The World Cup opens today in South Africa, showcasing a nation, a continent, and The Beautiful Game. Soccer is more than a game in much of the world. It can unite and inspire, for good and for ill. It has paused wars, and also ignited some.
It is a microcosm of us.
More below the fold....
The Beautiful Game, Part I - Or Not (Plus Kossascopes)
This week Morning Feature considers soccer through the lens of Franklin Foer's 2004 book How Soccer Explains the World: An [Unlikely] Theory of Globalization. Today we'll explore the dark side: fan violence and club owners who treat the sport as their personal fiefdoms. Tomorrow we'll celebrate what The Beautiful Game can be, and what it can teach us and our children.
Soccer is by far and away the world's most popular sport, and like Franklin Foer, I'm a fan. While I share Foer's love for FC Barcelona, my "home team" is Manchester United, mostly because they're owned by the same family who owns my local NFL team. The Red Devils had won the English Premier League the past two years, but this year were a close second to Chelsea. That's what happens when you sell a talent like Cristiano Ronaldo. Worse, they sold him to FC Barcelona's arch-rival, Real Madrid.
If that's the worst thing the Glazers do as owners of Manchester United, they have no reason to apologize for their involvement in soccer. Unlike some others.
Hooligans and Hitmen
Many Americans remember the English soccer hooligans of the 1980s. Their often ghostwritten autobiographies dominated the sports shelves of English bookstores. Their motives were studied by sociologists who offered explanations ranging from disaffected working class 'male honor' to neotribalism. The reforms spurred by those tragedies contributed to a renaissance in English soccer, whose Premier League has become a standard for success.
The English hooligans also inspired a darker legacy, spawning imitators like Zeljko Raznatovic - "Arkan" - who parlayed fan violence into ethnic cleansing. A Serb who grew up in Tito's communist Yugoslavia, Arkan fled a harsh father at age 16 to live as a petty criminal in western Europe. His crimes were less memorable than his often-dramatic escapes, which garnered such notoriety that he could no longer remain at large. He returned to Yugoslavia and reconciled with his father, whose connections led to a job with the secret police. State security recruited criminals for tasks like assassinating exiled dissidents elsewhere in Europe, at which Arkan soon excelled.
That led to his assignment to Red Star Belgrade, the professional soccer club whose government patron was the state police. Arkan cracked down on feuding fan gangs, and organized them into a paramilitary force he titled the Delije, which translates approximately to "heroes." Petty fan violence ended, soon to be replaced by worse horrors. As the Yugoslav state began to split, the Delije became the Tigers: Arkan's hand-picked Serbian terrorist army, singing Red Star fight songs as they slaughtered Croats and stole anything they could find.
Arkan became rich from the Balkan wars. When Red Star's owners refused his offer to buy the club, he founded his own. His club, Obilic, briefly rose to prominence, in part due to the extravagant salaries he paid to lure top talent, and in part due to his still-tightly organized fans' extravagant violence that terrorized opponents. Murdered in 2000, Arkan remained a Serbian hero until the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic led to a crackdown on organized crime. Arkan's widow Ceca fell from pop icon to common criminal. Her benefit concerts had helped fund death squads in the 1990s, and after her husband's murder she had run Obilic as her personal bank.
Owners and Oligarchs
She was hardly alone in that. From the cartolas (top hats) in Brazil who skimmed tens of millions of investors' dollars, to the match-fixing scandal that shook Italian soccer in 2006, oligarchic owners have sullied the sport as much as have hooligans.
Brazil is the birthplace of many of soccer's most celebrated players. Soccer is Brazil's passion, yet professional matches happen in almost empty stadiums. Their best players go to European clubs. Brazilian clubs cannot match European salaries, and until recently many of Brazil's famous stadiums lacked basic amenities like enough restrooms. Upgrades to some came only when engineers realized that fans urinating in the bleachers - rather than wait line at the few, crowded, and filthy restrooms - was corroding the metal supports.
This despite the steady inflow of cash from selling the world's best young players, and from investors who believed Brazil's league could become the world's standard. Much of the money goes to the cartolas, owners who resist any attempt to open their clubs' account books. That, the cartolas insist, would reduce the clubs to mere businesses rather than cultural treasures. By spending just enough of the clubs' money on civic projects, the cartolas manage to be both obscenely wealthy and revered as heroes of the working class. But their stadiums are still largely empty, and their best players in European club uniforms.
In Italy, perennial champions Juventis and AC Milan were suspiciously lucky in the penalty area. Their strikers often drew fouls that yielded penalty kicks, even when replays showed no contact. Their defenders fouls, by contrast, seemed invisible to referees. Small surprise, as until the committee that assigned referees consisted of two people: one selected by the owners of Juventis and AC Milan, the other selected by other league owners. Referees often retired to jobs in Italian media outlets owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who also owns AC Milan. Or they found work in one of the many firms that made up Fiat, whose owners also owned Juventis. See this, don't see that, and things can work out nicely.
What had long been suspected was eventually proved when Italian prosecutors produced transcripts of recorded conversations between Juventis general manager Lucianno Moggi and other Italian soccer officials. Juventis were relegated to Serie B, a lower league, while AC Milan and several other teams were banned from European competition for 2006-7. Silvio Berlusconi remains a media mogul and Italy's prime minister, though in 2009 the country's top court overturned the law he had pushed through parliament ... granting him blanket immunity from criminal prosecution.
From thugs in the stands to thieves in the suites, soccer can mirror the worst of the human spirit. But as we'll see tomorrow, it can also mirror the best.
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Speaking of mirrors, the Janitor Professor of Astrology says the stars are mirrors of the future. But he's always been a little cracked....
Gemini - This is a good weekend to watch others exercise. Like last weekend.
Cancer - Actually no, you can't drink from the World Cup. It has a globe on top.
Leo - Many great soccer players are Leos. Many Leos are not great soccer players.
Virgo - FIFA's world ranking system is bewilderingly complex. Did you create it?
Libra - Not everyone blames you for Manchester United's finish this year.
Scorpio - The legendary Pelé is a Scorpio. Go kick a bicycle for us.
Sagittarius - Let's start with fundamentals. The ball is the round thing.
Capricorn - Sweeper is a defensive position, not a janitorial tool.
Aquarius - There are 11 players on a soccer team, and 11 months you weren't born in. Coincidence?
Pisces - Fullback is the correct position for your recliner. Restfully.
Aries - A corner kick is how you hide dust bunnies. Skillfully.
Taurus - A through ball does not involve piercing. Thankfully.
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Happy Friday!
Crossposted from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute (BPICampus.com)