If you're a soccer buff, you're probably horrified by your endless reading about FIFA ruining the industry, the money corrupting it, the damage in the World Cup in Qatar, and the money from the Champions League destroying equality in it.
So here is what I saw yesterday (Sunday) in the city of Vallava in Spain, while Canada played Croatia: ten thousand people watching the game in the fourth division.
In the old stadium, you choose where to sit.
It was not full, and houses double the amount when the club is in more senior leagues.
In addition, it is also not some fantasy football experience but families walking together from the pleasant city to the field on the banks of the river near the city;
People with disabilities in wheelchairs, grandfathers with their grandchildren and even families of only women.
Ronen Durfan travels around Europe and experiences the World Cup with the fans - all the updates on the special Telegram channel
Even before the opening whistle, a big event was held to collect money for the fight against breast cancer.
Football, and this is not a cliché, is the center of life here.
Not a whim.
Not fashion.
Does not depend on success.
It doesn't matter if Recreativo and Lava are in the fourth division and it doesn't matter if there is a World Cup on TV.
A large and warm crowd in the field.
On the grass are two historic rivals: the number 1889 is on the shirts of Recreativo fans and the number 1889, and the club advertises on the most important advertising space for television - in front of the main camera - with the inscription "Decano de futbol" "Español", that is, "the dean of Spanish football", the first club in the country that was founded two days before Christmas and its establishment was actually reported in a Scottish newspaper in the city of Dundee - from where many of its original players came.
It turns out that in a local hotel a number of British merchants gathered with their Spanish colleagues and decided to play football - which according to the terminology of those days could also be interpreted as rugby.
So the parties debated between the rules of the "Football Association" and the rules of the "Rugby School" (an aristocratic school where the sport was founded) and went for football.
A moment of interpretation: that's good!
Spain has done a thing or two in this area.
*
Rival Sevilla-Atletico is the daughter team of the famous older sister.
In Spain, the clubs can place more than one team, with the limitation - it cannot advance to the league.
And if you want an illustration of the power of football in this country, Sevilla - not the national team, not Real Madrid, not Barcelona.
The two big teams dominated the Champions League in the 21st century but they also did it with a lot of money.
Sevilla dominated the second European enterprise - the Europa League, selling its players and coaches.
This is the enterprise that is less influenced by money, and more illustrates the power of medium-sized clubs.
And there she has no competition.
In the ranks of this reserve team, for example, Jezos Navas, Jose Antonio Reyes and also the great Sergio Ramos went their way.
Valva's ultras give a good atmosphere, but I find some knowledge of English in more passionate fans.
These are Sevilla fans who travel to the team's away games.
Most of the game they smoke and get up to cheer only for the equalizer.
Miguel says that the opponent always provides an amazing atmosphere and sad that it is only in the fourth division.
To the banal question of what is the strength of Andalusian football, he says: "Heart and weather."
On the stadium are the flags of Andalusia and the city, not of Spain.
This is very characteristic of Spanish football - the local pride.
But in Andalusia there is no conflict.
The sellers of the shirts outside the field also make a good deal from the "La Roja" shirts, on the day when the national team will defend the country's honor in Qatar.
Andalusia is one of the poorest regions in Spain but support for the federation is absolute.
This is also reflected in football: the national teams of the Basque Country and Catalonia, two of the country's wealthiest regions, play their own international match every year (usually in the days between Christmas and New Year) to demonstrate their independence.
Andalusia has only played four games since 2006 - when they met an Israeli-Palestinian team.
"Games when you need to collect money for something", Miguel explains the team that barely exists.
*
In the evening in the city, no problem of popularity of the World Cup is felt either: the crowds crowd the squares, people sit at the tables of the cafes in front of the screens while behind them are people whose hands cannot reach and have brought beer from home or shop at an open grocery store.
Another problem of football that does not exist in the city is the question of whether the younger generation is still interested in the game.
After all, he has a PlayStation and many other occupations, and Real Madrid brazenly says that a European Super League should be established to solve the problem.
In the streets of Valva the old men hang the flags on the balconies and wave to the children who gather in the squares.
Nor have they heard of positive trends here.
For example, on the rise in popularity of soccer among women.
There is no going up or down because there has never been a problem here.
Girls come in groups, with painted faces, even without partners to watch the team.
It's not because they play (the region is not known for women's soccer), but because watching soccer has always been here for everyone.
So why shouldn't there be high school students and children here?
18-year-old Gabi is already the best high school student in the world.
A footballer who grew up once in a generation.
If you are not Spanish.
Girls come too.
Football is for everyone, photo: Ronen Durfan
The German goal, in a game in which Spain should have won due to tactical superiority, did not upset the fans too much.
This particular squad is not yet destined for titles.
She took seven twenty-year-olds or younger to Qatar.
It's not even a project.
The link - the area of the pitch where the approach says you need veterans - consists of 18 and 20 year olds - Gabi and Pedri.
There is no more likely scenario than Spain regaining control of European national football.
And if you want another illustration of the future and power of Spanish football - scatter the birthplaces of the players on the map.
Andalusia, Valencia, Catalonia, Madrid, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands and the Benares.
All are represented.
Football is not more popular here or there, neither among minorities nor among the majority.
Not in patriotic and rooted areas and not in the ropes that are considering retirement from Spain.
There are no trends.
Football is simply the soul of this country.
And in Vulva he breathed his first breath.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ZH6GEEGTO7GQ27OPW2XP3TFYNI.jpg)
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/5SM63I2AQDE3IOEAMHCMGMKSNY.jpg)
