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Editor's Note: Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of several books on international issues and collaborator in publications from different countries. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Director of NODAL, a portal dedicated exclusively to news from Latin America and the Caribbean. He is currently a TV columnist on the Argentine channel C5N and on the program "En la Frontera" on PúblicoTV (Spain) and on radio programs for the Argentine radio stations Radio10, La Red, La Tribu and LT9-Santa Fé. Throughout his career Brieger won important awards for his informative work on Argentine radio and television. The opinions expressed here are his.
(CNN Spanish) - The images are more than eloquent.
The gigantic masses of cement where angry crowds cheer on their idols today are empty and the so-called “soccer temples” fell silent almost all over the planet due to the coronavirus.
Although it is true that in the 20th century soccer was paralyzed several times due to wars, the feeling now is that it has disappeared. It seems incredible, but many people realize that they can live without soccer.
What if football disappears? Could it be a tragedy?
What started as a game and today is called "passion of the crowds" long ago it ceased to be a mere recreation linked to leisure and fun.
Millions of people now regret not being able to see their favorite team, but those who regret it the most are the business owners. These do not care about the passion for a club or the festive gathering that means for thousands of people to meet in a stadium and enjoy a sporting spectacle. For this reason, the ball must roll as soon as possible as in Germany, even if the stadiums are empty: since the only thing that matters is the business and the rights acquired by television companies and multinationals that sell advertising. There is no longer any need for an audience.
It is therefore necessary to ask what and for whom these 22 people who run behind the ball and are seen by millions of people around the planet play.
This suspension of football allows us to think a little beyond what is so visible. No one is no longer unaware of match fixing, bribes to members of the International Federation of Associated Football (FIFA) to get the headquarters of a world championship, the existence of billionaires of dubious origin who buy and sell clubs, the political use of sport , racism and exacerbated nationalism or the cult of virility, although women also practice it today, since it is "politically correct" to include them. In business, of course. All this without forgetting the organization of a "show" in the middle of the dictatorship, as happened with the 1978 world championship in Argentina.
Decades ago, soccer ceased to be a game that privileges social and playful encounters to be a simple business fueled by the passion of millions who watch their idols run after money. Sorry ... the ball.
Soccer cannot be straightened or reformed because it is a social fact that is the product of this society where everything is bought and sold, and where the footballer's body becomes a machine that squeezes to the limit in competition, to beat the opponent with a high rate of aggressiveness. It is the supremacy of the strongest, as in war. And this, little and nothing has to do with a playful encounter.
Can you think of a society without football? Of course. A society that eliminates the obsession with money will surely generate many alternatives, as has happened other times in history. The “show” of the gladiators of the Roman circus lasted for centuries, but it does not exist anymore and the famous Roman Colosseum is a beautiful architectural jewel that adorns the Italian capital.
The current suspension of football - and of other hyperprofessionalized sports - is an opportunity to claim the pleasure of the game as entertainment. Don't you think?
coronavirus