The Football Blog - Extra time

Yesterday's rant was written immediately after the Milan vs Barca clash and when I was in the Ronaldinho trance. Today's ranting comes after the second semi final first leg Arsenal vs Villareal, and .... no trance. This semi final had the other outstanding midfielder in Europe now - Juan Riquelme Roman.

The interesting thing about Riquelme is that he is not gifted with the obvious gifts that football stars are supposed to possess. He doesn't have Ronaldo or Henry's pace, Ronaldinho footwork, Viera's strength of size, or the magic which Zidane used to produce. For most of the game, he ambles aimlessly around the pitch and he definitely doesn't defend. What he has is an immense game sense / vision and the not so rare ability to string inch perfect passes. But when they are combined together he produces that rare ability to unlock defenses around the world. One only needs to look at how Villareal play. Most of the balls are passed to him and he has to think of ways to make them useful. In addition, he does sizzle in dead ball situations. As a result he had emerged as one of the top playmakers in Europe. Just witness Villareal's progression to the Champions League semis.

Since I am sermonizing on my favorite midfielders, let me add one more name to the list - Fancesc Fabregas. Now he is only 18 and has dazzled only for the last month or so, so you might say what is the fuss about? The fuss is that if at 18 he can marshall Arsenal past Juventus then, what would he be doing when he is 25? Honestly I have not seen enough of him to cut up his game like that of Ronaldinho or Riquelme, but what I see I like and am hoping fervently that he goes to the world cup with Spain and the whole world gets to see more of him.

Now to the prediction part. I predicted Barca vs Villareal. I stick to it. Arsenal perhaps lost a golden opportunity to seal the tie, when Cesar Arzo cleared an Henry strike off the line. They will go to the Madrigal, with a 1-0 scoreline and in my mind, that is not much of cushion. I think Villareal will reverse the deficit and set up an all Spanish clash in the finals.

The Football Blog

Now I have never been one for religious metaphors, but I saw God play for Barcelona yesterday. Ronaldinho. I have followed football for sometime now (the first match I saw on TV goes back to Italia '90), and of all the players I have seen in action - nobody, I repeat nobody has as overwhelming an influence on the game as Ronaldinho has had on this Barca side over the last couple of years.

There is an irresistible force about Ronaldinho, which is something way beyond mere talent and/or technique. An irresistible force, which despite all the hype I think Ronaldo doesn't have, neither did Romario (okay I haven't seen too much of his club football..But still) and neither did any other player of the 1990s or 2000s (include Effenberg, Roy Keane, Zidane, Nedved, Requelme, Juninho, Kaka, Ballack, and just about everybody else). Zidane showed flashes of that in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final, but that was it. The French side of the Euro 2000 vintage had it and I haven't seen anybody that irresistible since. I have never seen Pele pry his trade...But maybe I didn't miss too much.

The other thing about yesterdays game was inability of Italian side to match their Spanish or English counterparts. This year having seen Inter, Juve and Milan play in the Champions league and none impressed - Juve bowed out to Arsenal (of all people on earth), Inter to Villareal (Villa...?? Who, atleast in India) and Milan now seen to be overwhelmed by Barca, after having squeaked through against Lyon. The problem might be the lack of tempo in Italian style of play (atleast for these three sides). Their build ups seem to be too labored and when the opposition hurries them up, their passing collapses (Exhibit A - Juve at Highbury and Exhibit B - last night) and they look like a school boy eleven.

The last thing which struck me yesterday was that my top two midfielders - Ronaldinho and Requelme both ply their trade in Spain. Incidentally both their clubs are in the Champions League semis, with Barca obviously in pole position to make it to the finals.

And finally predictions - Barca is looking irresistible for the the Champions League and in June, Brazil will dazzle but I if you are looking for a dark, don't look much further than Arjen Robben's Netherlands.

The Great Indian Housing Disaster

The last couple of years, I have been very intimate with Bombay. Bombay offers its denizens the best of India, in opportunity, professionalism and liberal attitudes; and the worst of the country, in housing and urban planning. I will talk of the former in this piece.

Bombay proudly claims some of the highest real estate prices in the world and simultaneously also has Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia (and which according to the Economist, has density in excess of a million people per square kilometers in parts).

The commonly attributed reason is Bombay's small spread. As is well known the MCD (and NDMC) in Delhi has two million fewer residents but three times the area of BMC. So obviously housing in Bombay should be more expensive, right? Though I have no statistics for that the FSI* in Bombay is higher nullifying Delhi's space advantage (there are more high rise residential towers in Bombay than in Delhi). There is more to the housing disaster in Bombay, than just area.

Like everything else, urban housing in India has witnessed a massive governmental intervention since independence, and is much worse off for it. After independence, the government India assumed the sole right to develop land in cities. DDA became the only body to develop land in Delhi. I am sure some such a body exists in Bombay as well.

Housing, like everything else follows the laws of demand and supply. When the demand for housing far outstrips its supply (like it does when DDA fails to deliver enough houses - in 1993 against a demand of 100000 dwelling units, DDA delivered only ....5000!!!) then the prices move north. In this process a lot of people get priced out of the market.

These people still need shelter - so in Delhi they end up in illegal housing (the unauthorized colonies) with no amenities and in Bombay where land is scarcer, you get the infamous slums. At the very heart of the housing crisis in urban India is a supply constraint. This constraint is the making of the Indian socialist state.

The solution to slums is pretty straightforward - massively increase housing supply. This isn't as simple as it appears. There are two strong lobbies who stand to lose with an increase in housing supply - existing house owners and builders. Due to high prices, people have invested heavily into buying in the cities. Now if the supply increases rapidly, these people suffer a massive capital loss. Imagine you invested a crore in buying a house in Central Bombay and now due to the mill land development the prices drop to say 80 lakhs. I am sure you wouldn't be too happy about that. Some say it was this lobby which stymied the mill land redevelopment in Bombay for so long.

In addition, there will always be the very well connected builder lobby. An artificial shortage of housing boosts house prices boosting the builder margins in the process. An increase in supply will mean smaller margins and smaller RoIs for builders. Builders will not want to increase housing supply beyond a point and they have enough clout to put a stop to a lot of things.

The Urban housing crisis in many ways is a little like the Palestinian problem - everybody knows the solution, but nobody is able to see it through.

*Floor Space Index i.e. given one square foot of ground, how much space has it been converted into. If on 1000 sq Ft of land you building a three storey building then you have created 3000 sq Ft from 1000 sq Ft leading to an FSI of 3