When the Ryder Cup was getting Mega Bucks from the National Assembly Government we were told that the expenditure was justified because it was more than a Game of Golf it was a worldwide advert that said "This is Wales –Come Visit, Come and Invest"
It was a load of baloney, of course. 99% of worldwide references to the Ryder cup placed it in Europe / Britain / England. The only time that Wales got a mention was when the poor weather intervened and then it was "Welsh Rain" that gave our nation negative publicity.
This makes me wonder about the "Value to Wales" of all the hype about Swansea and Cardiff being in the ENGLISH Premier League actually offering Wales, as a nation!
Far from putting Wales in the international spotlight, don't the Cardiff and Swansea teams confirm the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1771 entry of WALES: See England?
It is not so much a Nationalist issue as Parochial one, how many playing members of Man U or Man City have any local connection with Manchester? Very few, I suspect. That disassociation gets passed lower down the line until we get a failed former Blue Square player on the bench for Llandudno Junction, forcing a local lad out of the team and that Junction lad stops a Glan Conwy born and bred boy from being part of his village team.
That is not the way to spread sporting activity at grass roots level. If football in Wales is to succeed we MUST find a way to spread success up from local activity to international level, rather than continuing to "buy" failures into our village clubs on their way down!
I don't like the rugby v soccer rivalry, but I think that RGC1404's attempt to foster local talent to a regional and international level should be a lesson to the Welsh FA, because North Wales football has been too long a resting place for Accrington Stanley Non Milk Drinking, Wanabees, rather than a breeding ground for native Welsh success!
You know I am Cardiff boy born and bred, my parents and grandparents supported CCFC AKA the "Bluebirds" , yet somehow this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It baffles me how some people are blowing whistles about this, because its not about Wales, it's about Cardiff tigers or whatever they call themselves now! It's about big money like football is in the US
ReplyDeleteI don't really know Alwyn. Football has been completely marketised for some time, at the pro level. Local players are still used because they engender fan loyalty. With that said, all professional clubs operate Academies (by law), and a significant proportion of academy players will be local. Cardiff City actually started an 18 year old named Declan John yesterday, who hasn't even played for Wales. Swansea similarly gave Ben Davies a chance last year, and he's now a Welsh international.
ReplyDeleteMy point is, even at the very highest corporate level there are local players, but that overall its a market, and a pure meritocracy, and quality of player counts for more than where they're from
"Far from putting Wales in the international spotlight, don't the Cardiff and Swansea teams confirm the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1771 entry of WALES: See England?"
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly. Wales' best teams have always played in the English system, at the higher levels. It was only in the 90s that a Welsh domestic system was established. But it can never trump the market that the largest businesses in football in Wales can access by playing in England (a global market). It reflects some facts about our nation and the reality that viewing Wales as an economic entity is a political choice, not a business choice. Money wins over patriotism.
Welsh can't play football, and there is no money in it in Wales. Long live rugby :) Let's face it most of the 'English' footy league team players who count are imported too....... at one point they needed 6 translators at Chelsea football club. None of them have a name with a vowel in it....
ReplyDeleteSo despite the most highly valued footballer in the world, Gareth Bale, being one of ours, "the Welsh can't play football"? Good one.
DeleteThe reason Wales is better at rugby is because rugby has a better domestic set up, granted, but mainly because only a handful of countries (mostly former colonies) play it to a pro standard. Whereas football is played by virtually every country in the world.
We are talking teams here, we have 3 as I understand it, until recently in nowhere land, Gareth would get nowhere in a welsh team. It's a silly and pretentious game anyway.
ReplyDeleteI would say that Rugby was the pretentious game. I prefer Rugby to Soccer for the simple reason that I played Rugby in School so I understand the game better. The reasons why we played rugby in my local comprehensive was because the school was descended from one original founded in 1600 and something and Rugby was seen as more fitting for such an an ancient academy than common Association Football - you can't get more pretentious than that! Most of the North Wales Rugby Clubs are based on the same "old grammarians" pretension.
DeleteWales isn't better at Rugby than it is at football, this is a myth dragging on from the 70s (when we weren't actually as invincible as some might want you to think).
ReplyDeleteLess than 10 nations in the world play rugby "seriously", to say that we're better at rugby than football is like saying we're better than Germany at Dawnsio Gwerin
Poor analogy. Dawnsio Gwerin is translated as folk dancing, and there isn't a country in the world that doesn't have its own folk dance tradition. Wales has a brilliant folk dance tradition as does Germany, I wouldn't want to bet on a clogging shoot off between them!
DeleteMost commentators have missed the main point, perhaps because I made it poorly. Rugby, Football, Netball, Hockey, Running, Jumping etc should work from the bottom up where people are raised up to local national and international heights not sold up and down like slaves.
ReplyDeletePeople follow the money, participants in sport have to make a living, they don't have to be slaves, but they do choose to be....
ReplyDeleteFair enough not a good analogy.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on the main point, it's important that youngsters who are potentially good enough to play at the top level, have the opportunity to do so within Wales. And it's also important that the youngsters with less potential have a fair chance at local clubs in Wales.
The way I see it is that Cardiff and Swansea are now fullfilling the role of the club that's there for those yongsters with potential to go all the way, andbsurely this is good for Welsh sport? Sure they won't have teams made up of 11 welshmen, but even if it's a handful of welsh youngsters who progress though their youth system in next 5 years then it would overall be beneficial.
Obviously sport (run by media these days on a profit basis), want proven winners, and cannot be bothered training up local talent when they can buy it in 24 hours. T shirts alone with a name on will pull in millions. These players/participators are only slaves if they want to be, and most DO for the money because it will be thank you will only get your rewards in heaven otherwise. 80% of time it is posing for media and the hard sell, with the occasional match on a weekend. At one point they didn't need supporters in the stands, they could make money just flogging the games to SKY.
ReplyDeleteThe questions was about promoting Wales. Well as a Welsh speaker in the USA and seeing both Welsh clubs live on NBC network. Seeing Croeso i Gymru, Welsh University on the screen etc a North America audiance is being educated about our country. Same as people understand that Barcelona is Catalan and Bilbao and Sociedad are Basque. Argument about money and which league should they play is another discussion for another day. But waking up every weekend and see Croeso i Gymru all over North America TV cannot be a bad thing!!!
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