Marcelo Bielsa’s fight for football’s soul continues with brilliant Uruguay press conference

During his three-and-a-half years as Leeds United boss, English football fans were given front-row access to Marcelo Bielsa’s unique way of looking at the beautiful game.

Whether it was having his Leeds players litter-pick during preseason so that they gained an understanding of how hard fans have to work in order to afford their match tickets, or 90-minute-long press conferences explaining why he dispatched coaches to spy on Frank Lampard's Derby County, English football had seen nothing like him before.

After parting company with Leeds in 2022 after leading them back to the Premier League following a 16-year absence, Bielsa last year took up the job of the head coach of the Uruguay national team, quickly turning them into the most exciting South American team to watch and now has them into the semi-finals of the Copa America.

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A common theme of a Bielsa press conference during his time in West Yorkshire was his despair at the creeping commercialisation in football, where money trumps everything and overplayed players are flogged in the name of fuelling yet more profit.

And with the international spotlight back on Bielsa at the Copa America in the USA, he has again picked up on this topic, railing against the money men.

“Football has more and more spectators but is becoming less and less attractive,” he said ahead of his side’s Copa America quarter-final victory over Brazil. What made this game the best game in the world at the time, is not prioritised today. Then this process will be finished.

“No matter how many people watch football, if you don’t ensure that what people watch is something pleasant, it will only benefit the business. Because the business only cares about how many people watch it.”

“But in a few years, the players who deserve to be watched will be less, and the game produced becomes less enjoyable, this current artificial increase in spectators will end.”

In a world of instant gratification and bite-sized highlights, Bielsa also bemoaned the impact that social media is having on fans’ relationship with the game.

“Football is not just the five minutes of highlights. Football is much more than that, it is a cultural expression, it is a way of identification.

“Possibly there are Uruguayans who only watch the highlights of the national team’s game, but that has nothing to do with the essence that allowed the fall in love of a population with the most significant identification sign that people have [in football].

“I think we should ignore this scenario that they propose to us, where the controversy, the accusation, the determination of who is guilty becomes an obsession that worsens the atmosphere in which football should be played.”

It is no coincidence that Bielsa is still adored by the fans of every club he has managed, from Beeston to Bilbao , as the 68-year-old always puts supporters first.

"Football is popular property,” he added. “Poor people who didn't have money to buy things that made them happy had football, that was free. But now they don't have it anymore¨

“Sao Paulo’ s 1992 team were all players who could already be in Europe. But before going to Europe they played in two Copa Libertadores finals.

“So what happened to football? Football is originally a popular property. In its essence, football is a popular property. Why? Because poor people have very limited access to buy what makes them happy, because they do not have the money to buy them.

“So, football being free, its origin is popular. It is one of the few things that the poorest people can have. However, today, they no longer have it. 17-year-old players like Endrick go to Europe. The Palmeiras winger [Estevao], etc.

“It’s a shame that I’m the one who has to say these things, because all they’ll do is criticise me. Maybe you should say these things, as I imagine you are not part of the business, otherwise you would not ask me the question. Or maybe you’re part of the business, and you do it so I can start talking.

“I believe that the media should be prevented from hearing the amplified voice of people like me, who occasionally have a public impact. You listen to me because I am the coach of the Uruguay national team, otherwise who would be interested in listening to what I say?

“But you, as a representative of a profession who have the power that media have, a power that manipulates absolutely everything to the maximum. Why don’t you do an investigation to expose the lies? “

Never change, Marcelo.

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