Comparison and Contrast Paragraph. Evseeva Evgenia

Football: Italy vs. Spain

 

Football culture of any country reflects a diversity of its national features. As shown in Fig.1, football is the most popular sport in Spain and Italy, and for the majority of the representatives of the male population of these southern countries it is more precious than any other sport and religion. Teams of Italy and Spain are regular members of semifinal stage in the Champions League of Europe and are considered to be the strongest competitors. In addition to the excellent team play, Italians and Spaniards can be proud of their own football fan culture. It should be taken into account that the formation of football fan culture in Spain and in Italy was largely influenced by political and socio-economic factors in these countries. Despite these similar features, a few differences between the two countries considering the football culture can be observed. First of all, residents of Spain can be called a sport nation, as they are not used to sitting at home and do not accept a steady and static way of life, which is why they appreciate playing sports games, especially football. On the contrary, in Italy, the majorities of football fans prefer to watch and discuss football with friends rather than play it themselves. Secondly, in Italy, the promotion and the active development of football culture was influenced by fascism, while in Spain the football formation had undergone the detachment from the rest of the world for a very long time as a result of the dictatorship regime.  And the most striking difference between the countries concerns the game management. The Spanish football game is based primarily on technique, whereas the focus of the game in Italy is on tactics. While the football in Spain can be considered from the perspective of aesthetics, the sacred goal of the game in Italy has always been a victory gained at all costs.

Goldblatt, David .The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer. Penguin, 2007. Print.