The emperor's clothes pt. I

One thing I like about sports is that it can show you ways in which society works. A Belgian footballcoach once said: "in the Netherlands it doesn't matter what you say, it matters who says it". That cultural characteristic puts some people above criticism in this country. But that's the topic of a coming post. It is also a factor in the fabrication of certain untrue ideas or images that take hold in society which can be very persisting. I find this fascinating. I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say this is an indication of the way consent is manufactured.

The last three years there have been two clubs that dominate the highest Dutch footballleague (you'll find out which one has my support soon enough). For some time the commonly accepted obstinate idea among the footballfriendly was that AZ is the club that plays a fresh, attacking and most of all young team. They are the club with a succesfull future ahead of them. PSV on the contrary are a mature team who play a solid game and have done so for some years. Fact is that the average age of the team AZ played in their most recent eredivisie match was 26,5, while PSV's was 25,3. PSV's head-to-head record against AZ is 5-1-0 17-5 in the last three years. AZ have been the team of the future for some time now according to pundits, press and a large part of the public. Certain ideas are hard to beat.

(© Pics United)

These are the kinds of highly interesting topics I discuss with Julio, as I did yesterday in Amsterdam on invitation of my friends at the AFM.