Is football becoming less competitive than before?
In partnership with Media City Qatar. From tactical advancements to increased global exposure, elite level football has seen widespread changes to the game over the last 30 or so years.
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00:00 In sport there is one end goal, to win.
00:03 But what makes it so compelling, so addictive,
00:05 is not necessarily what happens at the end.
00:08 It's often the fine margins, unpredictability and rivalries
00:11 that unite competitors and supporters.
00:14 Football is of course no different,
00:16 but is a sport so associated with finance
00:19 in danger of being less competitive than once before?
00:27 Hello there and welcome to Football Now from Doha.
00:30 This week we're taking a look at the competitiveness of the sport.
00:33 Man City, Bayern Munich and PSG
00:35 were all expected to win their domestic leagues
00:37 and did so once again.
00:39 Over in Italy though, Napoli's first title win in over 30 years
00:42 proved to be one of the stories of the season.
00:45 And despite Barcelona being a juggernaut in the game,
00:48 their La Liga title win was a surprise to some.
00:51 So just how predictable is football right now?
00:54 If you look across Europe, you're thinking,
00:55 "Well, it's the same old team, so how competitive are the leagues
00:59 "to really challenge the top teams?"
01:01 I'm not sure, I'm not sure.
01:02 I think it does go in cycles in terms of
01:04 it will be another team in a few years' time.
01:07 So I don't like to see that dominance,
01:09 but it happens in every country at the moment.
01:12 Some numbers for you then.
01:13 Man City's most recent title win was their fourth in five seasons.
01:17 Bayern Munich made it 11 Bundesligas in a row
01:20 following their final day victory.
01:22 PSG became the first team in France to win 11 titles.
01:25 And as for Barca, well, they've won 10 out of the last 15 La Ligas on offer,
01:30 all proving that Europe's top leagues aren't quite as open as they could be.
01:34 I think if you look across Europe,
01:36 there'll be the same teams every year that seem to be winning things.
01:40 You look at the German league, Bayern Munich have had a spell where they've dominated it.
01:43 In the current English Premier League, that's Man City.
01:46 In Italy, for years, it was Juventus that's finally been broken.
01:49 In Spain, you look at Barca and Real Madrid,
01:51 and you'd be amazed if it was going to be anybody else that wins it,
01:53 PSG and France.
01:54 I think the Premier League is the most competitive
01:57 because of how much money is in the Premier League.
01:59 I'm seeing teams like Bournemouth near the bottom spend over ÂŁ100 million,
02:03 which means if the top teams aren't at it -
02:06 your Liverpool, your City, your Chelsea, your United, whoever -
02:08 they can come unstuck to those lesser teams,
02:11 which makes it more competitive.
02:13 I think we've seen that with Chelsea,
02:14 we've seen Liverpool like that this season in the Premier League.
02:17 So that's the view of a former Premier League player,
02:20 but journalist Alex Bat believes that Man City's recent dominance
02:23 is cause for concern.
02:25 The Premier League has always been the same.
02:26 It's always only been a few teams that have won it.
02:29 When I was growing up, it was just Man United and Arsenal.
02:32 That was very much who would win the Premier League.
02:34 And then Chelsea came along, and then Man City have come along.
02:36 You know, so you had the Blackburn Rovers season,
02:38 you had the Leicester season,
02:40 and you've got Liverpool that finally got in there as well.
02:42 But it's always been similar,
02:44 whereas at the minute it's just Man City, Man City, Man City,
02:47 which is the big issue.
02:48 And I think the main issue is people are sort of predicting the future
02:51 and are already saying, "Well, City are going to win this year,
02:54 City are going to win next year. When does City not win it?"
02:56 And I think that's probably the biggest problem for English football,
02:59 rather than the actual state of the competitiveness.
03:02 Now, Gilberto Silva played in arguably the greatest ever Premier League team.
03:06 His Arsenal side went unbeaten during the 2003/2004 season,
03:11 coining the name "The Invincibles".
03:13 Under the stewardship of Arsene Wenger,
03:15 this Gunners side would become one of football's greatest ever teams.
03:19 Gilberto was joined by Premier League legends Thierry Henry,
03:22 Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp, amongst others,
03:25 as they went an incredible 49 league games without defeat.
03:29 It's been almost 20 years since then,
03:31 but the Brazilian remains firmly involved in the game today.
03:34 He's a football agent.
03:35 So how does he believe that the sport has evolved since he was a player?
03:39 It's difficult to measure, but what I must say,
03:42 when I was there, it was really, really competitive.
03:45 What I see now, when I compare things,
03:48 people ask me what is the difference I feel,
03:51 is that on the field, when I look at the players,
03:55 they look more athletic.
03:57 On their board and their size, the way the physiology of the players,
04:00 they look more athletic.
04:01 But when you see the distance they cover,
04:05 there's not much difference.
04:07 Gilberto has not played professionally for nearly eight years,
04:10 but he has by no means been out of the game.
04:12 Alongside being an agent,
04:13 the Brazilian legend now runs Sport World Coaching,
04:17 offering guidance to upcoming players and coaches
04:19 on how to deal with the modern game,
04:21 so is well-placed to talk about its development.
04:24 He says coaches must deal with more than just the tactical side of football
04:28 if they are to keep up with the competitiveness of today's game.
04:31 Every time when we see, from generation to generation,
04:35 things have improved, the way of thinking,
04:37 the way of how you do things, the infrastructure and the information,
04:42 how you get it and how you absorb it
04:45 and how you use it for yourself, for your own benefit.
04:49 So Gilberto highlights more resources as a key reason for the game changing over time,
04:54 but what about the future?
04:56 Will the so-called smaller teams have access to the data and the funds
04:59 that have so often proved to be vital for those top teams?
05:03 We also saw the proposal and subsequent collapse of the European Super League,
05:07 a division that would have seen those top teams be pitted against each other.
05:11 So could we see more format changes on the horizon?
05:14 That's a million-dollar question, obviously,
05:16 and I think recently UEFA president Alexander Seferin mentioned
05:20 perhaps introducing caps on player salaries,
05:24 going the American way perhaps.
05:26 I think that could perhaps be a solution.
05:29 It is actually funny that if you think about it,
05:32 European football runs along a very capitalistic model,
05:37 whereas you could almost argue that American sports are somewhat more socialist.
05:42 So perhaps it could be useful to glean across the Atlantic
05:46 and take a few elements from their sports system,
05:49 introduce them here to get a more level playing field.
05:53 Yeah, important times ahead for football.
05:55 Right, that brings us to the end of this week's show.
05:57 Do let us know your thoughts at home using the hashtag #FootballNowCompetition,
06:01 and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.
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