Tag Archives: sports

Do Overpaid Football Players Encourage Or Discourage Participation In The Game?

  By O-Posts Team | February 23, 2013 - 20:20 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Getting the nation fit and active is a huge challenge. Sports leagues are a great way to do this, and one of the most popular sports is, unsurprisingly, football. Football is the worlds most popular sport with an enormous worldwide audience, as a result there’s a huge amount of money in the beautiful game.

But one of the negative factors associated with the game is the astronomical wages demanded by the top players. With wages continuing to increase, the question of whether these overpaid players encourage or discourage participation is an important one.

 

Household Names

David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi – these football players, and others superstars of the sport, are household names around the world. But not only do they have exceptional talents – they also earn huge amounts of money.

Messi’s base salary is currently $15.44 million after agreeing to a new deal with Barcelona in December 2012. However, with all of the added bonuses, he will be paid a massive $44.68 million in 2013 – and that’s not even counting his sponsorship deals.

The money is staggering – but is it a good thing?

 

The Youth Effect

Young boys have always dreamed of being star football players. However, whereas in the past this was mainly driven by a love of the game and the idea of being a hero, these days there is another incentive: money.

Soccer players are very wealthy celebrities, and many lead lifestyles that most people can only dream of. As a result, it is not hard to assume that many young people are drawn to the game by their desire for the fame and riches that go with being a top player.

There are fears that if young boys are dreaming of the lifestyles that go with being rich, and who are regularly influenced by the antics of various high-profile football players in the media, they will go into the game for all the wrong reasons.

However, whatever the fears that young people will be attracted to the sport for the wrong reasons, it seems that something altogether different is happening: participation in the sport is actually falling.

 

Falling Participation

Back in 2011, the BBC reported on the falling numbers of participation in grassroots football in England. The amount of people participating in soccer was falling, and the drop was especially significant in the 16-to-19 year group.

The FA was threatened by Sport England with the withdrawal of funding to the tune of £25 million, and it was so concerned that it launched the Just Play initiative.

So what is this fall in participation linked to?

There are a number of possible reasons, including fewer referees, the growing popularity of computer games and busier lifestyles. However, whatever the cause, it is clear that the rising amount of money being paid to the superstars of the sport is not exactly boosting participation in the game.

 

Disconnected Fans

Most people participating in a football league will not be encouraged or discouraged by the wages of professional players – after all, they are not trying to make a career out of it. However, the danger is that the average fan can start to feel disconnected with football.

When fans start to see players who care more about money than football, this could have an adverse impact on fans – especially if higher wages are funded by higher-priced tickets on match day.

 

Authorities Need to Invest at a Grassroots Level

Whether or not overpaid football players are having a positive or negative effect on participation, one argument is clear: more needs to be done to put money into grassroots facilities to encourage greater participation in the sport from schools through to casual local leagues.

Youngsters will look up to the top players, and they may even want to emulate their lifestyles. But it is a love of the game that should be promoted more than anything, and this is where promoting local leagues and investing in local facilities is really going to pay off.

 

Image License: Creative Commons image source

John is a feature writer and football fan from the UK.

 

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Football – The Offside Rule In Detail

  By O-Posts Team | January 31, 2013 - 16:06 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Offside on Fifa 10

Football, otherwise known as ‘the beautiful game’, may seem simple on the outside but as its future becomes more technologically orientated with the introduction of goal-line technology, more and more of its traditional rules are starting to be questioned, none more so than the renowned offside rule.

 

What Is It?

This rule is brought up consistently on football programmes such as Match Of The Day and Sky Sports News as it continues to play such a massive part in the game and is still a strong catalyst for controversy.

The rule was brought into play to stop attacking players from wandering up the field to stand next to the opponent’s goal-keeper, waiting for a ball to float into them so they could score an easy goal. The rule requires attackers to time their runs and passes to perfection as well as requiring defenders to operate as a solid defensive unit.

A football player is offside if he is in the opponent’s half of the pitch and is positioned nearer the opponent’s goal line than either the football or the second last opposition defender. You cannot be offside if you are level with the second last defender, the last two defenders or the ball and you cannot be offside if you’re not involved in active play, which is where much of the confusion arrives.

