International football now a sideshow

[Bored Of Education]

International football now a sideshow

I once heard a sociologist/Rangers supporter say that he believed that what made football acceptable to the middle class of Britain was seeing Gazza crying after losing in 96. Make of that what you will.

1990 but, yes, you are right. Nessum Dorma, Gazza's tears etc etc

[Reed John]

International football now a sideshow

Diable Rouge wrote: No, the first international tournament was the Olympics in 1900, the Copa America followed in the 1910's.

That supports my supposition that international football began as a South American interest and might still be more important there than elsewhere.

[Reed John]

International football now a sideshow

Bored of Education wrote:

I once heard a sociologist/Rangers supporter say that he believed that what made football acceptable to the middle class of Britain was seeing Gazza crying after losing in 96. Make of that what you will.

1990 but, yes, you are right. Nessum Dorma, Gazza's tears etc etc

That makes more sense, because by 96, it seems to have "arrived" as a socially acceptable preoccupation.

[Reed John]

International football now a sideshow

Walt Flanagdansk Dog wrote:

. I don't recall watching any of 1990. Was it on in the US? I don't remember.

ESPN showed at least most of it - certainly the USA games, the later knockout games, and the 'big name' games. In Los Angeles all games were on Channel 34 KMEX (apart from of course when two games were on at once), which despite the Spanish commentary was an easier watch because they didn't show any commercials during the game, unlike ESPN who would jump to commercials when the ball went out for a throw in.

I have only the faintest memories of it.
I was at Governor's School all through the July of 1990 with little access to TV, but there were a few soccer players there and I don't recall them mentioning it or trying to watch it. What month was it played?

I just remember that we got a flattering shoreline against Italy.

It's amazing how much things have changed in 22 years, Lacrosse claims to be the fastest growing sport, but in terms of media and fan interest, the growth of soccer in the US is a remarkable pop cultural phenomenon.

[ursus arctos]

International football now a sideshow

Reed, it was early June to early July.

Walt is right about the TV coverage. It was the first time we didn't have to rely entirely on Spanish language TV. We also had Spanish language radio in New York, which was very helpful pre-Internet.

[Cal Alamein]

International football now a sideshow

I am one who also is way more interested in international football than league play. I will pay more attention to a USA v. Grenada WC qualifier than to a Champions League semi-final. If I had a local team I could regularly support it would change a little, but I'd still get excited over the World Cup.

I just got through watching a few WC 1990 and 1994 home recorded VHS tapes. Picture was ok, but sound was crappy. Games were pretty crappy too. Tapes ended up in trash - thank you youtube for the goals and highlights.

[Reed John]

International football now a sideshow

June in 1990? Oh, that makes more sense. I was in and out of cable TV access that June, I think. School let out June 8th or so, then I did a week at West Point for some college app padder thingy, and then went to governor's school in late June.

At that time, I was interested in all sports on a cultural level but watching soccer didn't quite click for me as a pastime until 94 and not really fully until MLS happened. Discovering OTF completed the transition.

We never had Spanish TV growing up.

[Reed John]

International football now a sideshow

Of the football on TV, I'm more interested in international games than any club competitions, but I'd rather see any match live than any match on tv.

[DCI Harry Batt]

International football now a sideshow

While most of us first gained an interest in the game through the World Cup or European Championship

I'm sure this has been done, and all, but this isn't true of any of the fans (as in regular attenders of games) I know.

[Ray de Galles]

International football now a sideshow

Defensive minded wrote: I don't think it's a coincidence that the two countries who put their national team above their club teams, Germany and Italy, are also more successful than the other national teams.

Where in earth does the idea that Italy puts it's national side above it's clubs come from?

[Bored Of Education]

International football now a sideshow

Oh, yes, that was this thread. I never got an answer for that

[Satchmo Distel]

International football now a sideshow

Doesn't the international game rekindle interest in the club game to a degree? Mario's exploits might add numbers to Man City's Sky viewing figures; we might be interested in how Pirlo's club career gets a revival.

[Flynnie]

International football now a sideshow

One nice thing about international football is that women actually like it. My Facebook in the last month has been post after post by women about football. It's not like that at all when club football is on. Some of my friends have tepid club interests, but they rarely post about club football at all. If my wife is any guide, they don't get people's attachment to a club, but your country is a much easier proposition.

There are several nice effects from that. It increases the excitement around the tournament - 'everybody' is watching. It's more of a group social event - you go to a party and everybody's sitting around the TV instead of just the blokes. It lowers the testosterone and keeps everybody relatively good-humored. It's just a pleasant experience.

So long may international football continue, if only for the fact we can watch it with the girls.

[Evan Evian]

International football now a sideshow

That's very true non-football fans get 'involved' in following the events (from both genders in fact).

Mind you it's a very mixed blessing especially in England as there are more than enough knob-heads that follow* the game normally, let alone if Ingurland/Englandshire/Hoofball FC are in a tournament.

*follow - not love, cherish and adore the beautiful game but merely follow.

[jason voorhees]

International football now a sideshow

ESPN ratings up 61% over 2008.

250 million expected audience, beating the 237 million audience for Spain-Germany.

The only thing in decline is people not watching.

[jason voorhees]

International football now a sideshow

Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/euro-2012-soccer-final-ratings-51323

Euro 2012 Final Continues Soccer Tournament's Ratings Reign

5:23 AM PDT 7/2/2012
by Scott Roxborough

COLOGNE, Germany - Just as Spain dominated the final of the Euro 2012, so the soccer championships continued its stranglehold on European TV ratings.

An astounding 90 percent of Spanish viewers watched their team defeat Italy 4-0 Sunday night to take an unprecedented back-to-back European Championship title - and the third major tournament title when including the 2010 World Cup - while the match scored a near 50 percent ratings share across the continent.

There is no pan-European ratings data that would allow a continent-wide comparisons with the 2008 edition of the championships.

A peak of 17.9 million viewers tuned into Telecinco to see Spanish striker Fernando Torres score the team's third goal, while an average of 15.5 million, an 83.4 percent share, watched the entire game. That marks a record for a regulation 90 minute match broadcast on Spanish TV but lagged behind the 18.1 million that saw Spain's Euro 2012 semi-final game against Portugal, which went into overtime and ended with a penalty shoot-out. A peak of 19 million Spaniards watched that match, an all-time television audience record for the territory.

In Italy, 22.47 million viewers watched their squad's defeat on free and payTV, an 81.7% share. The Italian's team's unexpected advance to the Euro 2012 finals kept local fans glued to their sets. Over the entire three week competition, an average of 9.1 million viewers, or more than 42 percent of the audience, watched every match, whether or not the home team was playing.

The Euro 2012 final grabbed about half of Europe's total TV audience with only slight regional variations.

In Germany, a peak of 20.3 million, a 56.2 percent share, tuned in on ZDF, a record for a Euro 2012 match not involving Germany. In the U.K., more than 13 million watched the match on BBC and an additional 2.2 million caught the simultaneous broadcast on commercial network ITV1. Together, just under half of the British audience watched the whole game.

In the Netherlands, 5.2 million, or 51.5 percent, watched the final on NOS. In France, nearly 13 million, or 48 percent, caught the final on the TF1 network.

With the end of Euro 2012, European broadcasters bid goodbye to those dream ratings. But the film industry has a reason to cheer: after nearly a month of soccer drawing audiences out of cinemas across Europe, distributors are hoping for a box office boost in the coming weeks - at least until the London Olympics kick off on July 27.

Pamela Rolfe in Madrid, Stuart Kemp and Georg Szalai in London, Eric J. Lymen in Rome and Rebecca Leffler in Paris contributed to this report.