From Grassroots to the Top[福说英语][21-05-26]

编辑&后期&播音：宸皞

Hello everyone, welcome back to English Panorama. I’m your old friend, Ryan. What a great pleasure to see you guys again.

各位好呀，我是你们的老朋友Ryan，欢迎再次来到福说英语。Summertime is around the corner.And it’s going to be an exciting summer for sports fans. 夏日伴随着暑气与蝉鸣翩然而至，对于体育迷来说，这将会是一个激动人心的夏天。除了奥运会，另一个让体育迷们无比期待的便是欧洲杯了。

Postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, UEFA Euro 2020 is rescheduled to take place from 11 June to 11 July 2021. As a romantic celebration of the 60th birthday of the European Championship competition, the tournament is going to be held by 11 cities in 11 countries across Europe.

经过长期的等待，被推迟的2020欧洲杯终于要来啦，24个国家队将从小组赛开始争夺欧洲的桂冠。与以往不同的是，为了庆祝这项赛事的六十周年，11个国家的11座城市将携手举办本届欧洲杯，including Baku (Azerbaijan), Copenhagen (Denmark), London (England), Munich (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Seville (Spain), Rome (Italy), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bucharest (Romania), St. Petersburg (Russia) and Glasgow (Scotland). The original host cities also included Dublin, Ireland and Bilbao, Spain, but both were disqualified due to the fact that they could not guarantee the admission of fans under the epidemic prevention and control, and Bilbao’s host right was transferred to Seville.

作为一名球迷，正当我一边继续关注国内联赛，一边翘首以盼欧洲杯的到来时，另外一件事震动了欧洲足坛，那就是欧洲超级联赛，European Super League的宣布成立。

What is European Super League？

On 18 April 2021, twelve European football clubs with most brand value, leading by giants like Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus and etc, announced a new European competition, a breakaway league, rival to the existing Champions League organized by UEFA.

企划中的欧洲超级联赛将由二十支球队组成，十五位创始成员将永久保留其在该联赛中的席位，剩下的五个参赛席位则每赛季按照成绩选拔而出。Just like its motto “The best clubs. The best players. Every week.”The ESL consists of almost every high profile club in Europe and as a natural consequence, will receive huge attention and financial benefits.实际上，按照媒体的披露，美国摩根大通公司计划为这项赛事投资46亿英镑，用于获取赛事的转播权，这远远超过了现行的欧冠制度能为豪门带来的收益。And that explains why the 12 giant clubs, despite foreseeable controversy, decided to launch such a ground--breaking campaign — money.

The football world suffers huge financial blow under the pandemic. The absence of fans has significantly decreased matchday revenue and sponsor fees have shrunk as well.收入减少和债务带来的财务压力，成为了许多欧洲豪门十分头疼的问题。

(（欧洲超级联赛和十二只创始俱乐部）

以皇马为例。The chairman of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, who is also the vital advocate and establisher of ESL, said in a interview:

“We’ve come to the conclusion that by replacing Champions League with the Super League, we’ll be able to alleviate the lost income due to the pandemic. You have to make profitable income by producing more competitive games. When you have no income other than the broadcasting rights, you come up with a solution of producing more attractive games that enable fans from all over the world to watch the big clubs play against each other. Real Madrid are in a very bad economic situation. Real Madrid, in two seasons, have lost more than 400 million euros — and that’s just Real Madrid!”

欧超一出，民意哗然。针对欧超联赛，欧足联主席切费林表示：

“We are all united against this nonsense of a project.

I cannot stress more strongly how everyone is united against these disgraceful, self-serving proposals, fuelled by greed above all else.

[It is a] cynical plan, completely against what football should be. We cannot and will not allow that to change.

Players who will play in the teams that might play in the closed league will be banned from the World Cup and Euros. We urge everyone to stand tall with us as we do everything in our power to ensure this never ends up in fruition.

This idea is a spit in the face of all football lovers. We will not allow them to take it away from us.”

切费林的用词非常激烈，并且威胁要禁止参加欧超联赛的球员参加欧洲杯和世界杯。而欧超联赛面临的抵制不止于此。The Super League received almost universal opposition from fans, players, managers, politicians, and other clubs as well as FIFA, UEFA, and national governments. 除了欧足联和国际足联，球迷、球员、教练、名宿和欧洲政界都在谴责欧超的贪婪和对足球精神的背离。在球迷的抗议声浪以及多方的夹击下，切尔西最先退出了欧超联赛，在此之后，更多的俱乐部相继退出，欧超计划仅仅坚持了三天，就分崩离析了。

（英超利兹联的球员在对阵利物浦的赛前穿上抗议欧超的训练服，“想要欧冠，自己来争”，“足球是属于球迷的”。）

（切尔西球迷在斯坦福桥球场外对欧超联赛的抵制）

Why is that, you ask? Why did ESL receive such strong opposition that some critics said it has done something that no one has ever done before, uniting Europe, whether it is left or right, male or female to fight against something?

