Your analysis of football’s evolution – as always, both illuminating and thought-provoking – has inspired me to project these trends into the near and more distant future. Naturally, the probability of these scenarios decreases as one moves down the list, but as you know, even the improbable has a way of becoming reality.
1. The next step might be a further expansion of the pool of participants, perhaps including non-sovereign regions or cities.
2. This could be followed by a gradual reduction in the residency requirement for national team eligibility – from five years to four, then three, or even its outright elimination, as dual (or multiple) nationalities become the norm.
3. In a more speculative, yet not impossible, turn, investors might exploit the smallest states to acquire entire national teams, turning them into global franchises.
How far would you be willing to follow these – admittedly wild – speculations?
With best regards from a non-football expert who, in 1974, sat in front of a television in Schalke at the age of 11, watching the matches with the same fascination that your essays now inspire in me,
Well said …. “In other words, soccer is a tragic game. America, at least in its self-conception, does not accept this tragic view of life and believes in taking fate into your own hands.”
Dear Professor Puchner,
Your analysis of football’s evolution – as always, both illuminating and thought-provoking – has inspired me to project these trends into the near and more distant future. Naturally, the probability of these scenarios decreases as one moves down the list, but as you know, even the improbable has a way of becoming reality.
1. The next step might be a further expansion of the pool of participants, perhaps including non-sovereign regions or cities.
2. This could be followed by a gradual reduction in the residency requirement for national team eligibility – from five years to four, then three, or even its outright elimination, as dual (or multiple) nationalities become the norm.
3. In a more speculative, yet not impossible, turn, investors might exploit the smallest states to acquire entire national teams, turning them into global franchises.
How far would you be willing to follow these – admittedly wild – speculations?
With best regards from a non-football expert who, in 1974, sat in front of a television in Schalke at the age of 11, watching the matches with the same fascination that your essays now inspire in me,
Christoph Holtwiesche
Well said …. “In other words, soccer is a tragic game. America, at least in its self-conception, does not accept this tragic view of life and believes in taking fate into your own hands.”
Beautiful, insightful, and very entertaining indeed!! Excellent food for thought and debate!
Thank you for this consolation.
Nice move, Norton.