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Guardian

You Can’t Stop The Crowds from Singing

Trying to take politics and sectarian hatred out of football is “an operation likely to kill the patient.” Crowds have always been a place of identity formation, of resistance and the marginalized reaching their full throat. Sometimes that’s progressive, as with Spartak Moscow and Cairo’s ultras joining in recent rebellion. Other times, it’s the ugliness of the Old Firm or Red Star Belgrade vs. Dinamo Zagreb. “As with most cultural forms, from the cinema to the novel, the politics of football will be what we make of it.” (David Goldblatt/The Guardian)

(Image credit: Stéfan/Flickr through a Creative Commons license.)

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The Campaign Turns Negative

The tactic of the lessers this season? Negativity — “a sacrifice of possession for the sake of having two spare men at the back.” Look for lower EPL sides to adopt the World Cup’s regnant 4-2-3-1…not for its attacking virtues, “but the solidity the two midfield holders offer.” (Jonathan Wilson/The Guardian)

Sierra Leone: An Arm and a Leg

Sierra Leone — the land, infamously, of the “short-sleeve or long-sleeve?” option that victims of that country’s civil war were given as soldiers prepared to cut off their arms. There are 1,600 amputees still in Sierra Leone, and some have formed amputee soccer teams — with not just war victims, but also with perpetrators. The national team is off to the 2010 amputee World Cup in Argentina — after playing a team with Villa, Xavi and Alonso to a 0-0 draw. (Louise Taylor/The Guardian)

Reads of the Day: 3 Out of 5 Pundits Recommend People

Supporters’ trusts: Will there be a right- and left-wing backlash? Tom Dunmore of Pitch Invasion says recent pieces in the British press show typical ideological caricaturing — trusts as dangerous populism vs. football as a pop culture distraction. Meanwhile, Rob Marrs at Left Back in the Changing Room says clubs are — despite the Disneyfication of the higher reaches of the sport — more important to communities than ever…and he’s not sure that’s a good thing.

A Son of the System

They tried to hide Cesc Fábregas, did his hometown youth side, so Barca’s scouts wouldn’t see him — because they knew. For all Thierry Henry’s pain at playing Arsenal, Fábregas tonight goes to war (pending injury) against més que un club — it’s the team that sent a taxi 55km each way every day to pick him up for training at age 10, and the kids named Piqué and Messi that beat him at table tennis and Playstation and mocked his bad taste in music. And that he defended with his fists mid-pitch. (Sid Lowe/The Guardian)

La Liga = Scotland – €3.5bn

Spain’s total football debt is €3.5bn, and the fiscal decay goes well beyond Real Madrid and Barcelona — only 8% of what clubs spend on average can be covered by liquid assets, there’s no penalty for administration, and clubs blackmail their towns while hopeless of catching the Big Two. “Spain,” says Sevilla’s sporting director, “reminds me of Scotland.” (Sid Lowe/The Guardian)

If the EPL Had an All-Star Game

If the EPL Had an U.S.-Style All-Star Game…and somebody just fired from the Guardian did a liveblog of it, it might sound something like this, and you might almost not hate yourself for enjoying it.

Must Read of the Day: Football ≠ Tesco

Football ≠ Tesco. Soccer clubs like Portsmouth act like giant corporations, but they’re really piddling businesses more akin to non-profit local museums, and too beloved to go bust en masse. They just need to remember why they’ve always existed — to fill a peculiar hole in our emotional lives, not to make money.

Just Why He’s So Special

Why He’s Special: A word from José Mourinho “does not come often via the cuff but is usually worth waiting for, sometimes leaving you with that worried feeling you had when you first heard the lyrics to Spinal Tap’s Big Bottom, not sure whether to laugh or cry or attempt both simultaneously…”