Football. (What the rest of the world calls football, not
what Americans call football. Football is a game in which the ball is mostly
propelled by being kicked, not thrown, which is why it’s called football. I
digress.)
I understand why some people are keen on the game, since it
offers the prospect of vicarious success in a life largely chained to a dreary
treadmill. And I understand why football fans treat the fortunes of their
chosen club and the national team with some degree of seriousness, ‘some degree’
being the operative phrase.
One of the TV channels tonight offers an hour long programme
on ‘Barcelona’s Greatest Goals.’
This is followed by another whole hour entitled ‘Twenty Goals that Shook the
World.’
Shook the world?
The Japanese tsunami shook the world. The ending of
apartheid shook the world. The discovery of Nazi concentration camps shook the
world.
Should I go on?
2 comments:
Agreed. I feel the same way about American football; it's made into an entity to great in proportion to what it actually is. But people need to be distracted somehow.
I've watched professional sport change even over my lifetime. It's become a multi billion dollar section of the entertainment industry, and is structured and marketed appropriately. Sport has become a high level, marketable commodity. It isn't really sport for its own sake any more.
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