Sports Then and Now

Earlier this week, one of the oldest clubs in the English Football League effectively ceased to exist, as Bury Football Club was expelled from League One due to ongoing financial difficulties at the club. The move has brought an end to months of speculation about the potential future of the town’s football team, and also ended 125 years of English league football history for the side known as the Shakers. 

The move was not unexpected. Bury had been unable to complete any of their fixtures so far this season, and had already been expelled from the League Cup competition on the grounds that they were unable to take to the pitch. The few players that were still under contract to Bury have gone unpaid for months, and there’s been little in the way of a management structure behind the scenes outside of controversial owner Steve Dale. Dale undoubtedly must shoulder a great deal of the blame for the demise of Bury, but the sorry saga underlines the need for reform of the English Football League as an organization.

The 2019-2020 La Liga season started with great expectations for Real Betis, the Seville club which had gone through major changes. Despite managing to get through the UEFA Europe League group stages, finishing on the 10^th spot in the domestic league had not been satisfying for the management.

As a result, Quique Setien had been sacked and the Espanyol coach Rubi had been handled the task of improving the team’s performance. Just recently, the club a major sponsorship contract with easyMarkets, which means financial instability may be a problem solved. With a few players already left, let’s see what are the figures able to push Betis higher in the rankings.

Nabil Fekir

Joining Real Betis from Lyon in £17.7 million deal, Nabil Fekir is the attacking midfielder which will need to handle the offensive side of the team for the next few seasons. The contract was signed for the next five years and expectations around the player are high. A year ago, the Premier League team Liverpool wanted to sign the 26-years old French World Cup winner, but eventually negotiations collapsed. Raised in the Lyon academy, Fekir had played almost 200 games in the French league and managed to score 69 goals. According to a Real Betis statement, “With the arrival of Fekir, Real Betis acquire creativity, great technique, shooting ability and attacking edge.”

Alfonso Pedraza

Although not a complete transfer, Alfonso Pedraza had been brought on a one-year loan from Villareal. Betis will have to pay between €500,000 and €1 million depending on the objectives, with the ability to buy him next summer for a deal that could reach €10-14 million. The left-sided player is expected to be the perfect replacement for Junior Firpo, who left the club in order to join FC Barcelona.

Cristian Tello

The 28-years old winger joined Betis in 2017, managing to score 8 goals in 61 matches. A former Barcelona player between 2011-2017, he had to spend three years on loans to FC Porto and Fiorentina, respectively. Highly experienced in important matches, Cristian Tello is expected to remain one of the team’s key players, even though his shape is not as it was several years ago. Under the leadership of the new coach Rubi, he may reach his true potential in the current season, which could end positively for Betis, given all the efforts made by the team during the summer.

Over the decades, clubs have reached deep into their pockets to ensure that they have the world’s best players on their team. Some of these soccer stars have flourished under the pressure of their transfer fee while others have been crushed with the burden of expectations placed on them.

To keep things on a positive note, we’d like to bring 6 key transfers in the history of world football to your attention, that had a tremendous impact on the players career, the fate of a team or even of leagues. With plenty of offers for betting free on who goes where in todays transfer markets,  here we found our picks in no particular order for the best transfer:

1. David Beckham to the L.A. Galaxy

The year: 2007

The transfer fee: $30 Million

The impact: While this move didn’t brand Beckham as the next Pelé like L.A. Galaxy hoped it would, it did bring in a fortune for Galaxy in terms of advertising deals and brought international attention to the MLS. It also sparked the arrival of more international additions. So, while David Beckham didn’t perform as well on the field as fans had hoped, he did make a significant change to the team in other ways.

The season has just come down on another season of soccer in Europe – which the natives of the continent prefer to call ‘football.’ In England, the lucrative and widely-viewed Premier League was won by Manchester City for the second consecutive season. While it was a cause for celebration for the fans of the club, it drew criticism from some quarters because of the amount of foreign money invested in the club to help them achieve their status. It would seem the complaints aren’t without some foundation – the club is currently under investigation for financial irregularities.

The fans of the club will be quick to point out that it’s not against the law to invest money into a team and help them to move forward, but the pace of City’s ascent to the throne of English football has been rapid. This season, they won an unprecedented domestic treble, adding both the League Cup and the FA Cup to their Premier League triumph. Twenty years ago, they were playing in the third tier of English football, having been relegated twice in the seasons prior. Their Maine Road stadium was falling apart around them, and the idea of competing at the same level as their illustrious neighbors Manchester United seemed like a ludicrous dream. Foreign investment, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into the club to buy top-tier players and built a new stadium, has changed all that.

There is no doubt that soccer has gained some popularity over the past few years. The women’s national soccer team winning the World Cup tournament in 2015 drew a lot of attention. Unfortunately, the attention was short-lived. So, why is soccer less popular than football in the United States? Find the answer to this question and more information in the article below.

It’s About Winning

In America, it is about winning, which is why soccer cannot gain any popularity. While the women’s national soccer team have several World Cup titles under their belt, the men just cannot muster up enough skills to pull off a single win. When you compare the popularity of hockey and soccer in the United States, the two sports are lacking a lot. With that said, hockey does appear to be more popular than soccer in America. This is probably due to the Lake Placid Olympics win in 1980.

If the U.S. men’s team can pull off a win, it may actually help draw some fans. It is unclear whether or not Americans will be tuning in to the upcoming World Cup.

Substitutions Are Limited

Unlike football, soccer has a lot of regulations that Americans view as unnecessary. One regulation has to do with substitutions. When a player gets injured in soccer, the entire team is punished, at least that is how Americans see it. This is because the injured player cannot be substituted. When you look at it, losing a player makes the team weaker. So, they are not on a competitive level with their components, which gives them an unfair advantage.

In some countries football is more than just a game; it is a national obsession that drives people crazy in a good way. Did you notice that during the football season, your colleagues and friends speak only about the game? If you don’t want to feel left out, learn important football terms, slang and cliches. The next FIFA World Cup will be held in Qatar in 2022, so it is better to start preparing for its ‘madness’ today.

Tiki-Taka

Tiki-Taka is Barcelona’s style of playing football. It was implemented by Johan Cruyff in the early 1990s. Basically, it means ‘taking quick, light steps.’ This style implies short passing. Also, team players are not positioned in a traditional formation. On the contrary, they are free to move and pass the ball. In 2009, it helped FC Barcelona to win six trophies.

A fox in the box

It is an English idiom that is used to describe deadly strikers who are extremely good in the penalty area. For instance, Filippo Inzaghi, Italian professional footballer is an excellent example of ‘the fox in the box. ’ He retired with over 300 career goals and deserved the title of a ‘ killer striker.’