The Future of Football Needs You

Football — or soccer, for Americans — is the beautiful game, but it is also the people’s game. From the streets of Rio’s favelas to the pristine pitch of Wembley, billions of people worldwide are united by their love for kicking a ball around outdoors. Perhaps that’s why football is so popular — it’s easy. You don’t need fancy equipment: All you need is a ball, a flat space and willing participants. Yet as astronomically popular as football is, I think it’s under threat. Fans like to complain t

Brentford Hope Third Time’s the Charm for Premier League Promotion

In late August of 2020, Bayern Munich’s French forward Kingsley Coman headed home to secure the German giants the UEFA Champions League trophy in a close 1-0 victory over Paris St. Germain. Not only did that lone goal secure the Bavarian club the title of European champions, but it also earned the club €19 million in prize money. Interestingly, the €19 million in prize money on the line does not make the Champions League the most valuable tournament in European soccer. Instead, that title goes

Short-Lived Super League Shows Power of Fans, But Challenges Still Remain

In his meditation on the beautiful game, Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano wrote that “the history of football [i.e. soccer] is a sad voyage from beauty to duty.” Last week’s announcement of the creation of the European Super League [https://amherststudent.com/article/footballing-shock-doctrine-the-covid-crisis-and-the-european-super-league] looked to be another step on that teleological journey towards duty. Players and fans alike opposed the move, and yet because wealthy owners supported it, t

Footballing Shock Doctrine: The Covid Crisis and the European Super League

In her 2007 book “Shock Doctrine,” Canadian author Naomi Klein writes about how wealthy nations and corporations exploit the aftermath of natural, political or economic disasters to implement radical, right-wing proposals that generate profit for a select elite. Klein cites events like the overhaul of the Chilean economy in 1973 after the ouster of Salvador Allende and the privatization of the New Orleans school district in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as examples of how the wealthy use

As Qatar 2022 Draws Nearer, Criticisms Grow Louder

It’s almost impressive how an organization as brazenly and institutionally corrupt as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) continues to outdo itself. Since the 1990s, it has been an open secret that the governing body of the world’s most popular sport is beholden to powerful, monied interests. This became undeniable in 2010, when, after the completion of a successful World Cup in South Africa that had been seen by some critics as a risky move, FIFA’s World Cup Host Selec

The Rise of Brexit Ball

In late 2019, the United Kingdom finally actualized the results of the 2016 “Brexit” referendum and left the European Union. The victorious “Leave” campaign [http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/why_vote_leave.html]ran on nationalist rhetoric, citing the need to bring back British identity and restore the nation’s sovereignty, especially in regard to immigration and trade. Yet the idea of Brexit and the preservation of British identity has now entered the realm of football (i.e. soccer), and the

Euro 2021 Will Show a New-Look Europe – But Will It Help Mend Racial Divides?

One of the first major international footballing casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic was the postponement of the European Championships from 2020 to 2021. While many details of the Euros have yet to be hammered out, including finding a host, the competition is still highly anticipated across the world. Not only will the tournament feature many of the 2022 World Cup favorites, but it will also showcase a new generation of European talent ready to dominate on a continental stage. Beyond their tal

The Graham Potter Dilemma

The “analytics revolution” in sports has completely changed the way that different games are played. Starting with baseball’s “moneyball” — the term used by Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane to describe his team’s use of sabermetrics to find cheap talent — every sport now has a slew of statisticians and data scientists crunching numbers to determine starting lineups, generate tactics and grade players. See American football’s Pro Football Focus [https://www.pff.com/] (PFF), whose grading system i

Guardiola’s Manchester City Prove the Magic is Permanent

The great Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev once wrote that “in the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and sooner or later it takes what belongs to it.” The same is true of Spanish manager Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City teams. After a tepid start to the season that included an embarrassing 5–2 drubbing at the hands of Leicester City, Guardiola’s side has won twenty straight games in all competitions, and sits ten points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Guardiola’s r

Aaron Rodgers Isn’t Blameless — And Never Has Been

On Jan. 23, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers stepped out onto the “icy tundra” of Green Bay’s Lambeau Field to do something he had never done before: play in an NFC Championship Game at home. Rodgers’ four prior NFC Championship appearances were on the road, with a victory in Chicago in 2010, followed by three losses in Seattle, Atlanta and San Francisco in 2015, 2017 and 2020 respectively. After a 37-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in last year’s NFC Championship Game, Rodgers to

Manchester United Star Marcus Rashford Battles Racism Amid Quest to Lower Food Insecurity

