Saturday, June 9, 2012

[PHI 3000] Are you supporting the same team over time?

In honor of Euro 2012, here's a philosophical question about football (or soccer): What makes a football team the same team from one moment to the next?

Surely, it cannot be the players. For players get traded or injured, retire from professional football, etc. After a while, a team will have entirely new players. For the same reasons, it cannot be the manager, the coaching staff, or the supporters. So what is it that makes a football team the same team over time?

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  1. Tariq RamlallDecember 6, 2012 at 8:06 PM

    Interesting question. You're right that a team changes over time, and that entire player roster as well as the coaching and management staff can change, but even though everyone in the organization is different now than some other point in time, the change wasn't sudden or drastic enough to warrant the team to be labeled as completely different than before (enough to seperate them as a different team). When a team changes it does so gradually with individual moves, not changing everything at once. You don't just go from point A straight to point D; there is a process of A changing to B, then B changing to C, and finally C changing to D. The fans supporting the team do so through all of the transitions A->B->C->D, and as such they don't really notice the jump from A to D, nor do they see the team as completely different.

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