by Ivanna Pinyak
Generally, there are two kinds of people: those who love football and those who don’t. However, even those who don’t would definitely follow the most prestigious international championships or at least they would check the scores. The World Cup football championship is in the very centre of attention and 22 guys chasing a ball on the big screen might be the biggest action ever. Looks like no other large-scale event in sports, like the Tennis Grand Slam or the Olympic Games could have that strong an emotional impact on the population.
Ivanna is a freelance journalist, now living in Strasbourg after growing up in the Ukraine. She speaks Ukrainian, English, French, Polish and German. Her specific areas of interest are Human Rights and Europe.
What’s remarkable about the World Cup?
First of all, the World Cup football championship is an effective international brand marketing of a nation. Consequently, supporting your national team is an act of patriotism. Your team’s performance in the World Cup is either a national hope and pride, or sorrow and disappointment. Sorry for France, feeling “blue” for the “bleus”.
Secondly, you can watch the national teams you’ve probably never seen playing before. North Korea was a real surprise: an excellent team, in good shape, strong in defence as well as in attack, they lost the game, but assured a last-minute honour-saving goal! 1:2 against Brazil, less outstanding this time, but still “Brazil”.
Thirdly, the World Cup is always the reason to raise some complex questions that accompany the event. This time everyone started to talk about South Africa. Media and public opinion would focus more interest onto this country, its culture, its people, their lives and their problems. The World Cup -2010 was also the reason to rewind the documentaries and investigations about corruption inside FIFA.
Finally, the European football championship winner is no longer the favourite in the World Cup competition. Let’s wish good luck to Spain! Europeans should cheer up, as Germans have shown a very promising start with that merciless score against Australia. But, why would I say Europeans? Does it seem to be the right identity for the world football competition?
A lot of progressive European citizens might have thought about it. Some friends of mine were wondering if football could ever overcome national ambitions. Or if the EU could ever afford a European football team to represent Europe for the next World Cup, instead of sending France, Slovakia, Germany and others… Nowadays it might sound like a pretty science-fiction scenario. While the European project’s future is so vague, who would wish to have a team as efficient and as quick as the European political process? On the other hand, who knows if the common European football team would see its chances – to win or even to be qualified for the championship – multiplied or divided proportionally to the number of Member States?
Anyway, however utopian might appear the idea, the day a single European football team plays in the World Cup, we’ll be talking of the true European identity. As the football identity is a consolidating factor.
Football is a moderating, generating and peace-keeping action.
The European Parliament, for example, has recently voted to keep on financing the International Funds for Ireland. The latter aims at reconciling the hostile communities in Northern Ireland while investing in sports and associative initiatives, “Football for Peace” being one of its most successful projects. The same sport-based initiative is being used to promote Jewish and Arab community relations and reconciliation. Football is passion, just like jealousy or hatred, in the origin of any conflict. Passion is what makes us complete, fun and vulnerable, split and united in what we share. Passion is irrational, but amongst all sorts of passions, more or less important or sustainable, football is a global one, and, thus, unifying.
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