Eurosport Roundtable: Has El Clasico become world sport's greatest event?
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ByEurosport
Updated 21/11/2015 at 10:34 GMT
Ahead of the first Clasico of the season between fierce rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Bernabeau on Saturday, we ask our team if there is a bigger event in global sport than the meeting of the Liga giants?
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (L) shakes hands with Barcelona's Lionel Messi
Image credit: Le Buzz
Alex Chick - Yes and No
There are bigger events, but the Clasico is certainly sport’s best rivalry – boasting a century of history, balanced competition (Real lead the all-time series 92-89), genuine enmity and tons of drama. Few occasions stop the football world – even fewer carry huge significance regardless of the competition. Oh, and there’s a good chance that the four best footballers in the world will be sharing the same pitch on Saturday. I’d watch.
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A view of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, which will host the Clasico on Saturday evening
Image credit: Eurosport
Tom Adams - No
Even in these dark days, where athletics’ reputation is gutter-bound, the pre-eminent sporting event simply has to be the 100m final at the Olympics. Months of media build-up and years of athletic preparation are condensed into 9.5 seconds of sporting excellence and high drama. The globe stops still, all eyes trained on a screen, wherever one can be found. The Clasico commands the attention of a huge number of football fans, but how many casual observers and fans of other sports will actually bother to switch over for 90 minutes? Not as many bandwagon jumpers who delight in the thrill of the fastest men on the planet – and usually the fastest man of all time – exploding from the blocks
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ATHLETICS Time to look around - Usain Bolt wins the 100m at the Olympics POTY2008
Image credit: Reuters
Liam Happe - Definitely maybe
Is El Clasico sport’s greatest regularly-scheduled event? Perhaps. However, every now and then the stars align and something eclipses every athletic spectacle which occurs on a fixed basis. That’s because of the coliseum-esque nature of fight sports. While the likes of boxing and MMA are niche markets most weekends, when something like Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao or the expected rematch between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm rolls around, all eyes are on the battlefield. Some would argue that they’d be even more successful, if governing bodies were able to properly regulate these sports and mandate the correct fights to happen at the right time. In a way, however, that would dilute the massive sense of occasion when, say, two megastars like ‘Money’ and ‘Pac-Man’ finally put together a showdown after five long years.
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Floyd Mayweather Jr. exchange punches with Manny Pacquiao during their welterweight unification championship bout, May 2, 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather defeated Pacquiao by unanimous decision. AFP PHOTO / JOHN GURZINKSI
Image credit: AFP
Toby Keel - No, no and thrice no
Pffft. Not even close. Not even close. Don't get me wrong, the Clasico is great. But it's one for football lovers, not a "greatest event". When you start bandying words like that around, there is really only one criterion that matters: would your grandma care? It might not be your grandma specifically, but we're going to use her as a placeholder for a person close to you who has merely a passing interest in sport and stops to pay attention only very rarely. Looked at from that perspective, it's very obvious that those most-casual of fans wouldn't even know the Clasico is being played, much less care who wins.
And they might indeed have no idea that Barecelona v Real Madrid is even referred to as the Clasico. Football lovers might be in heaven watching the two sides play, but there are many events with far more widespread cultural relevance and interest. The Olympics. World Cup, Wimbledon and the Monaco Grand Prix are your starters for 10, but I could go on and on. And on.
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Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Image credit: Panoramic
Dan Quarrell - Good, but not great
El Clasico is La Liga’s greatest event, but it has nothing on the truly great sporting events. While the Champions League final may well give even the World Cup final a run for its money, nowadays given the power of club football, El Clasico does not go beyond simply being a strong and feisty rivalry. Every Clasico encounter has a great deal of significance within the football calendar, but it does not appeal to a wider sporting audience in the same way the Olympics or the football World Cup does. A British football fan will now likely be as keen to watch a Clasico as they would a Manchester or Merseyside derby, but that does not mean that the event demands an entry in a more general sports fan’s diary. With at least two Clasicos every season, an event with such relative regularity – and for the prize of just three points - can never be regarded as a truly great sports event.
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Germany's Mario Goetze after the FIFA World Cup Final
Image credit: PA Photos
Ben Snowball - Too frequent to be the best
It’s probably sport’s biggest rivalry – made even juicier by Ronaldo and Messi’s limelight tussle – but the pinnacle of world sport? No chance, for one big reason: it occurs too frequently. It’s hard to get properly embroiled in a Clasico when you know another one will rumble around in a few months. Contrast that to, say, the 100m final at the Olympics – a moment when the apathetic and fanatic huddle together to watch the globe’s finest speedsters explode down the track. Football can rival that drama... A penalty shoot-out in a World Cup final would have nerves jangling everywhere. But can a bi-annual fixture (at the minimum) generate that hysteria? Nope.
Kevin Coulson - It is not a global event
Is it genuinely a global event? No. Does it penetrate the psyche of the masses in places like Australia and America? No. Sure, it will raise the heart-rate of Real fans and boost the blood pressure of Barcelona supporters, but for anyone - even the most committed sports fan - who does not have a natural affiliation with one of the clubs, will the result really, truly matter? No.
Marcus Foley - Yes, no other sport can boast such talent in a confined space
Yes – purely for the wealth of talent on display. There are other solitary events that are of more prestige – say the World Cup final or the 100m Olympic final - but the talent on show is frightening. Lionel Messi, Luis Saurez, Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano; Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benezema, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez, Isco, Sergio Ramos....the list goes on and on.
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Barcelona's Luis Suarez (L), Neymar (C) and Sergi Roberto celebrate a goal against Villarreal during their Spanish first division soccer match at Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, November 8, 2015.
Image credit: Reuters
These are players at the very top of their sport playing in the same league. It is incredible. Add to said quality the associated history and the animosity between the two clubs and this generation of football and sports fans are a pretty fortunate bunch. The idea that the fixture comes around too often is counter-intuitive – in fact, it actually builds into the rivalry, adds to the narrative and keeps it fresh.
Desmond Kane - Yes and No
If one considers the World Cup final, Champions League final, Super Bowl or the 100m men's final at the Olympic Games, it is difficult to suggest this match is the biggest occasion in global sports, but you could certainly argue that it is the costliest and most fascinating due to the narrative enveloping such fierce foes. The regularity of the fixture is an obvious problem, but it remains a fascinating get-together.
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Tom Brady (New England) with the 2015 Super Bowl Trophy on February 1, 2015 in Phoenix
Image credit: AFP
It is difficult to imagine another global sport boasting so many key figures in prime condition. This dimension of the world game has also captured the imagination of the locals in parts of Asia and Africa that other other sports can't reach with Real Madrid apparently boasting 450m fans worldwide. Of course, it all comes down to personal preference. Perhaps the way of justifying it as the biggest sports event in the world, would be to see the duo face off in a Champions League final. That would be an occasion simply beyond compare.
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