Well，对于欧足联来说，一个架空了欧足联的欧洲赛事无疑分走了他们的利益。而对于被欧超排除在外的中小俱乐部以及他们的球迷而言，在原先的欧冠赛制下，小国联赛的队伍和中小球队也有机会进入欧冠和最顶尖的球队同台竞技，并从中分一勺羹。But once the ESL is established, 15 founding clubs, regardless of their performance, can always participate in ESL and obtain huge profits from it, then the gap between smaller teams and them will keep widening so they will never be able to compete with them again.

OK.OK. But what about the fans and players of these ESL teams? Shouldn’t they be happy about it since it brings more income that can be used to purchase better players and to provide bigger paycheck？

好吧，这就要从足球的起源讲起了。

Modern football originates from England and was intended for the ruling class.现代足球规则的制定者，来自剑桥、伊顿、威斯敏斯特这样的英国高等院校，它原本是上流阶级的玩物。

The initial challenge to the public school hegemony came from Blackburn, Lancashire. In 1882 Blackburn Rovers got to the FA Cup final, losing 1-0 to Old Etonians. However, the following year Blackburn Olympic not only reached the final, they actually won the cup, beating Old Etonians 2-1.

Blackburn Olympic’s team consisted of three weavers, a dental assistant, a gilder, a plumber, a clerk, a loomer, a licensed victualler, and two iron-foundry workers. A team of ex-public schoolboys would never again win the FA Cup.

但自从1883年，一群来自布莱克本的普通劳动者在足总杯决赛击败老伊顿人后，足球就逐渐在工人阶级中生根发芽、紧密相连，成为了“the People’s game”,最终在群众的生活中蓬勃发展。

足球，从本质上，是属于草根和社区的，它不是一项只属于精英的游戏。

足球俱乐部从来也不只有这十二家豪门。Take English football as an example, from Premier League to amateur Sunday League, there are around 40000 clubs registered with FA. And all these clubs, whether they are big or small, connected by promotion and relegation system, make up the football pyramid, which motivates any club in England to dream of one day rising to the very top, no matter what status they currently hold.

这就是足球的金字塔，它让身处其中的每个俱乐部、每个球员都可以有一个浪漫的梦想，不管你目前境遇如何，只要努力，你都有机会升上最高的舞台，做一次挑战戈利亚的大卫。而欧超，作为一个没有退出机制、没有竞争的赛事，无疑摧毁了足球的根基，以小胜大的童话再也不会发生了。

Most players in the 12 clubs have experiences in lower leagues, therefore aren’t in favor of this idea. Most supporters of these clubs are ordinary, working class people like you and me. 他们都不能接受这么一个充满了精英主义的赛事。

为了进一步阐释俱乐部与社区的联系，我还想引用一个来自纪录片Sunderland til I Die中的片段。这部纪录片记录了桑德兰，作为一家老牌英国俱乐部，曾经的豪门，在17-18赛季连降两级的过程。

Scripts：

The clerk：I wasn't expecting it to be like this. After relegation on Saturday, we thought it’d be quiet today, and it’s been the complete opposite.The queue has been out the door. And it’s been positive under the circumstances.

The woman: Today, was to renew the season tickets we’ve had for many many years. I’ve come for years with my father, and brother, and nephews. So, we’re not going to give up on them.  

没人喜欢自己的球队一直输球，但尽管已经连降两级，球迷还是一如既往地前来续约季票，支持自己的球队，因为他们，从祖辈开始，就已经在支持这支球队了,球队是他们生活的一部分。The club is tied with the city and its community.Players and owners come and go but the club stays the same.一家俱乐部，存在于城市与社区忙碌的生命里，与他们的支持者们一同吐息。

With the commercialization of football, the income and transfer value of players have risen, and the income of the team is no longer limited to the support of fans, but more from sponsors and broadcast fees. The distance between clubs and its traditional fans has become further and further away. And the proposal of ESL was the last straw.对于这么一个颠覆性的赛事，球队的老板们却从未考虑过征询球迷的意见，这点燃了球迷们的怒火。对于省吃俭用来支持球队的蓝领群体来讲，全球化夺走了他们的工作，精英和媒体夺走了他们熟悉的文化语境，而只想着赚钱的大老板们甚至要连他们热爱的球队也一起夺走，这是一种被忽视和背叛的失落。

The aftermath of ESL has been continuing. There have been several protests initiated by fans in England. Three clubs still have withdrew from the project and UEFA threatens to ban them from European competition.

欧超联赛的闹剧已经告一段落，但足球会走向何方还不得而知。足球真的会反思自己的历史与根源嘛？抑或者，商业化的潮流将会加快对这项运动的侵蚀？

但至少现在，让我们享受当下，用本届欧洲杯的主题曲结束本期节目吧！希望欧洲杯给各位带来一个难忘的夏日！

Background Music：

1、Vida de Rico - Camilo

2、La musica non c’è - Coez

3、L’amourant - Amir

4、December - Gabrielle Aplin/Hannah Grace

5、Shipyards - The Lake Poets

6、We Are The People (Official UEFA Euro 2020 Theme Song) - Martin Garrix/Bono/The Edge