Journalist
“FIFA must take the side of the people, since in the end all the publicity generated by the tournament will be negative,” says the journalist before participating this Thursday in Cartagena in a UCAM forum on sports and health
Antoni Daimiel (Ciudad Real, 1970) is coming to Cartagena this Thursday, one of the most respected sports journalists in the country, face of the NBA in Spain for the last 25 years and who, together with the longed-for Andrés Montes, formed a mythical couple in the early mornings of Canal +. Both transcended to the merely sports. This Thursday, starting at 6:50 p.m., participate in the sixth conference ‘Decyde: health, well-being and sport’, which will be held from this Thursday at the UCAM campus in Los Dolores.
“Let’s start with the basics.” You know that you are coming to Cartagena, which is not the same as Murcia. Is this under control?
-Yes Yes. When I became an intern at Canal + in 1990, one of the first stories Alfredo Relaño told me [su primer jefe] it was that of the Canton, from when Cartagena proclaimed its independence from the rest of Spain and minted its own currency. Later, after meeting friends who live in the area, I have been able to expand information and I am aware of the enormous rivalry that exists between the cities of Cartagena and Murcia on different issues.
– What are you going to talk about at the conference organized by UCAM?
–Of health care and the new habits that are being imposed in the NBA. The density of the calendar, the injuries that are increasing due to the accumulation of parties and other problems derived from the pandemic have changed the customs of the franchises. New training routines have been established, pre-game morning shooting sessions have been eliminated, and players now take better care of themselves. Many have their own cook and it is no longer like 20 years ago, when most came from summer vacation with at least five extra kilos.
The phrases
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The ‘new’ NBA
“Shooting sessions prior to matches have been eliminated and the players have their own cook” -
Visit to Cartagena
«I am aware of the enormous rivalry that exists with the city of Murcia. I know the story »
– Has Marc Gasol’s decision to play for his Girona in the LEB Oro surprised you?
– What has surprised me is that he does it now and that he does not give himself one last chance at a top-level club. His season with the Lakers has not been as bad as has been claimed. I am left with the thorn of seeing him a little more in the NBA or at Barça. It seems to me that Juan Carlos Navarro has tried to the end and believed that he would finally be able to convince Marc. It is also true that Barça already have a sufficiently compensated and valid squad. Marc is a particular type and is not governed by conventional parameters. He wanted to end up at Girona and start exercising his managerial role. It is not only what can help the team in the LEB Oro on the field, but he wants to start working with the base and forge young players in the Girona quarry, the club in which he managed to consolidate and in which he was’ MVP ‘of the ACB league.
– Isn’t this about the ‘FIBA windows’ a bit absurd?
“It’s bad for basketball.” And the worst thing is that a solution to the conflict between the Euroleague and FIBA is not in sight. The normal thing is that everything is done in summer, between June and September, without ‘windows’ throughout the season. It seems that there is a focus of open conflict in the Euroleague teams. Turks, Greeks and Maccabi are unhappy with Spanish clubs and maybe we can get this situation resolved. The only positive thing about these ‘windows’ is that new players appear who make themselves known and who manage to enter the radar of the general fan. He happened in the previous windows with Quino Colom and he has spent these days with Yankuba Sima, a boy who has played very well with the Spanish team and whom many people did not even know.
The days
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Date
Thursday 2 and Friday 3 December. -
Participants
Olympic medalist Ona Carbonell, rapper El Langui, journalist Antoni Daimiel and handball exporter José Javier Hombrados, among others. -
Place
UCAM Campus of Los Dolores (Cartagena).
–I change the ball for a moment and I ask him a question about soccer. How do you see the Qatar World Cup? First was the change of dates, from summer to December. Later, the insecurity in the construction sites of the stadiums. Isn’t it too much already?
– This World Cup is getting very annoying, without a doubt. FIFA has to get on the side of the people once and for all. Soccer is not what it used to be and business comes first. We already know that. Send the money, the sponsors, the merchandising … But this cannot be received and we must report it. The Soccer World Cup is a planetary event, which must be conceived as everyone’s party and concepts such as inclusion and tolerance are basic in this sense. I believe that FIFA will finally have to stop all this. Otherwise, everything will come against you, since it may happen that this World Cup in Qatar becomes so annoying that it only generates negative publicity. And that obviously goes to the detriment of its advertisers and the companies that support the tournament.
–The Faculties of Journalism are overflowing. However, many media and journalists fell by the wayside during the crisis. Today, newsrooms are dwindling and working conditions are what they are. How do you see the future of this profession?
– I have been very pessimistic for many years. But not on a whim. I am because I am on a day-to-day basis and I have many friends and colleagues who have had to stop practicing journalism and had to look for their lives in something else. On many occasions I have been seen as a splinter or, at least, as a disturbing element, of dissent. I’m not a corporatist, but I don’t want to take away anyone’s illusion either. They call me from many universities to give lectures or colloquia and I see boys who from a very young age wanted to dedicate themselves to journalism. It’s an attractive job, but I can’t lie to you. I have to tell you that it offers few possibilities. I can’t tell you that everything is rosy and that this is Walt Disney. This must be stopped and it is difficult to solve. It could only be fixed if the State takes action on the matter and we go to a scenario in which a person who practices journalism can have a modestly dignified life, in which they have a minimum income to pay rent, electricity and water.
-He has been narrating NBA games all his life. Many believe that you are up for much more. Which is underused. Have you been offered anything else?
– All my life I have been happy with my work performance. I’ve had bosses of all kinds, some better and some worse. I have always been disciplined and I have followed what was available. I have felt privileged, because I have done what I liked and they have paid me well for it. It is true that in the last five or six years the body has asked me something else and I want to try myself as the director of an auteur space, on radio or television. But I have not received any proposals in this regard. If that opportunity never comes, then I’m sure I’ll be just as happy as I am today. I like what I do. The truth is that I have been very critical from within at all stages of my life and I have thought many times about the things I would do differently if I had been given the opportunity to be the director of something. I would have liked to try myself. The challenge of changing something is still there. Not so much about content, but about the politics of many companies.
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