If Software Companies were Soccer Teams

It’s an odd comparison to make, but is there a single software company that immediately comes to mind that is most like your favorite sporting team? I couldn’t immediately think up one for mine, but luckily Martin Veitch at CIO News took care of it, and I’d now have to agree. He took a handful of football (soccer) teams and compared them to some of the largest software companies around, and some of the comparisons are spot-on.

I’m an Arsenal supporter (or “Gooner”, more appropriately), and he compared them to Google. Fancy footwork, nice location, cool ideas and “easy on the eye” (what?). He surmises that both have good work that goes nowhere, and that sure seems to be the case with both lately. I’ll also add that both Google and Arsenal are some of the richest in their respective fields, but that’s not all that counts, aye?

Who could Manchester United possibly be like? IBM, says Martin. Both have old money and great tradition, and “everybody ends up going there in the end, even if they don’t like them.“. In some regards, that’s actually scarily true. One of my favorites is Real Madrid, who are most like Oracle. Tons of money, and they end up buying anything that moves. That’s probably a little more true for Real, though…

I dare say some other genius has already tried this schtick but in the spirit of Friday afternoon (and the neverending battle for employment preserving hits) here is Another! Stupid! Tabloid! List! of software companies that have strangely morphed into professional football (that’s *soccer*, not the boring American variety) teams.