Social realism is a style of art, fiction, movies and plays. It describes the daily life of workers and poor people. Social realist artists try to show people and their lives in a realistic way. This means that they often show things which are not beautiful or attractive. They may show people who are elderly, sick, sad, insane or have a disability. This does not mean that a Realist work of art or literature is ugly. It can be made beautiful by the way that the artist or writer creates it.
Social realism art does not belong to one period of history, but has been the style of some artists in different centuries and different countries. Caravaggio, who was a late Renaissance artist, painted "Realist" pictures. Several Spanish painters were "Realists": Velazquez, Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Goya. There were many realist painters in the 19th century, including Gustave Courbet in France and Luke Fildes in England.
Social Realism was popular in Russian art and literature. In the 20th century it became the main type of literature in the Soviet Union. It was also used by David Siqueiros to depict daily struggles of the people in his country, Mexico.
Scottish Premier League
The SPL is in a league format – a team gains points by playing another team in the league. Three points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Once all the games have been played, the team at the top of the league wins the SPL trophy. If two or more teams are equal on points, then the difference between of goals scored and goals against is considered. The season runs from August until May each year. Each club will play each other at least three times before the table splits in half for the last part of the competition. Each club will then play five more games against clubs in their half of the table. Each team plays a total of 38 games.
Once every team has played each other three times the league splits into two halves for another five games. This means that the top six teams play each other once, and the bottom six teams play each other once. Many people do not like the SPL splitting. Many managers such as Jim Jeffries, the manager of Hearts at the time, has publicly asked for the split to be removed. The man in charge of the SPL, the Chief Executive, said that 11 out of the 12 SPL teams would need to agree and out of eight teams asked, five said that they wanted the split kept.
Teams cannot move between the two splits, meaning that even if a team in seventh place has more points than the team in sixth they will not move above them in the league. This happens often, for example in the 2005–06 season, the seventh placed club, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, gained more points than the fourth placed club, Hibernian but finished the league in seventh.
In the 2000–01 season, the SPL decided to stop the "winter break", forcing teams to play through January. This means that many games are stopped because of the damage to the pitch and very bad weather. Former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill, former Dundee manager Jim Duffy, and former Rangers manager Walter Smith are among those who have asked to start the winter break again. Former Rangers manager Alex McLeish accused the SPL of taking Scottish football "back to the Dark Ages" after its decision to stop the winter break, meaning that they were going back to an old, outdated system.
A total of four clubs can qualify for European competitions. The teams who finish first in the SPL qualify for the UEFA Champions League. The second and third-placed team, and the winner of the Scottish Cup, qualify for the UEFA Europa League.
Rangers and Celtic have recently played in the final of the UEFA Cup, with neither club winning in the final match. In 2003 Celtic played FC Porto in Seville, Spain but Porto won 3– 2. More recently, in 2008 Rangers played FC Zenit St. Petersburg in Manchester, England, but lost 2– 0. More than 200,000 Rangers fans went to Manchester to watch the game on several large televisions.
Normally, the team who finishes last in the SPL is relegated to the Scottish First Division and the team who finishes first in the First Division is promoted to the SPL. However, there are some criteria that the team must meet in order to be promoted. In 2003, Falkirk finished first in the Scottish First Division but their stadium did not meet the agreed criteria. Instead, they asked if they could share a stadium with Airdrie United while their own stadium was expanded. This caused arguments as the chairmen of the SPL clubs voted against this idea. Because Falkirk's stadium was too small, they were not promoted into the SPL, and the team who finished last in the SPL (Motherwell) was not relegated.
This situation almost happened again in 2004. There were many votes and threats of legal action from Partick Thistle, the team who finished last in the SPL. The situation was solved and Inverness Caledonian Thistle were allowed promotion, as long as they shared a stadium with their rivals Aberdeen at Pittodrie, a stadium over 100 miles (160 km) away.
In 2005, the stadium size criteria was reduced. A team playing in the SPL must now have at least 6,000 seats (down from 10,000). Standing room is not allowed in SPL grounds for safety reasons. This then allowed Inverness Caledonian Thistle to return to their home stadium during the 2005–06 season.
In the SPL, there are no restrictions on clubs signing players. The only rule on signing players is with general Scottish employment law. There are no salary caps or age restrictions. There are no restrictions on the size of the playing squad or restrictions on the number of players from other countries.
The only rule is the "Under-21" rule. This means that every club must name at least three players under the age of 21 in their match day squad. They do not need to play. There has been some criticism over this rule. Walter Smith, Gus MacPherson and Jim Jeffries all showed their disapproval.
Between the 1998–99 season and the 2001–02 season, the right to show SPL matches on television was held by Sky Sports, with highlights being shown by STV's Scotsport. Sky Sports withdrew from the SPL when their offer for £45 million, to continue showing live games on TV, was declined by the SPL. The SPL asked for more money. Discussions began in 2002 for a new pay-per-view satellite television channel, called "SPL TV". However Rangers and Celtic did not like the idea, and rejected it. Because of this, the remaining 10 SPL clubs announced their intention to resign from the league.
Even though a two-year television deal had been agreed with BBC Scotland in July 2002 (for less than the money previously offered by Sky Sports), the 10 non-Old Firm clubs confirmed their resignation from the SPL in August 2002, because they were unhappy with how the league voted which allowed the Old Firm clubs to stop any attempts to change SPL rules. The ten clubs withdrew their resignations in January 2003 after an agreement was reached to change the voting rules and to change the way the money from TV was given out to the SPL teams.
With BBC Scotland's television contract due to expire after the 2003–04 season, the SPL agreed a new television deal with Irish company Setanta Sports in February 2004 in a four-year deal worth £54 million. In June 2008, it was announced that a further four-year deal would start for the 2010–11 season, with the deal worth £125 million. However, Setanta went bankrupt in June 2009. In July, Sky Sports and ESPN agreed a £65 million five-year deal with the SPL.
The right to broadcast SPL games on radio is currently held by BBC Radio Scotland, who have held the rights since the SPL started in the 1998–99 season. BBC Radio Scotland also provide internet webcasts to all Scottish Premier League matches, having became the first broadcaster to introduce such a service in June 2000.