John Riordan: Americans not alone in putting marketing over substance
AMERICA'S GAME: William Contreras of the Milwaukee Brewers singles during the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game Two of the Wild Card Series. Picture: John Fisher/Getty Images
“Oh, one last thing,” I said at the end of a coffee meeting Wednesday morning, slightly desperately seeking out one last thread of connection. “Are you watching the Game Twos later?” He computed for an awkward second or two. What on earth could I be prattling on about? Slowly it dawned on him that the Major League Baseball playoffs were underway, potential wild card deciders set for that afternoon and evening and taking place in packed out ballparks in Florida and Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. All very heartlandy and wholesome.
He grew up with baseball, he told me, he could tell me anything about baseball. But he doesn’t watch baseball. What’s the point any more?
This is a common refrain. America loves baseball but not the watching of it. It’s a little bit of an American sporting tragedy that as soon as they make efforts to quicken the pace of play, they are outpaced and lapped in popularity by the other leagues that moved quicker, earlier.
His instincts were correct, of course, because the only people that ended up caring that day were the dedicated fans of the Texas Rangers, the Minnesota Twins, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks who each advanced 2-0 to tomorrow’s next round.
At the end of it, the World Series champions will be crowned and a fun debate will bubble up again briefly. Why is the best baseball team in North America deemed the champions of the world? Wasn’t there a World Baseball Classic back in February? I’m not trying to step up to the plate for American exceptionalism and it’s always easy to poke Texas-sized holes in the grandiosity. But “World Series” is simply an inane marketing choice that was fumbled around with well over a century ago.
A month ago, world champion sprinter Noah Lyles took a pop at his home nation from his gold medal-winning press conference when he asked why NBA champions describe themselves as world champions. “The world champions of what? The United States?”
It was all very entertaining and it preempted, slightly awkwardly, the US men’s national team failing to make the FIBA Basketball World Cup final, failing even to win the bronze medal game. Setting aside the global dominance of the NBA, ESPN reporter Israel Gutierrez did a deepish dive over the past two decades of NBA Championships and found no evidence that the official NBA marketing denoted the title of “world champion” on anyone. The NFL does it, for sure, and arguably with a lot more justification given the niche space occupied by that sport.
When Lyles took a valid shot at the concept of US exceptionalism, he chose the wrong target. But snark sticks and this is all good publicity for everyone, most of all for Lyles as he looks ahead to Paris.
We all do it, though. The All-Ireland hurling champions, Limerick, arguably the greatest of all time, emerged from a melange of two provincial championships made up of 11 county teams. Is that all of Ireland? It doesn't matter.
It's much more fun to take the marketing of the Champions League down a peg or two. This is where the hypocrisy is at its most egregious.
For a while, I have been wanting to crunch the numbers so I looked at the winners and runners-up of last 25 Champions League finals. I have no idea if anyone else has done this but I was not surprised to find out that less than half of the champions of their respective domestic leagues have advanced to the pinnacle of the Champions League the following season. Just 10 out of those 25 occasions. Not exactly a perfect return.
Only once has the final seen a pair of league champions face off and it was such an anomaly that it fell on the most off-kilter Champions League season of all: 2020. Bundesliga beat Ligue 1 with Bayern Munich winning 1–0 against Paris Saint-Germain at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.
Choosing 25 finals as a sample size felt appropriate. Not only did it seem like a bulky enough timeframe to go back over — 1999 was also a year when the newish format was starting to bed in and was about to expand to allow in more non-champions. And, of course, that year, 25 finals ago, was the unforgettable Manchester United injury-time victory which went a long way to help establish the brand power of the Champions League.
And wouldn't you know it, Arsenal were the 1998 Premier League champions before United’s 1999 treble-winning season. United failed to make the 2000 Champions League final which was contested by a pair of La Liga runners-up, Real Madrid beating Valencia in a majestic fashion while the previous season's domestic champions, Barcelona, watched from their sunbeds.
Valencia lost the next decider too but at least they managed to get to the final, which is a lot more than can be said for La Liga's 2000 champions Deportivo La Coruña. That iconic Valencia team finally won their own league in 2002 but they haven't appeared in a Champions League final since that 2001 loss to Bayern Munich, the Germans being the first of the above mentioned 10 champions to become champions of Europe.
The 2000s were a good spell for champions going all the way the following season: Real Madrid, Porto, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona (twice) all pulled it off.
Coincidentally, 10 is also the number of finals which featured a clash of non-champions with most of those happening in the 2010s. Of course, it speaks to the success of the tournament that the top team in the most difficult leagues fall short when it comes to the Champions League cauldron.
France's is obviously the poor relation of the top tier of leagues, a little bit lagging in fifth behind the big four. Their champions have only appeared in one final with PSG losing that 2020 decider and having a hex over them all of their own when it comes to the biggest competition on the planet, as displayed most recently at St James Park on Wednesday.
The only other time there has been a French runner-up was when Monaco lost to José Mourinho's Porto in 2004. That was the season they earned their Champions League qualification as runners-up behind champions Lyon.
More non-champions than ever will enter next season’s Champions League and it will keep getting better. The marketing doesn’t matter, ultimately, but modern sport is all about gaming the system to ensure our greatest athletes can walk the walk after the powers-that-be talk the talk.
