-
Hi Guest!
The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress
Football PoDs and alternate possibilities.
- Thread starter Geordie
- Start date
What if you got an earlier version of something like the Bosman decision and got free agency in European football/soccer before it happened IOTL?
- Pronouns
- he/him
I was reminded today that competive sport was super controversial when first introduced with papers seriously arguing that sport was entertainment so all football should be exhibition matches where the point is to show of moves not matches for trophies where the players want to win. So no 0-0s.
It occurs to me that the one sport that actually listened is pro wrestling and now I want wwe-premier league as a vignette.
Well free agency already existed in France, Spain and (kind of) the UK. Bosman just made it eu wide. Which was primarily important because it meant clubs in poorer leagues like the dutch and the scottish were far more vulnerable to the big boys.
Likely an earlier law like that just kind of speeds up that two tier europe and avoids Ajaxs great 1990s team and the like. The worst timing for English football would be for it to happen prior to the heysel ban, of course.
Arguably the biggest result of the bosman ruling wasnt free agency but the ban on foreign player caps. If that is established earlier that has huge consequences.
Also depends how early we're talking about. Be fascinating if this was a live subject during the referndum on uk joining the common market during which english football still had a foreign player ban and before the transfer tribunals.
It occurs to me that the one sport that actually listened is pro wrestling and now I want wwe-premier league as a vignette.
Well free agency already existed in France, Spain and (kind of) the UK. Bosman just made it eu wide. Which was primarily important because it meant clubs in poorer leagues like the dutch and the scottish were far more vulnerable to the big boys.
Likely an earlier law like that just kind of speeds up that two tier europe and avoids Ajaxs great 1990s team and the like. The worst timing for English football would be for it to happen prior to the heysel ban, of course.
Arguably the biggest result of the bosman ruling wasnt free agency but the ban on foreign player caps. If that is established earlier that has huge consequences.
Also depends how early we're talking about. Be fascinating if this was a live subject during the referndum on uk joining the common market during which english football still had a foreign player ban and before the transfer tribunals.
- Location
- NYC (né Falkirk)
- Pronouns
- he/him
Do you think this Ronaldo thing is a work to set up a feud with a returning Wayne Rooney?
Kind of reminds me of the bizarre 1970s novel The Last Great Death Stunt, where competitive sports fall completely out of fashion in favor of people watching dangerous spectacles. I guess football would become people dribbling the ball through a field full of booby traps and kicking it into a tiny goal.
- Location
- Colwyn Bay/Manchester
- Pronouns
- He/him
This was also for even longer an issue in faction fights in European socialist movements about whether their affiliated sports federations should have competitions (even amongst themselves) or remain entirely aloof from that idea.
- Pronouns
- he/him
How about a story about this?
'What if?' - The story of India's lost opportunity at the 1950 World Cup
Known as a cricketing country around the world today, India's football story would've been vastly different if only they made the trip to Brazil in 1950. Art by Onkar Shirsekar. Many among the capacity crowd in National Stadium, Delhi heaved a sigh of relief when the referee blew his halftime...www.footballparadise.com
IOTL, India managed to qualify for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Brazil, only to then withdraw from the competition, with the All India Football Federation citing travel costs, lack of practice time, and valuing the Olympics more than the World Cup as reasons for doing so. Despite the reason given out by the All India Football Federation, the popular belief that India withdrew from the World Cup due to FIFA imposing a rule banning players from playing barefoot still abounds; and FIFA offered to pay the travel expenses of the Indian team, so travel costs were a non-factor. However, according to the then captain of India Sailen Manna, the story of their team having refused to play unless they were allowed to play barefoot was wholly untrue, and was just an excuse to cover up the real reasons the AIFF decided not to travel to Brazil.
No, India Did Not Withdraw From The 1950 FIFA World Cup Because They Did Not Want To Wear Shoes
It has become folklore that Indian players wanted to play without shoes in the tournament.www.indiatimes.com
And the main one was their fateful flawed decision to value the Olympics over the World Cup. Unfortunately for India though, the conditions at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki weren't in their favor, and they'd go on to be defeated in the first round by Yugoslavia, by a heavy score of 10–1; most of their players' decision to continue playing barefoot, in spite of the unseasonably chilly and rainy conditions, played a key role in this defeat. And at the subsequent 1956 Melbourne Olympics football tournament, where all their players had shoes and the conditions were far more favorable to them, they went on to achieve their greatest result in a competitive tournament, finishing in fourth place after losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria 3–0. So I reckon the idea I think I'll go with, and attempt to write myself, is going to be a story set in a TL where the AIFF decided to prioritize the FIFA World Cup over the Summer Olympics Football Tournament rather than the other way round, and went to the 1950 World Cup.
8yrs later, having successfully qualified for the '54 World Cup (taking the place of OTL's South Korea, and unlike SK, successfully avoiding the worst performance of any team at any World Cup, albeit still going out in the group stages with zero points), the Indian Golden Generation have successfully defeated Israel and Wales in the qualification play-offs to get there, and advanced to the quarter finals in Wales' stead. Facing off against the young Pepe's Brazil, whose star will rise ITTL? And can the victors of this quarter final, as IOTL, go all the way to lift the World Cup ITTL...?
