Football shows WTO how to play fair
Football has succeeded where the WTO has failed - it has ushered in free movement of manpower.
By Avijit Ghosh, TNN |
NEW DELHI: Ghana outplays world’s No. 2 side Czech Republic 2-0, South Korea draws with ex-champion France, Argentina and Holland sweat to scrape past Ivory Coast 2-1, world No. 4 Mexico is unable to break down Angola, and even mighty England breaches Trinidad & Tobago’s defence only after 83 agonising minutes.
| Football has succeeded where the WTO has failed — it has ushered in free movement of manpower, something for which developing countries cry themselves hoarse at successive WTO meetings without success. |
Suddenly, no game can be taken for granted. If there is one clear trend emerging from this football World Cup, it is this: there are no easy matches anymore. Gone are the days when the big guns would consider a game against an Asian, African or Central American team as a cakewalk.
| In the Togo national squad, only the team’s reserve goalkeeper plays in Togo. In case of Ivory Coast, as many as 13 team members play in France while as many as six of the Iranians play in the German Bundesliga. |
So, what’s happening? How has the yawning chasm between the giants and the minnows been bridged? While a number of reasons have been offered, if you look at the core, it’s globalisation at work. Thanks to the free-market system prevailing in Europe, thousands of footballers from developing countries have swamped the top western clubs.
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In short, football has succeeded where the WTO has failed — it has ushered in free movement of manpower, something for which developing countries cry themselves hoarse at successive WTO meetings without success. In football, there is no restriction today for an Angolan or a South Korean to play in France, England or Germany. All that matters is talent.
Check this out. In the Togo national squad there is only one player — its reserve goalkeeper — who plays in Togo. It’s the same story with Ivory Coast: only its goalie Jean Jacques Tizie plays in Africa, while 13 team members play in France. As many as six of the Iranians play in the German Bundesliga.
And this isn’t the only trend. A rising number of footballers are changing their nationalities to cross-pollinate teams. Portugal’s ace mid-fielder Deco was a Brazilian until the other day. So were Mexico’s Antonio Naelson and Alex of Japan. Australia has a number of players of foreign origin — notably from Croatia.
Those who have been harnessed and shaped by top European clubs sides have the ability and the self-belief to take on the best in the world.
Not that Asia or Africa have never upset the bookmakers before. In 1966, North Korea romped into the quarters, Cameroon reached the last eight in 1990. But these were dubbed as exceptions to the rule. Even South Korea’s 2002 semifinal run was attributed to its home advantage.
Now these ‘aberrations’ have shaped into a more broad-based trend. Unlike cricket’s world cup next year, where countries such as Scotland, Holland, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, and even Zimbabwe will merely make up the numbers, there are no minnows in world cup football.
While footballers have moved out of Africa and Asia to Europe, coaches have moved out of Europe and Latin America. South Korea’s coach is Dick Advocaat of Holland, Japan’s Zico is from Brazil, Iran’s Branko Ivankovic from Croatia, and the coach of each African team is from Europe.
All of this has contributed to the gap between the European countries and Asia-Africa getting significantly narrowed. It all began with the 1995 Bosman ruling made by the European Union Court of Justice. The ruling, on a plea filed by a little-known Belgian footballer, Jean Marc Bosman, allowed European footballers to move freely between clubs after their contracts expired.
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It also enabled clubs to employ as many foreign footballers as they wanted. With Africa being the best and cheapest catchment area, European talent scouts started scouring for the next George Weah, the Liberian striker who was the FIFA world footballer of the year in 1995.
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