Ted Lasso, Soccer Tribalism & Privileges Through Participation (Cafe Society Dinner Discussion #14)
Everyone Needs a Villain & A Chance to Advance
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team. Maxwell is building a new type of social club.
Today we’re diving into what Ted Lasso, the founder of Foursquare, promotion & relegation in the Premiere League, soccer hooligans, and the 90’s club Limelight all have in common.
My girlfriend and I have recently become obsessed with Ted Lasso, a fish out of water comedy starring Jason Sudeikis in the role of an American Football coach who is hired to coach a Premiere League football (soccer) team. He just won a Golden Globe for it and it’s a surprisingly sentimental and deep comedy for something with a premise that is quite goofy on the surface.
We rewatched the first and only season this week and something struck me as the team expository dialogued to Coach Lasso the existential crisis they were facing in the final episode — if they didn’t win this game, they would be relegated — booted out of the Premiere League, the top U.K. Soccer league, down to the second division.
This is a concept that is foreign in American sports — if the Lakers have an awful season they don’t have any risk of sliding into the G League of Basketball. In true American capitalist spirit, some owner paid the league a lot of money to be in that league, so they aren’t going anywhere, and as a consequence the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (this year’s G League Champions) aren’t ever getting into the NBA.
But that’s exactly the way it works in soccer in most of the rest of the world.
And it got me thinking that perhaps one of the reasons why soccer culture around the world is so strong is the participatory nature of it, the dream that your local team could one day play in the Premiere league, inspires more lower division engagement, local rivalries and enhanced tribalism. The opportunity for your team to advance and the risk of relegation creates real stakes, a local villain, and gives real purpose to being a fan.
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David (@dlitwak) & The Maxwell Team