The Licensing Corner

John Pavolotsky

Intel Corporation

FOOTBALL, SOCCER, AND THE AFFILIATE CONUNDRUM

I am writing this article on a quiet, hazy Sunday afternoon in late September. It’s football season, with a multitude of games on Saturdays and Sundays, and mid-week as well. Both of my home teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the California Golden Bears, are unbeaten, the stars perfectly aligned, an event almost as infrequent as Hal-ley’s Comet. Unfortunately, my other football team, RCD Espanyol (RCDE), is not faring as well, languishing in the relegation zone of the La Liga table, after a loss to Real Sociedad at Estadi Cornelià-El Prat, its home base on the outskirts of Barcelona. After losing a prolific striker (Borja Iglesias) and its coach (Rubi) to Real Betis during the summer, this is clearly not the team I saw last October, in a scintillating performance (and win) against Villarreal, on a perfectly balmy Sunday night, just a few meters from the pitch, amid enthusiastic RCDE fans, encouraging Los Periquitos and educating the referees on the finer points of an off-side call or a missed foul, in colorful language that, luckily, could not be fully comprehended by my children.