Why I can't get excited for live soccer

A midweek Real Estelí-Diriangén would've been my dream, now I probably won't tune in.

(Can you tell I took this photo from Real Estelí?)

I used to say I was a Concacaf hipster. It’s a mash-up of words that make me laugh. Concacaf has its elements of cool, but nobody would accuse it of being trendy - at least not in the way I was consuming the games. I came up with the phrase because I was “watching Concacaf players before they were cool.”

Often, a player came onto the radar of MLS or Liga MX fans or even Europeans who I had been watching for years. Suddenly, everyone was an Allan Cruz or Fidel Escobar expert. Not the slickest branding, but it was something.

My love for soccer in this region, however, is unironic.

Goals in Honduran playoff matches have brought me out of my seat in coffee shops where I’d popped in to watch the game. I have paid for airplane WiFi to enjoy games in Concacaf Nations League C alongside my Biscoff cookies.

That’s why I’m surprised I’ve had little interest in the continuing Nicaraguan league. It’s certainly newsworthy, and I wrote about it in past newsletters.

On the field, though, I typically would be thrilled to settle in Wednesday for a semifinal doubleheader. There’s Real Estelí and Diriangén playing the country’s most important Clasico for the 119th time in short tournaments, this time for a ticket to the final. There’s a derby between red-hot Managua FC and Walter Ferretti, with everything in the balance after a scoreless first leg.

Yet, the hunger isn’t there. It starts with the players. So many have said they don’t want to be playing right now when almost every other league in the world has shut down because of safety concerns involving COVID-19, but need to honor their contracts.

Like many workers, they don’t have the luxury of being able to work from home. They need to pay their bills. Some want to leave, and some of those with a way out, like Costa Rican forward Sebastian Barquero, have left.

Then there are the conflicts within the Nicaraguan league. Managua and Walter Ferretti both draw significant resources from the same group of people. This goes beyond ‘multi-ownership’ situation like the ones that exist in Liga MX and existed for years in MLS (and are still problematic).

Those people are involved with the government of Daniel Ortega, a freedom-fighter-turned-autocrat who brutally suppressed protests starting in 2018 and largely dismisses the coronavirus as a threat even while disappearing from the public eye and apparently sheltering in place.

And even in the best of circumstances, Nicaraguan soccer has struggled to keep out match manipulation. Whether it’s the club level or in the international game, it’s not difficult to find multiple allegations that at least some players or even some club directors are not always playing to win. It’s understandable in a league where Record reported that the 15 Mexicans in the league make salaries ranging from $500-$1,200 per month.

Add up all these factors, and I just haven’t had much desire to tune in live to what’s happening in Nicaragua over the past few weeks.

When the spotlight actually shines on these far-flung corners of our region, sometimes you see there were far more cobwebs than you realized.

I’m not alone. While Real Estelí’s first leg drew 22,000 views for the live stream, its regular season contests rarely eclipsed more than 10,000. Those are not monster numbers in an environment where we’ve been making jokes about being (and being told we are) so desperate for live sport that we’ll watch anything.

The reality is that watching a game without fans … sucks. It’s just not the same. Fans want sports to come back, but they want the leagues they already love to come back - not a knockoff version with a bunch of teams they’ve never heard of.

I was chatting about the situation with my friend Steve Han, a Korean-American soccer expert. For weeks, K-League leaders have been crafting their earlier-than-most return as a marketing opportunity. But are you going to modify your schedule, staying up late or waking up early, so you can enjoy Ulsan Hyundai FC against the Pohang Steelers? And even if you do, are you going to do it more than once or twice as a novelty, becoming the kind of fan from which the league actually reaps economic benefit?

The question is the same with Nicaragua. Will you take a night away from prestige TV, your virtual happy hour or playing Animal Crossing to catch these games?

Will you still tune in when you see how tepid the atmosphere is without fans? Will you find the stream when you realize how afraid some of the players are to even be playing that night? Are you going to toss down a bet after understanding bettors with far more on the line than you are trying to make sure they win at all costs?

Other leagues in Central America are struggling but taking a more reasoned approach. Owners in Costa Rica are set to send a plan to the Minister of Health about how they would bring back matches, while the president of the first division in El Salvador said teams won’t consider a return without fans.

I’ve been preaching that the coronavirus pandemic is a time of grace, most importantly for ourselves (it’s OK to binge Tiger King instead of achieving your lifelong dream of learning Urdu) but also for others. I’m not here to judge anyone who is knee-deep in Nicaraguan soccer streams - far from it.

But for me, the thrill is gone. The blinders of ignorance have fallen off. Seeing these games still happening and understanding the context makes it tough to allow myself to get excited.

(Also they overlap each other Wednesday. What the hell, Nicaraguan league? The eyes of the word are (supposedly) on you!)

More Jon Arnold!

• Hablé con mis amigos de ATS sobre una posible fusión entre la Liga MX y la MLS, el regreso del fútbol en Europa y del porqué cuento estas historias obscuras de la Concacaf. (In Spanish, obviously)

• Another edition of Getting Concacafed will be in your inbox before the weekend. Keep an eye out for some freelance pieces I’ve written for various media outlets - I’ll tweet them out at @ArnoldcommaJon.

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