Football could really learn from video games, if it took the trouble to understand them

Le football pourrait vraiment apprendre des jeux vidéo, s'il prenait la peine de les comprendre

It’s Wednesday afternoon and someone has decided to blame video games. It’s easy to get frustrated but, in fact, these days are often some of the most fun. Usually the following is a circus: wagons going around on Twitter, misinformed headlines in the mainstream press, maybe someone from a trade body dropping by this morning explaining how much money video games make and how many studies there are that they are unanimously good. for your kids, your sanity, and your chances of winning the lottery, probably. It’s silly and unimportant enough that we can enjoy it quietly, but it happens regularly and it usually comes from ignorance.


This time, however, things are a bit different. Someone kind of blamed video games, less out of red-faced criticism or engagement rage, and more out of sheer desperation. Video games were blamed on Andrea Agnelli, the chairman of Italian football giant Juventus and, more pertinently, the vice-chairman of the catastrophic new Super League which imploded only last night. The context is important and a little weird.


If you don’t know football, the big point of contention is that, as things stand, football is currently quite equal. A new team, or tiny minnow, can theoretically rise from England’s lowest division, say, to the top of the Champions League which brings together the best teams in Europe, simply by winning games. There are huge caveats there – good luck winning so many games without ultra-rich owners, for example – but basically in all European competition anyone can win the right to win whatever either via on-field performance alone.


This weekend, however, a group of the 12 clubs owned by the world’s most popular billionaires – minus a few biggies like Bayern Munich – announced the creation of a “closed” league, where a few others can join and win a promotion or relegation to and from there, but these 12 will always be there, playing each other over and over again in a pointless, drama-free ride, earning extraordinary sums of money guaranteed for television rights and promising very vaguely to pay this money to the smallest. guys, honest as these little guys sweat in regular football. It didn’t go very well. The 12 clubs have lost all kind of support from stakeholders, from local supporters who blocked team buses for matches, to players who issued public statements and privately prepared for strikes, to sponsors as the “Official Global Timing Partner” of Liverpool, Tribes, and even integrity parties like Amazon Prime. Ultimately, the plans fell apart less than three days after being announced.


Statement from the Super League TRIBES pic.twitter.com/zwaWDyBDMD


But anyway, what does this have to do with video games? Well, it’s less about the disastrous effects of the Super League or its opposition, and more about why these clubs invented it in the first place: most of them are extraordinarily indebted.


Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Pérez has been the de facto face of the Super League, are said to have debts rising by around 354.3 million euros. Manchester United owe £455.5m; Tottenham £604.6m; Athletic [paywall] in January put Barcelona’s debt at an astronomical figure of “almost €1.2bn, of which €730m was to be repaid in the short term, €266m to various banks by June 30. Agnelli’s Juventus net debt for the last financial year was €357.8m, according to Sky Sports, and they currently pay Cristiano Ronaldo around €600,000 a week plus bonuses. All the while, ticket day revenue is of course zero, due to the pandemic, and some leagues are struggling to sell their TV rights for as much money as before. The thing is, these mega clubs need the money, fast – and Agnelli believes it’s all about the video games.


“Some data,” Agnelli offered to Corriere dello Sport, in an interview that took place just before the announcement and collapse of the Super League: “A third of global fans follow at least two clubs and often these two- there are present among the founders of the Super League Ten percent are fascinated by the great players, not by the clubs, two thirds follow football for what is now called “fomo”, fear of missing out, fear of be cut.


“And now the most alarming percentage: 40% of children between the ages of 15 and 24 have no interest in football. We need a competition capable of opposing what they reproduce on digital platforms, transforming the virtual into the real. Through Fifa you create your own competition, this competition needs to be brought back to the real world. Let’s leave aside the effects of the competition of various [games like] Fortnite, Call of duty etc., authentic catalysts of the attention of the children of today destined to spend tomorrow. “


For once, video games aren’t actually blamed per se. They are envied. Ignore the laughable things about children being ‘tomorrow’s spendthrifts’ and you’ll notice what Agnelli is really saying: that what the Super League was trying to achieve was just to follow games, try to match them, exploit them, to copy what they do. He says games are more interesting for young people than football these days, so we have to pit Ronaldo against Messi every week (ignore the fact that Mbappé and Haaland, the next Ronaldo and Messi that young football fans love, are both at clubs away from the Super League 12). We need ridiculous, star-studded Ultimate Team matches every week, forever, or kids will be watching highlights for free on Tiktok and spending their money on Warzone instead.


He’s obviously wrong, but he’s wrong in a way so typical for someone who cites video games in their argument. The big open secret here is that both Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone are free. And you can play them anywhere. Your kids can play Fortnite on a budget phone, their parents’ iPad, or the family console. You can play Warzone on an eight-year-old PS4. Sky Sports, which you need just to watch around half of your club’s Premier League games, costs £41 a month for the basic package with Sky TV. A season ticket for Manchester United costs £190 to £380 for the Under-16s (let’s ignore the cost of flying from Manchester to Turin for that fourth United-Juve match of the year.) If you really wanted luxury Fortnite extras , a season pass costs £7.99 every three to four months.


The point is of course cost, for one, but more so is access: a future for football that wants to include young people, and learning from games in doing so, means one where young people can watch the game easily . And it’s also that once again there are really good lessons to be learned from video games – and once again ignoring the medium means they’re being ignored.

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