Whenever a Fifa World Cup comes, the sky-blue-white flag of Argentina and the blue-yellow-green flag of Brazil are seen more than the sky in Bangladesh. The craze for these two teams has always been humongous and mesmerising, especially after Maradona’s World Cup triumph in 1986.
But the thing seems to be changing as there are plenty of other teams’ supporters in Bangladesh now. Especially the millennial generation seems to prefer other teams rather than Latin heavyweights. It is true that there are no definitive studies for this, but the flow of hype is strong evidence to the statement. One might wonder, why?
The millennial generation fact
FIFA World Cup was first broadcasted in Bangladesh in 1974. If we look at those tournaments i.e. from 1974 to 2002, you will see both Argentina and Brazil lifting the trophy twice respectively and being agonisingly close to lifting another once. This means, out of the eight tournaments the Bangladeshi audience enjoyed, Brazil or Argentina were one of the best two in six occasions which created their huge fanbase in the country.
But since the turn of the millennium, the story has been not the same. Not any South American team are yet to win a world cup since 2002. It has been all Europe. The numbers are enough to show how the Latin teams are struggling and also justifies the rising attraction for European teams.
The difference of quality in broadcasting
The continental competitions i.e. the Euro and Copa America has been fan favourites in Bangladesh since the early 2000s. But European countries being more enriched infrastructure wise, always get the edge over South Americans in regard to broadcasting.
Better sound qualities, better commentaries, better pitches- all bind a fan to follow European football more. Plus the fact that the European competitions, such as the Euros, the Euros qualifiers, the World Cup qualifiers are much more available to the subcontinent countries. Also, the international time zone of Europe suits us more than the time zone of South America. Thus, the European teams are being more followed than the Latin teams resulting in a decrease in the redundant Argentina-Brazil fandom.
More viewers of club football
The international tournament is a long-awaited monthly affair. But club football is more of a year-long weekly thing. And the overall hype and excitement of club football are second to none. Since it can now be easily watched on TV or the internet, its popularity has seen a significant rise. And this rise is one way or another, related to the aforementioned paradigm shift.
For example, the mighty Spanish team of 2008-2012 included a huge number of players from FC Barcelona. So, the Spanish support increased after that 2010 triumph. The same goes for the case of Germany in 2014 which consisted of many Bayern players. Also, the premier league lovers always have an affinity towards the English national team. The same goes for the Serie A lovers and the Italian national team.
Less stars
Argentine or Brazilian players have always mesmerised the viewers with their amazing skills over the years. Pele, Garrincha, Maradona, Zico, Socrates, Batistuta, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Zanetti, Riquelme and the list goes on and on and on. But such has not been the case for some time. Except for Messi and Neymar, no one from these two countries has been able to show that much spark and flare. Hence fans gradually started shifting their attention to other teams.
These are some of the possible reasons why we are witnessing more hype for Euro than Copa. Although it’s difficult to draw a conclusion, if the Latin teams can’t produce quality players, Copa America and the Brazil-Argentina fever might decline and diminish once Messi and Neymar retire. For now, this seems far-fetched, but the process is already visible.
The writer is a HSC graduate from Dhaka Residential Model College
