Arsenal America

Are you ready for some football!

September saw the season kickoff of a sport we call football here in America. You know, the sport where foot hits ball about two dozen times over a three-hour period. The rest is a bunch six foot eight inch, 300-pound men in tight pants banging into each other, punctuated by all the action stopping every eight seconds or so in order for these fantastic athletes to catch their breath.

I find it easy to take shots at American Football, but to be honest the world of pro soccer (ouch, I know, but I?ll use that term for the remainder of this article for clarity sake) could take a few lessons from the NFL.

First, the league is incredibly competitive. Last place to champions the next season isn?t a rarity, it?s almost a given. How does this happen? Well, the poor teams get the pick of the best new players via a draft. Also, if you have a poor season you get a favorable schedule the next year. Perhaps most importantly a salary cap keeps the Dallas Cowboys (think Manchester United) from spending 15 times more than the Kansas City Chiefs (think Bolton Wanderers) on players.

The other thing that makes the NFL great is something that soccer in England once had, but has lost. The vast majority of games are played on just one day a week. A fan can devote Sunday to the NFL. Ok, occasionally his team will play on Monday night, but for 16 weeks he can pretty much focus on just that one day. That?s the other element, they haven?t over-saturated the marketplace. Sixteen games and then the playoffs (another four or five games). The NFL remembered the key rule of entertainment: Always leave them wanting more. You can barely go more than three or four weeks all year without seeing Arsenal?s stars playing somebody, somewhere.

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Starting up Arsenal America has been one great experience after another. Sharing my love for the Gunners with fans from all over the world has been so terrific because the people have been so great. Passionate, intelligent and funny would be three words I would use to describe the members. It?s also been great, as it?s given me a chance to represent Arsenal fans on BBC Radio, Radio Five Live and Capital Gold for the FA Cup. But maybe the biggest thrill happened just recently. I received an email from a member saying, ?Great job getting in to Sports Illustrated.? Frankly I was puzzled. Sports Illustrated is the premiere sports magazine in the United States. It?s part of our culture. Well imagine my surprise when I read an article and right there in the middle it mentions the American supporters club of English football power Arsenal. I nearly fell off my chair. Turns out the author is an Arsenal fan!

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Arsenal have gotten off to a positive start to the season and with Freddie back and Super Bob almost there things should only get better. Another pleasant surprise has been the early contributions of youngsters like Jeremie Aliadiere and Kolo Toure. I had a hunch that these two, along with Jermaine Pennant, would play a role with the first team squad this year, but I wouldn?t have imagined it would happen so early, or with such good results. A lot of credit must be given to Arsene Wenger, who, rather than rushing youth team members into the side, has let them mature and only inserted them in games when he felt they would have an opportunity to succeed. This is a mistake all too common in sports and one we see here in the States quite often.