People are wrong on the internet
Jun. 17th, 2014 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zing_ochThis article on immigrants in football has a great premise, but is sadly full of mistakes.
The premise is: what would the World Cup teams look like if "foreigners" weren't allowed to play? Of course the result is: a lot of nations would lose a lot of players. They are "Broadly defining “foreigner” as anyone with at least one foreign-born parent".
I think this definition is too broad to be useful, but ok. It also means that an awful lot of players wouldn't be allowed to play for ANY team, which the article ignores, instead shifting those guys to their imaginary "homeland", I guess.
For example: Jerome and Kevin-Prince Boateng's father is from Ghana. Both have German mothers and were born in Germany. Kevin-Prince plays for Ghana, Jerome for Germany. The article claims that under their rules Ghana would "gain" Jerome in addition to Kevin-Prince, which is obviously bullshit.
There's lots of other mistakes, too. In the team photo they strike out Höwedes, while the article generously claims he can stay though his "family has Norwegian roots" and Reus is taken away with no explanation at all.
It's a shame, because the point it's trying to make is a good one. And the decision-making process some players have to go through is interesting, too! Take the Boatengs again. They grew up in Germany and both played in the German national youth teams. In 2009 Kevin-Prince decided he wanted to play for Ghana instead because he wouldn't be able to make the German team. Jerome stayed with Germany, and there they are. They both play for German clubs at the moment.
Anyway, atm it's Brazil - Mexico, and if I'm still awake, Russia - South Korea.
*yawns*
The premise is: what would the World Cup teams look like if "foreigners" weren't allowed to play? Of course the result is: a lot of nations would lose a lot of players. They are "Broadly defining “foreigner” as anyone with at least one foreign-born parent".
I think this definition is too broad to be useful, but ok. It also means that an awful lot of players wouldn't be allowed to play for ANY team, which the article ignores, instead shifting those guys to their imaginary "homeland", I guess.
For example: Jerome and Kevin-Prince Boateng's father is from Ghana. Both have German mothers and were born in Germany. Kevin-Prince plays for Ghana, Jerome for Germany. The article claims that under their rules Ghana would "gain" Jerome in addition to Kevin-Prince, which is obviously bullshit.
There's lots of other mistakes, too. In the team photo they strike out Höwedes, while the article generously claims he can stay though his "family has Norwegian roots" and Reus is taken away with no explanation at all.
It's a shame, because the point it's trying to make is a good one. And the decision-making process some players have to go through is interesting, too! Take the Boatengs again. They grew up in Germany and both played in the German national youth teams. In 2009 Kevin-Prince decided he wanted to play for Ghana instead because he wouldn't be able to make the German team. Jerome stayed with Germany, and there they are. They both play for German clubs at the moment.
Anyway, atm it's Brazil - Mexico, and if I'm still awake, Russia - South Korea.
*yawns*