No idea, if any of this was anything more than just spitballing but if any of you are writing a story, let me know how it's going and what I can do to help. I'm going to try and get the anthology collated and ready this month (December, not November).
Pete U
Temporary Gentleman Of Leisure
- Location
- South Notts
I've still got the idea rolling around, but not sure I'll get it down. Will shout if inspiration strikes, but assume not if you don't hear
Yeah, sorry- wound up putting it on the backburner after I focused on writing a web novel, and whilst I've got a vague plot sketched out, don't think I'd be able to do it justice in the time that's left. I'll still try, mind you- cut it down to the one final match (what's the target word count again?), focus on getting it written within the next fortnight- but don't count on it being ready.
- Pronouns
- he/him
3000-8000 words ideally.
No pressure, though, like genuinely writing is a hobby, I don't want anyone to feel like it's an obligation.
Walpurgisnacht
It was in the Year of Maximum Danger
- Location
- Banned from the forum
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yugoslavia were always a medium-to-upper team in Europe when their country existed, with a few Olympic medals and a couple of runner-up places in the Euros. Still, they were well known for their skill, and had a pretty strong club scene--Red Star Belgrade won the European and International Cups in 1991 on the trot. Unfortunately, despite their team starting the 92 Euros in a very strong position, their country collapsed just after the group stages.
Given Croatia's excellent record over the past 2 World Cups, as well as the reasonable track record of Serbia, and the impact of both a lessened disapora (the Xhakas, for one, might stick it out in the country) and no, err, devastating civil wars, there's a good chance an unified Yugoslavia could be lifting the World Cup today.
Given Croatia's excellent record over the past 2 World Cups, as well as the reasonable track record of Serbia, and the impact of both a lessened disapora (the Xhakas, for one, might stick it out in the country) and no, err, devastating civil wars, there's a good chance an unified Yugoslavia could be lifting the World Cup today.
Neoteros
Dux Mediolani
- Location
- Duchy of Milan
It would've been interesting if an alternate Bosman ruling established free agency EU-wide, but allowed EU leagues to have caps on foreign players, for example, all EU-based teams would be able to field a maximum of three foreign players, as was the case in Serie A before the Bosman ruling, for example.
Sure, the very best players would still be able to move abroad, so you'd see Cristiano Ronaldo at Madrid and Messi at Barcelona anyway, but most free agents would tend to stay in their home league; and, smaller leagues would surely benefit from this arrangement, you could see Belgian, Croatian, Dutch and Swedish teams do quite well in Europe.
- Location
- Auckland via London
- Pronouns
- He/him
Made this earlier, clearly from a Soviet Britain Premier League timeline.
How is there still a premier league in this world? Don't ask me, I just made a joke logo.
Neoteros
Dux Mediolani
- Location
- Duchy of Milan
Speaking of which... on the other website, there's an ongoing TL about the process of reconstruction in Great Britain after the fall of 1984's Oceania in the 2020s (that, while incredibly totalitarian, was restricted to Great Britain alone, going by a very popular fan theory); the development of association football outside of Great Britain in a world where the former UK (minus Northern Ireland, theatre of a low intensity NATO/Oceania war implied to be the novel's Malabar front) is a totalitarian hermit kingdom unrecognized by most of the world would be an interesting subject to explore.
Not to mention, Formula One, a sport that used to be a British fief for decades - absent the UK, you'd see a lot more French, German and Italian drivers and teams, with former British dominions having a bigger role than in OTL, especially since one of them (going by alternate history tropes, it's probably going to be Canada) would host the royal family and a government in exile, while refugees from Oceania would be a common sight in France and Ireland. Other sports, such as cricket and rugby, would feel the impact of the loss of their homeland, too.
As a filthy Yankee, I wonder how many people who'd be rugby players and cricketers IOTL would cross over to baseball and American Football in such a scenario.
(Probably not that many, but you never know)
- Location
- NYC (né Falkirk)
- Pronouns
- he/him
Neoteros
Dux Mediolani
- Location
- Duchy of Milan
Probably not that many, since cricket and rugby were already well-established in the former Empire by the end of World War II; without the UK calling the shots however, cricket might become less of an old boys' club, with Test status not being the domain of just a handful of countries as in OTL, while rugby league might eventually eclipse rugby union, owing to its popularity in Australia.
However, with no UK except for a government in exile, the Caribbean might become even closer to the US, unless Canada decides to annex the Caribbean dominions as it wanted to do IRL - being the likely destination of the exiled Crown, there'd be no contradiction between Canada annexing the islands as provinces, and the United Kingdom in exile maintaining control over the same islands.
In that case, Canadian football might make inroads, and the CFL could avoid being eclipsed by the NFL; a huge association football butterfly would be the 1966 World Cup - West Germany's OTL bid would be the winning one, and West Germany could win the tournament as well, but Portugal winning the World Cup (they were defeated by England in the OTL semi-finals, and won the third-place match) would be cool.
Last edited:
A small literary footnote: In my All Union setting, one of the reforms of the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics is that each individual republic got its own soccer league and national team. Belarus (which in this world is basically the opposite of its OTL self in nearly every way) has done much better, because of carpetbaggers from other republics taking the big bucks in one of the wealthiest and most westernized of them the culture of innovation there.