The fool and the superstar

Robert Lewandowski is a superstar. Rodrigo de Paul is not. The Argentine is, on the other hand, a good but highly overrated footballer. He is so immersed in his own insecurity that he completely lacks the respect that should be intrinsic in any sport. More than anything, it is just sad that manners and mutual respect are missing elements in this modern world, also in football.

How is it going?

I have really tried to enjoy the World Cup; trying to find that magical feeling of a tournament that has defined my love for football. I have been to two of the matches in person, enjoying the atmosphere and beautiful stadiums. I have had beers over matches and been to fan zones and bars in four different cities in three countries; I have read, listened, talked and written about the tournament.

How is it going as we enter the round-of-16 phase of knock-out matches?

Not good. 

While the good things generally outnumbered the bad things four years ago in Qatar, there are too many bad things about the tournament to enjoy it:

• 48 teams are too many; too many poor sides and defensive matches that will barely be remembered. A few good moments on the pitch, but it is too far between them.
• VAR: the technology continues to be used far beyond its original purpose. Instead of settling controversies, it just deepens them, as it is clear that most decisions have a level of referee discretion. It thus becomes an excuse for referees not to make decisions, as well as a waste of time, rather than the tool it could be in selected situations.
• Hydration breaks are a terrible symptom of the excessive commercialization of the World Cup; an excuse for commercial breaks that directly damages the flow of the game. 
• Prices: I lived this myself; prices of tickets, but also of everything surrounding the tournament, from increased consumer prices and cable network subscription packages that include the World Cup. I am not suffering economically, but can see that the peoples’ sport has become exclusive to a rich globalized minority.
• The fans: A video has been circulating showing a Mexican woman who, unprovoked, pours beer on two Ecuatorian fans before the Mexico-Ecuador match. Social media has poured its collective punishment on the woman, who is said not to represent Mexico. Obviously she does not, but she does represent a growing part of football culture: ignorant supporters all over the world who have been herded like sheep by social media and FIFA's commercialization of nationalism to see football less as a shared celebration than as a way to express hostility towards others.  

Football does not unite.

Perhaps that is what saddens me most. I have spent this tournament trying to rediscover the feeling that made me fall in love with the World Cup as a child. Instead, with every match, I find myself feeling more distant—not only from the tournament, but from the world that has grown up around it.

20 Years of blogging!

Time flies. 

Twenty years ago, on June 16th 2004, Facebook had just been founded but not become a global phenomenon. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp did not exist yet. Lionel Messi had not played his first match for FC Barcelona, while a young Cristiano Ronaldo was starting his career in Manchester United. Spain had never won a World Cup, Manchester City did not belong to the Abu Dhabi Group, and FC Porto had just won the Champions League.

I was also a nerd (as I still am), finishing my Masters degree in Denmark, and wondering what the future would bring...

I had a World Cup football website since 1998, but blogging was a new thing, where people could write articles about whatever they wanted. So I started blogging, inspired by my friend Stig, who blogged about cool stuff, but I decided to be a nerd and blog about football, just as the 2004 European Championship had started, and Denmark had tied Italy.

How much has happened since then! I don't know what I would have thought if someone had said to me that 20 years later I would still be blogging ("get a life"!?).

As these twenty years feel to have flown by, I have gone from a young sexy student to a middle aged bald and chubby professional; I have gone through ups and downs in life as well as in football, something that I have expressed in this blog (and sometimes not), but in the end, this blog, with more than 1500 posts, has been here following me as I have seen and experienced many changes in my life, the world in general, and the footballing world in particular!

Sometimes I blog, sometimes I don't. Whenever I feel like it. Blogging is no longer cool; it is like writing with an ink-feather after the invention of the printing-press. But here I am, an old ugly fart, writing about a thing that is special to me, football. 

Football, no matter where I have been, at what time, across cultures and generations, it is a common reference point anywhere in the world. That makes it even more special, and I will try to keep blogging about it, amid my ups and downs...

Thanks if you take the time to read this.

COVID-19 suspension?

As the COVID-19 virus continues to ravage societies in Europe, many have gone into renewed lockdowns. Although football continues to take place under protocols without spectators, the increasing reports of infections among players have led to discussions as to whether football should be suspended, just as it was last spring.

The discussion is one about what football is for: is it sufficiently important for society so that it should continue? 

As lockdowns pushed people's mental stability, the argument goes, football represents an escape from the reality of quarantines and fear of disease. I find this a strange argument: football has always and will always be an escape for the millions and millions around the world who struggle every day, but who love football. In this regard, football resembles more a religion than the entertainment sport it really is. So if Churches remain open, perhaps football should too?

Football is a mirror of wider society, but at the same time footballers are entertainers, and people see them (right- or wrongfully, mostly the latter), as examples; in this regard football has failed: they take measures not to shake hands at the start of matches, but they, when goals are scored, one sees them hug and kiss, and at the end of the matches hugs and handshakes are exchanged freely. While this does not mean that young strong men will get COVID-19, the example for a society struggling to contain the virus is not the right one. Furthermore, as more reports of sick players appear, one has to wonder whether many of these young men ignore protocols both inside and outside the pitch, and this represents not only a bad example, but a societal risk. 

Football has many societal costs; this should not be another one to add to the list.

Corona versus Humanity

If Humanity's fight against the Corona virus were a football match, Humanity would be 0-45 down at half time (only because you cannot score millions of goals in football) with no possibility of a comeback. This is because Humanity fielded a team of useless players, all of us, hardly knowing the rules of the game.

If one is down 0-45 at halftime, there is little doubt about who will win. It doesn't matter if you put in the best footballers of all time to play for their lives: you will lose. And lost is what humanity has against Corona. All there is to do now is just to lie down and wait for the defeat not to be too painful.

Don't ever expect to go to watch football again. Much less travel to an away game.

The Covid-19 infected

I heard that Neymar and Angel DiMaria have been diagnosed with Corona virus. I wish them a speedy recovery following the disppointment of losing the Champions League final. This just confirms that everyone can get this virus. It is increasingly frustrating that it does not seem to retreat as the world tries to reopen and we eagerly look forward to moving around freely, and for the privileged few like myself (as well as Neymar and DiMaria), to travel to Europe. That said, don't forget that many people do not have that freedom with or without a virus.

Football suspended and Corona Virus

While I have not watched any football for a long time I could not help to notice that even the arrogant world of football, untouchable and innocent, has had to take into account the arrival of the Corona virus. Football all over the world has been suspended, with people not even knowing if the major leagues can be played to the end, or whether we will even have a Champions League final this year (so far it has been postponed one month). Both national team tournaments, the European Championship and the Copa America, have been postponed to 2021.
Maybe it will be possible to get tickets in UEFAs totally weird ticketing system....

Football is the least relevant of the victims of this virus that is hitting hard on the entire world. Personally I am stuck alone in a big house, alone in a country where I have no friends nor even a moment of comfort or a good laugh. I am frankly already sick of it, and have started daydreaming of the day when I will jump on a plane, see family and friends, and forget this period of my life.
In the meantime, as other people, I try to make time pass (I have even written again on this near-dead blog....!!), reading a lot of books and playing Playstation. I have even taken up Fifa19! (wow, maybe that will lead to another post in a few days!).

Stay safe and cool out there if anyone ever reads this.