Of Football and Memory

Sam came out from the examination hall, looking down and disappointed because he couldn't recall the name of the 4th Sultan of Melaka for his PMR Sejarah paper. It was the end of the examination, he should give himself a break at least; so he paid a visit to his friend and played FIFA 2011. His friend chose Spain so he decided to have the FIFA World Cup 2010 Finals replay by choosing Holland and selecting the finalists squad.

The irony is Sam couldn't recall the name of that Sultan which he revised and went through a day before the exam but he could recall the names of the 11 players from at least 3 months ago.

Here we can see a great level of memory allocated for football.


Do you know your team?

Here is a rough estimation of a football fan's memory:

a) 1 team has at least 11 players; at least 16 if substitutes are included (We know there are more in the reserve squad).

b) Everyone knows at least the best teams currently, there are about at least 10 teams:

5 teams from BPL/EPL: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, (a sum of mid-card teams like Newcastle United+Manchester City+Tottenham)

2 teams from Serie A: AC Milan, Inter Milan. (not to mention that there are also Juventus FC and AS Roma)

2 teams from La Liga: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona

1 team from Bundesliga - Bayern Munich. (Werder Bremen is also good too)

At a minimum of 10 teams, I haven't even included the French League!

So (10 teams) X (11 players) = 110 players AT MINIMUM!


An average football fan can remember at least 110 names and even more, then come the teams' formations, managers and even achievements.

It demands a real load of memory to remember all that but the human mind has been proven capable to achieve such a feat. Upon the discovery of this sport called football, we humans have taken a step forward in evolution. Charles Darwin could add another chapter in his books if he were to be alive now.


How?

If there's something which has brought out the full potential of a human mind, it's football. How? Could it be:
a) the simple but clear graphics presentation of the starting line-up?
b) the influence of the atmosphere and surrounding football fans?
c) the adrenaline and the excitement of the game? Or even the beautiful footwork skills by the likes of Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo?
d) the frequency of football matches which is weekly and not to mention big competitions like the Champions League, Euro Cup and even the World Cup?
e) Video games such as Pro Evolution Soccer or FIFA?


The FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer video games serve as memory enhancement elements which guarantee yearly updates and thus yearly memory maintenance.


So?

Our experts have proposed several hypothesis strictly based on the results from our findings and research. Hypothesis odds are accurately estimated to be 99.9% likely true.

a) If the Sejarah syllabus in the education were to implement the memory-enhancing techniques used by football, one would see a significant percentage increase of passing grades of at least 22.6%.

Pros: Just imagine the Sejarah textbook having the "simple but clear graphics presentation", a line-up of the "Tokoh Sejarah"s sorted by their states, and students revising it for 2 hours(45 minutes of each half with a 30 minute pause in between). That's how an A+ in Sejarah is scored.
Cons: With such an increase of passing grades, we can expect the graph to go up, thus bringing also the passing mark to a higher level, making the subject more difficult to score.


b) Interest in football helps in prevention of Alzheimer's disease.

Keeping an active mind is important in prevention of Alzheimer's disease at old age. When you have squads of 10 teams in your head as you watch football every week, or even reading its news and stay up to date, you'll be sure that Alzheimer's ain't gonna touch you. Screw crosswords, go football!


Conclusion

Football plays an important role in the development of a human mind. Me personally, I can recall 351 players. How about you?