These famous words were spoken by the German national soccer trainer Sepp Herberger, who won the soccer world cup in 1954. He was asked by a journalist to explain soccer.

While the rules of the game have stayed more or less the same during the last 50 years, the business around it could not be more different. From merchandising products like scarves, shirts, plastic figures of the players or the famous Panini collection cards, up to travel agents specializing in soccer travel, there must be tens of thousands of products and services around the globe offered in conjunction with the soccer world cup 2006. One could simply not avoid soccer during the last few months. It was on the special edition shaving cream, on your cereal box when you ate breakfast, and did accompany you in one or another way during the whole day. And if you did not want to be an outsider while the world cup was playing, you had better know the scores. There were not many other topics anyway and such knowledge was the perfect ice breaker while meeting a customer.

Now all this seems to have very little to do with the metal finishing industry. But one can learn a lot by watching the development of this huge global soccer industry, its sponsors and its perfect and overwhelming marketing that took place. This incredible hype around the product “soccer” generates its own momentum. Business opportunities emerged which seemed not to be even thinkable in earlier days. While we most likely did not benefit from it directly, to catch a bit of this good spirit could even help our own industry!

Best Regards
Andrzej Wojtas (Ph.D.), Chief Editor MFN

andrzej@mfn.li

Author: Andrzej Wojtas (Ph.D.)