A layman take on modern football...

Football is an activity most of us in the world grow up with, it's just something that always is there. It is fun to play, simple to understand & the whole world loves it. A lot of people feel world football has become too monetized & has less beauty or romance in it today. Most footballers today are academy graduates when most footballers of times past were found while playing on the street or at school with already existing talent. The problem, I feel, with academy graduate football is that it's robotic & almost too rigid & a lot of academy graduate players play as they were taught & not on impulse so they lack spontaneity & the game loses a little magic that way. Academy graduates almost lack character in the sheltered environments of their academies. I feel, modern football has made the coach & the tactics the focus & that may be a good or bad thing depending on the characters involved but I think there should be some give & take. Both the coach & the player are hired to win games as that is the nature of the business, the coach comes up with tactics & the player executes. Quiet often, the player takes the glory because the coach is almost invisible in play except when they become animated while screaming out instructions from the sidelines like Muhsin Ertuğral. While academies do teach tactics & skills, I don't think they can teach instinct & heart which are often necessary in football.


IDENTITY FOOTBALL 

This concept that I've now coined "identity football" is relatively new to me. I began to understand it in the mid-2010s. It is an overly sentimental concept but bear with me as I try put it in sensible terms. If football were politics, identity football ideologies would most likely be considered conservativism. Today, when I watch football, it has become globalised with players coming from every corner of the world. When I watch today's football, I often watch for the sake of watching & not because I support any of the teams playing. I'll deliberately watch a Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Maritzburg United or AmaZulu F. C. & the odd Real Madrid & Liverpool match. I watch Bilbao & Italian football games because I believe in the homemade talent philosophy, it stays true to the origins of the teams. I respect how teams like Benfica have managed to use mostly Portuguese players in their team throughout their history. In contrast, the France teams that won the 1998 & 2018 FIFA World Cups are made up of players from all over the show - Kerembeu was from some Pacific Island, Henry is from Martinique, Payet is from our neighbours here in Reunion. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this but what is a Frenchman? It's often said with national teams consisting of immigrants, when they win they are considered nationals & when they lose they are foreigners. I can only imagine how sad it must be for immigrant players of those national teams, a bad performance could leave you wishing to go back to your home country when with thoroughbred national teams, you'll just have to apologise & do better next time because you're all the country has. I have completely bought into the Italian & Spanish ideology of "pure-blooded" national teams somehow. I don't know how it resonates with me coming from families that have many tribes, nations & races but it does. The problem in a globalising world is where exactly does this ideology fit in? Does it belong in the past where people couldn't travel as frequently as they do today or does it still have room in the modern age? It is a question I find difficult to answer in a rapidly globalising world but I'm still sentimental & believe in footballers playing for their local clubs until their retirement, I still believe in one-club-players & believe in consistency i. e. players playing for their club & national team for as long as possible or until there's a far better replacement for them in their position.

My philosophy, were I to head a football association, would revolve around the following points:
• A top tier league with clubs spaced strategically to ensure all people have a local football club to support, clubs in this league do not get relegated.
• All top tier clubs are property of the towns/districts/municipalities they are from.
• In the top tier league, no foreign players are to play for, at least, the first five years of the league's inception or have seasons where no foreign players are allowed.
• Top tier league players only play for clubs closest to where they were born.
• Second tier can have a maximum of five foreign players & teams can get relegated.
• Encourage consistency in national teams i. e. the best players must be selected regardless of age.

The above points would ensure a consistency in that football associations football as opposed to the constantly changing current landscape of world football. I do prefer consistency as opposed to players playing for several clubs throughout their career. I like seeing the likes of Paolo Maldini, Michael Manzini, Totti, Carlos Puyol, Gerrard etc. playing for their local clubs until retirement & I endorse concepts like AFC Ajax's 100 club. It creates a sort of identity, I suppose, as opposed to the capitalism-manufactured machines that are constantly playing week in-week out with constantly changing personnel. I like seeing a team with a winning philosophy & knowing every single one of the players & technical team in that club were born & bred where the team is from, it's something I can respect. 

But modern football is indeed about the results & identity football may work for some teams & not others but in a world where final results could boil down to a variety of things that are beyond a team's control (e.g. bad refereeing, factors outside the actual game, players/referees being bought to throw games etc.), final results never really portray the full picture & politics behind a game. So how a team is made & expresses itself becomes as important, as the final result because we play football & we do not do football.