Sport and Globalization in London & Seville

Well, that was interesting. It is not every day one finds his or her self in the visitor’s portion of a stadium, on accident, with more home fans than away fans in the sparsely populated section of the stands. Then again, it is not every day one sees a game turn on back-to-back possessions—with significant influence from the referee. It also is rare to see this same referee blow the first half dead before the clock reaches 45:00, or see two red cards given to the same team with a substantial amount of time left to play. It is not every day one watches Real Betis. A team one year removed from some level of success—they are currently playing in the Europa League—Real Betis currently is dead last in the Liga BBVA table—by a lot. This team has been absolutely atrocious this year and was, for much of the match, painful to watch. The players appeared to lack chemistry with teammates as many passes resulted in possession changes. Several times the passer attempted to lead a standing teammate, or a teammate moved while the passer sent the ball to where he was. Betis did not deserve to win. Nevertheless, they remained in the game for quite some time. It was not until later in the first half that an apparent penalty in the box was called the opposite way, giving Bilbao a free kick instead of Betis a try from the spot. Furthermore, on Bilbao’s ensuing possession, a PK was given them. The conversion ensured that the rest of the game would be essentially keep-away—especially after one, then two, Betis players left the field with red cards. Nevertheless, the fans attending stayed true to their team—tortilla sandwiches and all! We observed the vast majority of fans pull out a tortilla at halftime—though some in our crew had hunger strike slightly earlier. Flag-waving continued from before kick-off through the final whistle, even after the result was inevitable. The same section that possessed this flag-waver—and stood for the entire game—was reminiscent of a high school basketball game during introductions with the visiting team, when the home student section turns their backs in what is often considered, in the US at least, impolite. Needless to say, manners are not widely regarded as important in European soccer when it comes to the opposing team—something we learned, especially, at a certain U-18 FA Cup fixture between Tottenham and Fulham. This game could be best compared to the Fulham-Sunderland game in terms of quality of professional matches we have seen. It definitely was not Manchester City playing out there! There were times it reminded Doug of the girls’ indoor soccer he watched over break—as well as high school basketball—since the level of play was definitely lacking. But, as in Indiana high school basketball, the fans are always loyal, always passionate, and always true—that is, the ones that show up. There were significantly more empty seats at this match than at the virtually sold-out top-flight matches in England. The Villa-Arsenal match was not a complete sell-out, but even it seemed to fill up more seats. Leyton Orient’s relative number of filled seats would probably be equal to Betis’s for this match—perhaps 55% or so. We did not expect top-notch quality. We knew where Betis stood in the table and thus knew what to expect. We also knew the history of Betis’ fan base—a group of passionate, working class individuals who fiercely support their club. That was evident. Tottenham had proud, often insulting chants. Fulham seemed relatively polite. Aston Villa was playing Arsenal and the outcome had an early prelude, so we did not get to see these fans in full bloom—plus it was a week-night game. Doug can comment on an FC Barcelona game, where the 90-some thousand seats were filled probably to 2/3 capacity and the fans seemed to be there as much to see FC Barcelona play—like Doug and the Korean tourists he sat next to—as to cheer on Barcelona. Betis had an amazing atmosphere, especially outside the stadium, where booths, scarfs, kits, tortilla sandwiches, and fans were plentiful and lively. Unfortunately, the team did not echo this excitement on the pitch, and the game was the least exciting—though quite intriguing—of our time in Europe.