’s biggest prizes but off the field Europe’s wiser heads are standing up for partnership and support.
The luck of the draw gives some people a much more favourable start in life than others, but life isn’t about where we start. It’s been suggested that this might be the first decade in human history when a new born baby’s chances of success in life will be influenced more by their education than by their place of birth. Where that education includes learning a second language, the chances can only improve.
