Celebrating Victories: The Unseen Struggle in Modern Football
There are many provocative aspects of football. One of them is that PSG isn't given time to bask in a historic achievement. Häcken's decision to forgo an Allsvenskan match is another. One must celebrate before it's too late.
You can't play football with just stars. But you can play with a team. And good teams win titles. PSG demonstrated this when they finally made history, a history they had only brushed against before. The problematic state project began to act like a football club, creating a sympathetic team with a coach who doesn't compromise on anything, nor lets anyone else do so.
It was a victory on many fronts when they won their first-ever Champions League title.
Pop the champagne! Cancel tomorrow's training! Disappear into a frenzy of joy!
Or?
Newcastle parades through the city after the League Cup title, Tottenham does the same after the Europa League victory against Manchester United. In Naples, there's no sky when they win the league again, just colorful fireworks and smoke.
These are invaluable moments. Not least for supporters and cities that come together in unity and create lifelong memories. Also for players and coaches. But planned celebrations, on dates and times that suit, cannot be the only ones we accommodate for the players.
It shouldn't be that way.
There is much that provokes in football today
"We need to work hard, even harder, we must improve, the team must improve. We need to be humble."
Nasser Al Khelaifi is unsettlingly composed shortly after the Champions League final, PSG's 58th match this season. He tells how he has told his young players they can celebrate briefly, then they must leave with their national teams, and then return to think about the Club World Cup.
In other words:
Great that you made history and reached the most important milestone in my sports-washing project for me, but you can celebrate in the grave.
There is much that provokes in football today, many things that are broken (ligaments, backs, and morals). But the ever-expanding calendar not only destroys players' bodies but also risks other important foundations for this sport to be worth engaging in.
You don't win titles just anyhow, and when you do, nothing else exists
Existential questions constantly arise when moving in and around football. Some have recurred over decades and accelerated recently, others arise in the very second a club representative, shortly after a historic achievement, starts talking about there being no time to lose oneself in it.
I loved the way Häcken showed up energyless to the Allsvenskan match against Malmö, three days after they won the cup final against them recently. After 120 minutes on the field, the players promised with victory shirts on that they would celebrate hard all night, demanded a day off the next day, and the upcoming league match would be what it would be.
Because you don't win titles just anyhow, and when you do, nothing else exists.
It must be that way, why else would you bother? But increasingly, you get the feeling that the time to celebrate in the moment, the space to be euphoric, to try to land in what you have been part of, no longer has a place in the calendar.
Because the next match is waiting. The next tournament, the next goal. And it can't wait, because there's no time to breathe anymore.
... Long-awaited news. Before this year's Club World Cup, the first ever with 32 teams, even started, comes the news everyone has been waiting for: FIFA opens up for the next edition, 2029, to be played with 48 teams!
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... Closure. This week it was confirmed that citizens from twelve countries, including World Cup-qualified Iran, are completely banned from entering Donald Trump's USA. Players, coaches, and other staff will be allowed into the country during the 2026 World Cup, but not supporters. It remains to be seen if FIFA arranges for Iran's matches to land in Mexico or Canada, for simplicity's sake, because football unites the world.
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... Outgrown suits. The Guardian reports on a record year for women's football in England. For the first time ever, all clubs in the top league generated over a million pounds, with total revenues growing by 34 percent. The growth is mainly driven by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City. And with this comes the news that Arsenal, who recently won the Champions League, will play all their home matches in the league at Emirates Stadium next year, just like the men. In February, the club broke the attendance record in a match against City, which over 60,000 people attended.