The 2018 World Cup in Russia is over. Congratulations to France for the consistently good performance that has led to this extraordinary victory.
Football is the most popular sport in the world. The Champions League, the World Cup, the Copa America, the European Championship or the league games move crowds of people in almost all countries (exceptions are USA, Australia or India) and provide for emotions, friendships and rivalries.
Many people play football in a club or in their free time and even more pursue professional football in the media. This sport has become so widespread in the course of its development that a strong football culture has emerged. This football culture goes well beyond football shirts.
Football is more than a simple sport and has created its own emotional culture. Football stands for party, affiliation and co-enthusiasm with its own team and is regarded by many as the greatest "pastime” in the world. Many people around the world do not want to miss football as a sporting event or active sport.
No matter which country you go and whether you speak the language or not, you can always play football. Football builds bridges over cultural differences and connects people worldwide.
Why did football become so popular?
Football is easy to understand. Football is an incredibly easy sport compared to other sports. You must not foul your opponent, you must score more goals than the opponent, the goalkeeper in the penalty area can take the ball with the hands, the ball must not roll out and you have to watch out for the offside rule.
In comparison with American football, rugby or ice hockey the football rules are simple and clear except the offside rule. The football rules have remained essentially the same over the last 100 years. The game conveys a clarity and transparency that is not even close in the world of work, in politics or in cultural life.
The language of football is reduced to a few symbols. Everyone can understand football and anyone can communicate with anyone about it. You can play anywhere and everyone will understand the game immediately.
For example, you can go to Brazil as a stranger and play football. Even as a spectator, you immediately understand what it's about so you can quickly get excited about the game. Football can be played under minimal conditions. Football is relatively easy to learn but of course hard to master. Physical strength and size can be compensated with technical skill (see, for example the football legend Messi).
Football offers space for surprises and sensations. Although the best teams win over the duration of a season, the outcome of each game is always uncertain. Everything can happen. If a goal falls, a game can change in no time. Whether the ball scraps past the goal or scores is crucial in many games, as it greatly influences the rest of the game.
The favorites had considerable difficulties to keep up, as we have seen in this World Cup 2018 impressively. The daily form of the team often decide on victory and defeat, and football is probably more influenced by random elements than any other comparable sport.
The wrong decisions of the referees can have a significant impact on the rest of the game. A wrong offside position in football, a missed penalty or a wrongly given penalty on the other hand can decide a game as there usually are few goals during a game. An unfair given free-throw in basketball has little impact on the game, a wrongly awarded penalty often decides on a whole football match.The injustice in football provides for discussion and emotions among the fans and the players.
Small, unpopular teams have a chance to win against the big ones. Even if the rich clubs are more successful in the long term than the poor, guaranteed success in football cannot be bought alone with money. From this unpredictability and insecurity football draws a considerable part of its fascination.
These strong emotions automatically lead to a strong identification of football fans with your team. Every fan knows that he is not alone with his feelings, but that these feelings are shared by other viewers. The footballers mutually confirm their behaviors through attention and social recognition. When your own team and idols win, there is boundless joy.
The attraction of football idols is often reinforced by appropiate media coverage. The extent of this fan culture up to a "religion" has increased extremely with each World Cup, especially since the 20th century.
This factor also bothers me personally more and more. Football and especially the World Cup (or European Championship) has become an absolute mass phenomenon nowadays. I heard an analyst say "If you win the World Cup, you become immortal." They told the same thing to the crusaders. Once you have gone to Jerusalem and killed the unbelievers, you will be immortal in heaven.
Personally, I have nothing against the game or the fans, but this football “religion” is starting to annoy me. I'm interested in the psychological dynamics behind it. For me, the World Cup today is a symbol of the broad, unconscious, average mass that is distracted by the mass media and mass phenomena such as the World Cup.
Important political decisions, such as raising taxes or increasing politicians' own salaries are quickly enforced during World Cups. Nobody seems to care. Everyone is busy following the game, including people who are otherwise uninterested in football or who have no idea about football.
This group dynamic is getting stronger and stronger. It looks like you´re the outsider of the outsider these days, if you do not feel like talking to people about football. Football is also the number one small talk topic in the world of work during World Cups. This creates a follow-the-leader atmosphere. Everybody has to like football otherwise you get excluded. I have never seen this fellowship syndrome so strong in any other comparable sport. Football is increasingly becoming a symbol of mediocrity and fellowship.
Basically, I have nothing against group dynamics, but not to that extent. It's a shame, because we should better take responsibility for our lives and not get involved in every shit that is served by the media and other people. Why do not people care about more important things like personal development?
I think the fascination of football is a symbol of the current conditions of society and the mental and social needs of its members. A characteristic of our time in the Western Worls is the rapid social change and the loneliness of more and more people. Essential drivers are the increasing complexity of the world, e.g. through digitization, as well as the mass of different possibilities an individual is facing.
Football offers a simple solution in the complex world. You do not have to do anything special except cheer on your football team. It offers opportunities for social integration as well as opportunities to experience tensions and to express emotions.
Everywhere is marketing and football advertising. In every shop you will be asked if you want soccer points or trading cards or similar scrap. The entire industry adapts the marketing to the event.
I have absolute respect for the performance of individual football stars under extreme mental and physical pressure. However, the show of some football stars annoys me extremely. Why are recklessness and spinelessness so rewarded in football? Good acting at the right moment can cause the next penalty shot that is crucial to the game. This behavior is provided by people who are role models for millions of fans.
The spectacle of Neymar in the World Cup 2018 is embarrassing and shameful. But he’s not the only one. I liked to follow football for a long time but these developments are anything but positive. This is childish behavior and should be punished much harder. I am sure that FIFA allows this acting to keep the World Cup interesting in the media.
Nowadays games often bore me. Physical fitness has increased dramatically in recent years. There are hardly any rooms left on the field and many games are often scoreless or undecided. I have no desire to watch these boring games that leads to 90 minutes of passing in the midfield. Sure, there are still good games like the final between France and Croatia.
I don´t want to offend football fans with this text. But I’m worried about the development of soccer in the last decade and the deification of football. I also reject that football is becoming more and more political and commercial. I want to enjoy the sport like in the good old days. What happened to the good times when the footballers were idiotic, suburban, subordinate men with unpeopled mustaches and could not say a single straight sentence?
Maybe it's time for important changes in the game. The introduction of video evidence was, in my opinion, very good for increasing fairness. What about reducing the number of players from 11 to 9? Or introduce a 2/3 line and abolish the offside rule?
What do you think about such adjustments to the game?
Thanks for reading!
Yours sincerely,
