Guys, I've been thinking for a few days and I need to let it out here. Ever since Spain won the World Cup on July 19, I've gone crazy looking for in-depth analysis: De la Fuente's tactics, Lamine Yamal's role, how the final penalty was set up... And I've run into a big problem.
More and more media outlets have put the best sports content behind a paywall.
El Mundo, ABC, El País... they all have premium subscriptions. And hey, I get it: real journalism costs money, the special envoys to the USA don't go for free. But when you've been paying for 3 coffees a day for a week to read columnists, you start to wonder if they're not pulling our leg.
Yesterday I went on El Mundo's website and was blown away by what they offer in their bundle: access to Premium content, exclusive newsletters, events for subscribers and even The Wall Street Journal included. €39 per month for the print edition. And the craziest thing: access from 5 different devices, you can share it with friends.
But then I think: Do I really need to pay €39 a month to read sports opinions? On X/Twitter I find out everything instantly, on YouTube there are free tactical analyses, and I watch match highlights in five minutes. Why the hell would I want to pay?
What pisses me off most is that the coolest post-World Cup analyses —those from the Anglo-Saxon press on how Spain has changed football— are only on The Athletic, The Guardian or the WSJ. And El Mundo puts them in their bundle. Either you pay or you're stuck with clickbait headlines.
My friends tell me: "dude, with the money of a subscription you can buy a national team jersey." And they're right, but the jersey doesn't explain why Rodri was the tournament's Ballon d'Or or how Carvajal stopped Vinicius in the final. That you only find in real journalism.
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Personally, it hurts me, because I'm a football fanatic and I want to read those who were there, in New York, telling it first-hand. But €39 a month is €468 a year. It's cheaper for me to go watch a Rayo Vallecano match every two months.
What do you guys do? Have you fallen for any post-World Cup subscription? Or are you team "with the news and X I'm good"? Because I'm in existential football-economic crisis mode and I need someone to convince me one way or the other.
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