GOOOAAAL!! God & Football from Rob Bee on Vimeo.
I suck at football.
On every level.
I am generally appalling at playing sport as I used my asthma as an excuse to get out of as much of it as possible when I was at school, football is no exception – I’m a right-footed player with 2 left feet. But also I come from a non-sport-watching family and so the football seed was never planted and I can’t see anything in the game to muster that excitement for any one team now. If I were pressed I’d say I’m anyone-but-united, but that’s mainly because, living in Sale, the trams are a nightmare when they’re playing a home game.
So the world cup? It doesn’t really bother me that much. I’ll watch a few games, but I’ll miss a lot more. I never even go out of my way to make sure I see England games. I will enjoy the good atmosphere in the country while we’re in the competition, and the opportunity to go to the pub is always welcomed, but I refuse to become one of those people who are whipped up into a month long frenzy of patriotic fervour over something I couldn’t give 2 hoots about for the rest of the time. So I write my blog from the position of an impassive observer.
Having now alienated ¾ of my readership I will continue.
Let’s not watch football; let’s watch the people watching football. I’ve met some – they’re quite interesting.
I’ve always been quite impressed with the way commentators can reel off facts and figures about when the last time team A beat team B and how the centre back has worn his vest tucked into his lucky pants for the last however many matches his team has played at whatever ground and how many of those occasions his team has won. But then I remind myself that it's their job to 'know' things about the teams playing and they've been studying stats in books for weeks before the game. Much more impressive is your common or garden football fan being able to do the same thing mid-conversation in the pub. And lots of them can do it – they have enough information stored away about every seasons starting line-ups and goal differences to start a small library (one of those ones that gets driven round in a large van). Regardless of their formal education and academic record, facts about football seem to stick. Football is something that people get passionate about, and that passion can be used for great things.
There is a basketball court in the park at the back of our house. 9 times out of 10 when you look out at people using it, they’re playing football. Providing a play area where people can play football is a very simple way of alleviating the complaint that teenagers often make – that there’s nothing for them to do. I know people who organise youth teams in ‘problem’ areas and it gives those young people an aim and a focus, it doesn’t just lessen the boredom. Life in some of the more poverty stricken areas of our country can be very insular as lack of cash keeps the population immobile, but football can be a relatively cheap way of raising the heads of the young people in these places and giving them hope. Football is used to raise awareness of issues. There is an annual homeless world cup where the players are all homeless. Last year 48 nations took part; this year’s competition is being held in Rio de Janeiro in September. There was also a Gaza world cup held earlier this year to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation there.
But if football at the grass roots level can be a force for good, how is that reflected at the highest levels? Surely on the international stage football could change the world! I have to say that here is where it disappoints me. At the first level I don’t know anyone – except professional footballers – who think professional footballers deserve the money they get paid. The status that the premiership players are given for what they do is out of proportion. David Cameron recently read out a letter of support from the England Football team to the soldiers in Afghanistan – what juxtaposition! Compare a bunch of millionaires who have earned their money by kicking a piece of leather around a park against a group of people who are risking their lives on a daily basis and who earn a pittance in comparison.
What about the clubs, do they fare any better? Well no. It’s them that support the levels of wages the players earn. There’s been a lot of press this season about the levels of debt the clubs have. It seems in some cases that the club owners are using the clubs as personal sources of income and the fact that they are meant to also play football seems like a sideline. Money and business has become more important than the actual game in some cases. The price of attending games seems to be escalating and for structure of pricing for season tickets seems to me to be questionable. It all seems geared towards the business end of the game at the expense of the ordinary fan. Where the grass roots game gives to fans it seems to me that the top flight simply takes and takes from those who can often ill afford it. Higher still the FA and FIFA have various allegations of corruption against them and would also seem to be blinded by the dollar signs being waved in front of them.
So in conclusion, football at its grassroots level is a source of inspiration and strength for people, it can be used as an agent for change and it deserves its title of ‘the Beautiful Game’. But when money and power become involved it becomes corruptible and can lose its way. It can lose sight of what it’s meant to be about and hurt those it’s meant to help.
I fibbed. That wasn't quite the conclusion.
Football is often slammed by the religious communities for being a semi-religion; well I say, 'Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.' read my conclusion again and see if you don't think it could apply to organised religion too.
So in conclusion, football at its grassroots level is a source of inspiration and strength for people, it can be used as an agent for change and it deserves its title of ‘the Beautiful Game’. But when money and power become involved it becomes corruptible and can lose its way. It can lose sight of what it’s meant to be about and hurt those it’s meant to help.
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