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Football Side Choices: Part 2 of 3

La Liga

The founding members of La Liga that have membership in the 2006/2007 league are FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Athletic Madrid, RCD Espanol, and Racing Santander. Perhaps the most famous clubs in the league, if not the world, are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. There is a real temptation for me to pick one of these from the start, especially since I had a chance this summer to watch them play (on TV, anyway). FC Barcelona has in its employment one of the most exciting players in the world, Ronaldinho, another temptation to pick them. Certainly if I do not pick one of these clubs then my team will not win the league, but I'll still try to go about this systematically.

I don't believe I have close personal ties to Spain, so narrowing down by geography is out of the question. However, I do know someone from Bilbao, so perhaps Athletic Bilbao should be a favorite. But to move forward I think I shall arbitrarilly choose to cut the teams with the most and fewest league titles. Real Madrid, having won 29 times is thus eliminated, as are RCD Espanol and Racing Santander, each having never won a league title.

I am now left to choose from FC Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, and Atheltic Madrid. I will now eliminate the club with the least diverse roster, that is, the club with players from the fewest number of countries. Again, not a perfect way to do this and actually fairly arbitrary. FC Barcelona has players from 10 nations, Athletic Madrid 9 nations, Real Sociedad 7 nations, and Atheltic Bilbao only 1 nation (perhaps 2, pending final roster announcement). These numbers are from wikipedia, so may be a few months out of date, but I can't imagine that the Bilbao roster would have changed enough to stay in contention. Thus, they are out.

Let's take a look at the results from last season, and remove the club that finished lowest in the standings, as I would rather not sweat out worries of relegation. Real Sociedad finished in 16th position, narrowly avoiding relgation by 1 point. The remaining two clubs are now FC Barcelona and Athletic Madrid.

Now is where logos and fashion come into play. I would give a slight edge to Athletic Madrid in the logo department, mostly because of the tree included on it. The FC Barcelona logo just seems to busy. However, the uniforms of FC Barcelona, to me, just seem to be undeniably superior to those of Athetlic Madrid. Those of Athletic Madrid seem almost clownish, while FC Barcelona seems more regal. In addition, they have so far refused to allow commercial sponsorship logos on their football shirts, but have worn the TV3 logo on the left arm. This year they reached an agreement with UNICEF to allow the UNICEF logo on their shirts, an action that deserves praise. So, my team of choice from La Liga is FC Barcelona.

FC Barcelona won the La Liga title last year, so they should be poised for another great season. Real Madrid did add a number of great players from Serie A, so it should be a fun rivalry to track this year. At least Barca still has the best player in the world, Ronaldinho. Their first game is a week from today at Celta Vigo, a team they beat twice last year, 2-0 at home and 0-1 on the road.

Serie A

I'll choose my Serie A team in the following way. First, as usual I'll find the current members that were founding members of the league, then eliminate any that were involved in the match fixing scandal. I'll then take a closer look at the remaining clubs and try to make a reasoned, if illogical, choice.

Founding members of Serie A who have membership in this season's league are AS Roma, FC Internazionale, SS Lazio, AC Milan, Torino, and Livorno. However, due to the involvement of AC Milan and SS Lazio in the match fixing scandal, I cannot in good conscience choose them.

I'm now left with AS Roma, FC Internazionale, Torino, and Livorno. At this point I'm leaning toward AS Roma, mostly because that are based in Rome. But I should investigate the other teams further.

FC Internazionale is one of the more famous clubs in the league. They have played in every season since the founding of Serie A in 1929, the only club to do so after Juventus FC's relegation to Serie B. They have won the third most titles with 14, the last coming in 2006 after being awarded the championship due to Juventus' unfair play. In short, Inter has had a long history of success. They are based in Milan, which can only be a positive. Negatives, however, are the uniform and logo. I know these are classic uniforms, but I'm going to need some basis to make a final decision here. I'm just keeping the uniform/logo thing in the back of my mind.

Torino is based in Turin. They've won 7 titles, the last coming in 1976. They've spent most of their existence in Serie A, but won membership into the current season's league only after finishing 3rd in Serie B and winning a playoff. Despite their cool logo and distinctive uniforms, I'm not sure I can choose a team that might be playing just to avoid relegation.

Livorno is based in Livorno, Tuscany. Livorno has only had membership in Serie A for 14 seasons, definitely not a history of success. In addition, they have a simple if uninspired logo, but the uniforms seem respectable. There seems to be a strong belief that they will be able to avoid relegation, but the fact that they haven't had a history of success and that the expectations set the bar only at avoiding relegation make me hesitant to choose them.

AS Roma has won 3 titles, the last 2001. They've beem relegated only once, and so have had a long story history of big wins. I know the mythology of how Rome was founded, but a logo with the Capitoline she-wolf suckling twins is a turn-off. They provide a Chinese version of their website, but oddly no English version. So, despite my initial bias toward choosing them, I now feel equally biased toward not choosing them.

I have narrowed my choice down to two teams, Inter and Torino. As I said earlier, the Inter uniforms are a negative in my mind. That combined with the fact that they have in their employment Marco Materazzi, the player head-butted by Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final. It seems the consensus view is that Materazzi is a dirty player, taking to diving and violent fouling. These facts are enough to overcome my worries of following a team that might be in danger of relegation, so my choice from Serie A is Torino.

As I mentioned earlier, Torino just won membership into Serie A after last season. The current club is actually a direct heir to a previously cancelled club, Torino Calcio, but the history has passed down to the new club. They were just two points short of second place in Serie B, so perhaps this season in Serie A will not simply be a fight to avoid relegation and they can finish higher in the table. As far as I can find, the schedule for the upcoming season has not yet been released, so I don't when they might have their first game.