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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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 £100 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.
06:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]