Tuesday, November 28, 2006

One unique visitor to the USL SoccerFest was A Bola Executive Editor Joao Esteves. His Portuguese publication is one of the most read sports papers in Europe and around the globe. He sat down with USLsoccer.com for a brief chat about his experiences during the visit and how they compare to the game outside North America.

What was your first impression? At the AGM I was very surprised at how much everyone was like a family. Everyone gets along and works with one another to make decisions that is for the good of the league and the game. Being from Europue and Portugal, it was impressive how all the owners, coaches and directors - everyone - made it an easy environment to be in.

In similar symposiums in Europe and Portugal, most of focus is on tactics and players and referees, and here was interesting because it was more global in focus in terms of business and operations.

The youth tournament is also very surprising with all the games going on, and at the same time with such a high number of games. Along with the family like atmosphere between coaches, players, spectators and everyone, it was very interesting to see.

What are the different perceptions or, perhaps, misconceptions about North American soccer from a European perspective? In Portugal there’s very little information or coverage of soccer in the United States. But, general perception is that way maybe because it’s not a very popular sport in the US and not a lot of information is high profile in terms of interest from European organizations because of that.

Would it surprise your readers to learn that the soccer is the top youth sport in the US? I believe they would be impressive that its number one participation sport to the novice person in Portugal that is focused on soccer. I think they would be surprised because the general perception is that soccer in the US is the fourth or fifth favorite sport.

What is the biggest difference between European and North American soccer in your eyes you learned this week? The focus on business and administration. That’s super important because its something that is not really focused on in Europe and in England, Spain and Italy, clubs have gone in this direction, focusing on management. In Portugal, the public and administrators are mostly preoccupied with the game itself, so most social discussions concern soccer - offsides, referees, controversial penalties, etc. Most of the clubs never needed to focus on business in the past, but will definitely need to in the future. They just havn’t made moves yet in the area of creating a department to promote ticket sales and promotion of the team. For example, sometimes passion and focus on the game leads to players being asked by their teams not to speak to media at times, which seems to be in direct contrast to here where players are used to promote the game.

What is the one thing you would tell someone back in Portugal about the North American game?
It’s real. It’s there. It exists. Because of all the enthusiasm and interest here, there is a great potential in a great market.

Final thoughts... An interesting thing is that in Portugal the passion is seen in the children growing up and playing everywhere, even playing in streets. It is deeply rooted as part of the social culture. Clubs are starting to look into business parts of soccer and leaning toward that, while in the United States it is going into the opposite direction.