Today, on South African Twitter, we saw a sports news reporter disregard South Africa's football history when he tweeted "The PSL (South Africa's top tier league) is not a museum of past glory." I'm not much of a South African football fan but I do know quite a bit more than the average Joe on various club's histories, especially about the known clubs & personalities of South African football & do appreciate the Chiefs vs Pirates rivalry, dribbles & characters (N.B.: present-day South African football has little to no characters). South African football is far from ideal but it's what we grew up knowing. Growing up, I'd watch football teams & see the most talented & skillful individuals from all corners of the world assembled to make a team & we knew a guy was from a specific team & he plays this position at THAT team. Today, we have clubs bought by billionaires who can buy the best players from any corner of the world & for me that's taking the soul of the game away. When you watch Chelsea, it's not eleven Stamford Bridge/London born & bred individuals on that team - it's anyone who can do the job from anywhere in the world. AmaZulu is not eleven Zulus, Roma is not eleven Rome citizens. This is my train of thought from mid to late 2014 & it's an ideology that has completely won me over. Spanish & Italian football embraces this "loyalty mentality" more which is why I like watching their leagues. After seeing the sense & bona fide nature of this romantic ideology of football, it's all I ever want to see. Because I appreciate this "simplified" form of football so much, I often enjoy watching national teams more than club matches. Leagues that find this ideology important or incorporate it, are more enjoyable for me to watch. I think if a league does not offer either a sense of loyalty (duty) or entertainment value (i. e. skills & eccentric personalities) then it almost becomes as good as any amateur football league.
Maybe it's just me & I'm just longing for something like 2010 Spain or 2006 Italy but I do enjoy seeing clubs & national teams made of the same DNA or, at least, the same mentality like 2002 Brazil. Whether a top-tier league like this would work, remains to be seen but I see value in this concept & I think this is what football was before being corrupted by money. It was just eleven guys born & bred in the same place playing their hearts out for their hometown or home territory.
Maybe a league with just homeboys year in-year out playing to the best of their abilities isn't exciting to some who want to see clubs signing players & not constantly promoting talent from club academies. But it remains to be seen whether consistent teams have a tendency to grow on people. I still feel a club needs to establish it's vision & identity first then know it's fans. If a club is just known for winning with overpaid meat robots, then it's hollow & nobody can relate to the club winning no matter how many trophies they win. This is why that minor cup that Mourinho won with Roma meant so much & brought out disillusioned fans from their holes to celebrate. We want to see rivalries & the local team on the pitch, not businesses hiding under the mask of being a football club getting money by winning with near unsportsmanlike & virtually anti-football practices. Football, as we know it, was made by the fans & these fans do have ultra-nationalist tendencies, clubs should cater to that for their fans. This is what I, genuinely, believe football at it's best form is meant to be. Consistency, loyalty, skill, characters & character defining moments that leave a mark on history. Now, we watch random rich people buying clubs (when ideally they should belong to the town or area's government) who have fickle fanbases because their football team has become just a business. This is how, I believe, the game has lost it.