 

Active Interference

One of the bigger questions an official has to ask themselves when giving an offside decision is whether or not there is a player in an offside position interfering with play. The linesman can easily spot whether or not the attacker has breached the last line of defence and flag for offside but if a player is not interfering with play, then no offside will be flagged.

A player does not have to touch the ball to be interfering with play. That’s an important aspect to remember as it encapsulates a few factors. If a player is blocking off a defender from an offside position, disabling them from defending or by blocking off a keeper’s vision, then they count as offside.

If a shot comes in from a player who is onside and it rebounds off the keeper or the post to a player who was offside when the ball was fired in, then the linesman will flag as the player has retained an advantage from being in an illegal position.

 

Other Situations

The offside rule does not come into play during certain set pieces. For example, a player may use a throw-in without having to worry about the rule as it will not count for offside. The same can be said for both goal-kicks and corner-kicks, with the offside rule not coming into play until the ball has been played at least once.

When the player appears to be level with the second last defender, the decision has to be whether or not the attacker’s ball-playing body parts are beyond that defender. A player can use any part of their body except their arms to control the ball so if any parts, save for the arms, are beyond the last defender, they will be offside.

It’s not a difficult rule to understand essentially. The goalkeeper counts as a defender so the rule dictates that the attacker must not be beyond the second last defender (the goalkeeper counting as the first defender) and players are only offside if they’re interfering directly or indirectly with play.

The result of an offside is an indirect free-kick to the opposition, taking place from where the offside offence occurred.

 

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Brad Chambers is a keen sportsman and blogger for Sealskinz.com, a leading UK retailer of thermal sports gloves and socks. Brad enjoys football skiing and climbing and can be followed on here on twitter.

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Special Feature: 5 Sports Figures You Should Know

  By O-Posts Team | January 29, 2013 - 16:29 | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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With a career in sports, fame almost always follows provided that the athlete is playing at the highest level. Some of them are more familiar than others but it is important to remember those that have made their sport special. Here are the 5 sports figures which you should definitely know.

 

Leopoldo Larez Banorte

Leopoldo Larez Banorte is known as a soccer player and coach. He has made an impact on the pitch by using his skills and knowledge of the game to pass them along to newer generations.

Leopoldo Larez Banorte was a great player but he has become an even better coach with different useful methods of training which has developed some of the better newer players. Though he does not get the big name recognition that other players do, he is still regarded by those who play the game as one of the great minds in soccer.

 

Yelena Isinbayeva

Yelena Isinbayeva is a top athlete in the sport of pole vaulting. She was an Olympic gold medalist both in 2004 and 2008. Currently, she is the world record holder for the event. Pole vaulting is not the one sport that brings the most fame; however Isinbayeva is widely regarded as the single best female pole vaulter ever.

Her records include being the first woman to clear the 5 meter barrier and she holds the record of 5.06 meters which she set in 2009.

 

Doug Flutie

When it comes to college quarterbacks, very few have ever been as exciting as Boston College’s Doug Flutie. He is very well-known for his 1984 play which has been named the Hail Flutie which got the win for the Eagles over the Miami hurricanes.

Flutie went on to become a professional quarterback and though has since retired, he is still very active in helping the community. His foundation, the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation helps families with children with autism.

His foundation raised millions since it started in 1998.

 

Hicham El Guerrouj

There are very few runners who can attain the type of success that Hicham El Guerrouj did. He was in fact the first man ever to become the AAF Athlete of the Year for two consecutive years. The Moroccan won a total of four consecutive 1500 meter titles from 1997 to 2003.

El Guerrouj also won the gold at the Olympic Games in Athens on the 1500 meter race and also in the longer 5000 meter race, a feat not accomplished since 1924.

 

Sam Mikulak

Despite suffering an injury before the 2012 Olympic Games, Sam Mikulak was still given a spot in the US Olympic gymnastics team. It was no surprise as Mikulak who is still only 20 years old is the NCAA national champion. In 2011, he won the Men’s All Around and in 2012, finished in 3rd place.

Because of his appeal and incredible talent in gymnastics, he always draws a plethora of fans anywhere he performs. This is one of the athletes that will be known in future competitions in the United States and the world.

 

Dan is a sports blogger who loves to blog on sports, especially soccer, he has great respect for Leopoldo Larez Banorte who is a professional soccer game player and has a number of experiences in the soccer gaming world.

 

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