John Sinitsky & Miri Drozdov
“Come on, coach! It’s a stupid decision, the team will lose because of your poor judgment!” “If I was the manager, I’d have known better!” "Why substitute HIM?!"
We all have said those things thousands of times knowing it’s impossible for us to take part in everyday decisions regarding our favorite football team. Well, now approximately 6000 people can make their dream come true.
We are talking about fans of Hapoel Kiryat Shalom, a football club based in Israel. They can now decide what will be the team’s starting lineup, who is going to be substituted first, what system and tactics they will adopt during the match, and even which player will take a penalty. It’s easy – all you have to do is to register at a dedicated internet site and begin to take part in the decisions. By the way, signing up is completely free.
As you have probably understood, Hapoel Qiryat Shalom from Tel-Aviv, Israel is a very unique football club. The team competes in Liga Gimel – Israel’s 6th and last football tier, with only the first 3 divisions considered "professional".
In October 2007 the team was bought by Web2Sport group (which calls itself “the sporting community group") for the humble sum of $30,000. In return, the team became the first football team ever to be coached by its fans. In order to make it more interesting, a squad of 24 players was built, with 2 players for each position. The training sessions of the team are also being constantly filmed and uploaded to the Web2Sport internet site.
In order to provide fans with the maximum information regarding the players, the site contains a database with speed, fitness, technique and the individual strengths of each of the team’s players. All of this should make it easier for the fan to choose the starting lineup for the upcoming game.
On the website the team is chosen by dragging and dropping a relevant player on a virtual football pitch. The day before each match the votes are counted, and the most popular players and the tactics are chosen.
Fans choose the team by dragging and dropping players
The resemblance to a certain famous computer game (Football Manager) is not coincidental. Web2Sport group together with Sport 5 (an Israeli sport channel) are trying to create world’s first virtual football team. The goal of the project is not just to improve the team’s position in the league, but rather to increase the popularity and ratings of live games.
Will it actually work? Yaakov Yarchy, the team’s coach (as much as they have one) says we should give it some time. “It’s only the first season, we should wait and see”. While asked by a Sport 5 reporter if he has some responsibilities left, Yarchy replied that he still has the actual coaching to do, and this is plenty of work. Apparently, (in a nod to the team’s Football Manager and Championship Manager fans), football coaching is more than just selecting the lineup and signing prospective youngsters…
In an interview to an internet site livegames.co.il, the coach said he can cope with the situation for the benefit of being the first coach of a first interactive football team in the world. Yossi Buchbut, one of the players, is far more cynical: “When you have no place to fall down, you can give it a try”, he said to Sport 5.
The fans of Qiryat Shalom are very excited by the change to their role in their team’s life. However, some of them are more cautious. “So, actually, each team player can vote for himself for the upcoming game?”, “What will happen if fans of the opposite team enter the site and choose a bad squad on purpose?” ask Hapoel fans. The team believes that in a group of approximately 6000 voters the vote of a single player (and his family) is negligible. They also hope that there won’t be enough rival fans to sabotage the game. In the mean time, other (rival) fans post only supportive comments on the Web2Sport site. If the team faces possible promotion, however, the issue of the rival fans voting for the Hapoel Kiryat Shalom lineup for the upcoming game might become a crucial one. But for now, with three losses in five games, the main success of the team is in its popularity and increasing supporter participation over the internet.
So what’s next? Will there be another team that follows Hapoel’s path and give fans a role in team’s management? MyFootballClub in England may be following a similar path, but only time will tell. Will the Qiryat-Shalom fans be given additional authorities? Will they act as the team managers and have a chance to decide about the team budget and its players? To quote words of Yaakov Yarchy – “It’s only the first season, we should wait and see”.
