Biggest problem for club football in Brazil is that any player good enough to attract notice goes to play in Europe. Nearly 1,000 went last year alone, which doesn't leave too many for the local teams.
Biggest problem for club football in Brazil is that any player good enough to attract notice goes to play in Europe. Nearly 1,000 went last year alone, which doesn't leave too many for the local teams. Yeah, IIRC Sepp Blatter was urging Brazil to keep more of their players at home in future, right before he announced Brazil as winner of the 2014 WC. A bit of a silly request really, considering the globalization of the game in the past 20 years. Nice thing about this location is the kickoff times will be much friendlier for America; Germany wasn't terrible but Japan/Korea was pretty much Tivo-only (PST in the house). Strongly agree. Looking forward to prime-time WC matches in 2014 (for us here in North America). What with increased USA TV audiences in 2006, and probably more growth of that TV audience in 2010, 2014 could be a very big year indeed for American soccer fans. Hopefully our USMNT will live up to that challenge. Not counting tourneys held outside SA and Europe, other than Brazil doing it once, no Cup has been won by a team from outside the host confederation so 2014 looks like another Brazil or Argentina trophy. Or maybe (wishful thinking) Uruguay comes out of nowhere and beats Brazil in the final. Just for old time's sake.
Biggest problem for club football in Brazil is that any player good enough to attract notice goes to play in Europe. Nearly 1,000 went last year alone, which doesn't leave too many for the local teams. And to Japan, China, Indonesia...basically anywhere where a buck from football can be made. Even the A-League has around half a dozen Brazilians, who are cheaper than an Australian of the same standard.
Nice thing about this location is the kickoff times will be much friendlier for America; Germany wasn't terrible but Japan/Korea was pretty much Tivo-only (PST in the house). I wouldn't be so sure. The last time the tournament was held in the Americas (USA '94), most of the matches were played around lunchtime and early afternoon to ensure peak time viewing in Europe. Better than the middle of the night, but still not good for office workers! Not good for the footballers either, playing in the heat of the day. It seems strange, having the final in bright daylight, but that's what happened in '94, and might happen again in Brazil.
Not good for the footballers either, playing in the heat of the day. It seems strange, having the final in bright daylight, but that's what happened in '94, and might happen again in Brazil. Good point but it's worth noting it will actually be winter in Brazil when the WC is played and there are five distinct weather regions. I think the average winter temp of the 5 regions is around 55 farenheit, 13 celcius. Now that's some bright, sunny football weather.
D'oh, for a moment I forgot that the Earth has, y'know, a totally different hemisphere! So that's not bad footballing weather at all.
for a moment I forgot that the Earth has, y'know, a totally different hemisphere I won't take it personally. However, even in "winter", as Tex alludes to, many parts of Brazil will still have very hot and humid days. I still think the weather will be a factor for the Europeans, especially. Argentina '78 was held in a proper winter. And when we host the tournament in 2018...