When the United Kingdom entered lockdown in March, millions of low-income schoolchildren found themselves without reliable access to meals. The British government, under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, made relief funds available to businesses across the country, but was reluctant to expand their efforts to cover children in need. In stepped Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford, who himself grew up in poverty and experienced food insecurity throughout his childhood. Rashford set out to raise

Under Manager Lampard's Deft Hand, Chelsea’s New Goalkeeper Helps Steady the Ship

Before Frank Lampard was Chelsea’s manager, he was one of the club’s greatest players ever. Their best ever talisman, with 211 goals in all competitions, Lampard won three Premier Leagues with Chelsea, captained them to victory in the 2012 Champions League final and sits fourth and fifth among all-time assists and goals leaders in Premier League history, respectively. While Lampard was a midfielder who could do almost anything, he was never known as a defensive specialist, and often needed to pl

Bielsa’s Leeds Take Premier League by Storm

Marcelo Bielsa, above, is known as a tactical maestro in the soccer world and has taken his talents to Premier League upstart Leeds United. Photo courtesy of Ben Gilsdorf ’21.This season’s group of Premier League managers is loaded with talent and personality. There are tactical geniuses like Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, actual geniuses like Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, whose IQ was once described by a team doctor as “well above 150” and indescribable enigmas like T

Like Van Dijk’s ACL, Liverpool’s Title Hopes Are Torn Apart

Liverpool has been one of the best teams in Europe over the last three seasons, reaching the Champions League final in 2018, winning the Champions League in 2019 and securing their first ever Premier League title in 2020. During this spell, they have largely played the same team: Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino up front; Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum in the midfield; and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson at full back. The man who makes it all tick is Liverpool’s roc

Once Great, Manchester United Continue to Falter

Three games into the 2020-2021 Premier League season, Manchester United look to be in trouble. Once one of the powerhouses of European football, the Red Devils have gone seven seasons without lifting the Premier League trophy, dating back to their title victory in the 2012-2013 season when legendary Scottish manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired. “Fergie,” as he was known to the United faithful, had managed the club for 25seasons and led his side to 13 Premier League titles, two UEFA Champions Leag

New Season, New Challengers on the Premier League Pitch

The Premier League is effectively an oligarchy. Since the league’s founding in 1992, only seven different sides have won a title: Manchester United with 13, Chelsea with five, Manchester City with four, Arsenal with three, and Leicester City, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers with one apiece. The current “Big Six” sides – Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham – have won 26 of the 28 total Premier League titles, and it is likely that this season’s winner will

Premier League Plan to Bring Back Fans Stalled

Like nearly all professional sports leagues this year, the Premier League was forced into a months-long hiatus by the outbreak of Covid-19. The league’s “Project Restart” began in June, with strict rules to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including strict testing for players and coaches, mandatory masks for players on the bench, separated dressing rooms and a ban on group celebrations. But the most visible Covid19 related policy from “Project Restart” was the prohibition on fans attendin

Jacob Blake Shooting Halts NBA Playoffs, But Season Stoppage Averted

Over a week ago, in Kenosha, Wisc., police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, four times in the back while Blake’s three children watched from the backseat of his car. According to witnesses, Blake had been trying to deescalate a fight when officers stopped him, citing outstanding warrants for his arrest for sexual assault and domestic violence charges. Blake survived the shooting and was transported that same night to a nearby hospital where he was subsequently handcuffed to

VEEPStakes

Staff writers Harry Brussel ’23 and Ben Gilsdorf ’21 work their way through the short list of considerations for the Democrat’s vice presidential nominee, a list that pundits and political-junkies have fleshed out ever since likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s March 15 announcement [https://apps.npr.org/liveblogs/20200315-dem-debate/#biden-commits-to-choosing-woman-28] that he would pick a female running mate. On April 30, the Biden campaign announced [https://www.npr.org/2020/0

Amherst’s First Pandemic Before COVID-19

More than a month has passed since the college made the decision to move to remote learning because of the coronavirus  pandemic. While the current COVID-19 situation feels (and is) unprecedented, this outbreak is not the first time that Amherst has navigated a pandemic threatening campus. Using the digitized copies of The Amherst Student provided by the Archives & Special Collections, we can go back to the fall of 1918 and look back at how the Amherst community handled its first pandemic: the S

Thanks, Tom

By the time I was old enough to start choosing sports allegiances, I had already been indoctrinated by the cult of Boston sports. I remember in kindergarten, my classmates talked about how their parents had let them stay up to watch the Red Sox (finally) win the World Series. At recess or at friends’ houses, whenever we would play baseball, everyone wanted to be David Ortiz, hitting walk-off home runs to beat the opposing team, which was almost always the Yankees. But despite the onslaught of