As Alex Massie notes, the rightwing's contempt for soccer -- see Jack Kemp, or George Will -- is really a rather odd bird. You're not going to find a more capitalist sport anywhere. As Massie puts it, "No salary caps here! No supporting the little, useless guy by giving him access to the best new talent! No revenue sharing! Nor, in the UK at least, can a club expect the taxpayer to fund a spanking new stadium. Failure carries a cost: bankruptcy or relegation; upwardly mobile, thrusting go-ahead companies (sorry teams) are rewarded for their hard work and ambition. It is dizzying, terrifying, wondrous capitalism in all its brutal, stirring majesty." Yet it's our lavishly subsidized, fully protected, and reverse-rigged events that quicken the free marketeer's pulse. Weird. Ah well. At least Kemp has apologized.
