The lack of self-reflection

 Vinicius Junior, the outstanding Brazilian player of Real Madrid, may not be a gentleman on and off the pitch, but he is certainly causing a stir in Spanish society with his accusations of deep seated racism in Spanish society, following the many racist chants he has suffered during his time in Spain. Lately, he has gone as far as saying that the World Cup of 2030, to be hosted by Spain, should be moved because of racism in Spain.

Of course it is nonsense, and the World Cup should not be moved.

That said, the reaction from large parts of Spanish society baffles me, because they viciously attack Vinicius for being ungrateful, a liar, an egoist, a provocateur, and worse.

And this is frankly baffling; because Vinicius Jr. may be exaggerating in what should be done, and he has even said that only a minority of Spaniards are racist (something he is absolutely correct about), but he is calling for a reflection by Spanish society that they absolutely refuse to see! 

Because while it is a minority, there is absolutely racism in both Spanish society and it becomes quite explicit in football, and it is something that they should do something about instead of becoming defensive and most often saying that other societies are more racist (they may be right, but someone else's sins should never be an excuse for your own).

Spain is not a racist country. But it needs to do something about the racism that exists, specially in football, and that is the core of Vinucius Junior's criticism, and is at the core of what Spanish football appears to refuse to accept.

A Death Foretold

 

Marcelo Bielsa is already a legend as a Manager and Football thinker, and his recent reflection on the decay of the football game is as timely as ever as we await the two finals tomorrow of tournaments which seem to confirm the grim future of the game.

Paraphrasing another great Latin American, this is the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and I agree as I have been watching (and blogging) football for 20 years.

We have increasingly seen in these tournaments that teams are more afraid to lose than with a desire to win, so they largely retreat in a tactically result-oriented style. Some teams try to play more open, but they seem naive as they fight against the tide of boredom; in the meantime you have teams with a great amount of individual talent who treat their players like robots who are not to enjoy or entertain.

And let us face it, players contribute to this decay as well as the gentlemen of the game have all but disappeared: they act, they cry, they protest, they fight, play dirty. It is amazing how VAR has come in and not being used for this, but I also understand it: it seems incredible that we need to treat highly paid grown men as little children.

And VAR... I am not against it per se, but I have said before that it is being used completely wrong. It is being used to justify decisions that will always and have always been subjective, like a penalty, as well as searching with a microscope for faults where they were never seen before and where nobody protests. The blind faith in technology is only creating more doubt and distrust about the game as idiotic conspiracies flourish like never before.

Is it money? Of course it is. The people who can afford to go to a game are not your average income guy. Do you think that people who were in Charlotte for the Colombia-Uruguay match were the bottom of the Latin American income scale? No. And add TV rights, commercial deals and propaganda, and we have the explanation for all the things happening that are undermining the beauty of the game, just as Mr. Bielsa underlines.

Football has totally overtaken religion and politics as "Opium of the People", and as such it has been grasped by those in power as a way of controlling societies. Do these people in power fix matches? Is there a grand conspiracy to make certain teams win? No. But the spread of these conspiracies is useful to take attention away from other of societies' problems. 

We, the fans, are as guilty too. We are puppets. We let them control our primitive tribal instincts to hate other teams and other nations; the worst human instincts. We love being the martyrs, being rightful losers who fought against an evil force, and will never congratulate or thank another fan for a good match. And if we win we will rather insult the losers than recognize that in fact we need two teams trying to win to enjoy a game! (people who say, "I hate them because they defeated us" have in my view not really understood the point that it would be rather boring if they did not try to defeat us....).

There is no such thing as friendly competition in football any longer; it is war and you are judged by who you support - the Political Culture Wars taken to the most primitive level. 

It is a fact that football fans will rather see a team they hate lose than see their own side win. How fucked up is that!?? 

This is an angry rant indeed; but the decay of football is a symbol of the decay of our societies: tribalism, discrimination and hate are the order of the day, and in football we can't even any longer be happy for a beautiful play no matter who does it and a friendly taunt is always seen as an insult.

A sad state of affairs, and I do not have much of expectations of tomorrow's finals, even though I will watch them over beers with my cats and hoping that I get a bit of the happiness that made me fall in love with Football back in the day.

Football and swine flu

The panic that is gripping the world as we face a global swine-flu pandemic has hit football! (I guess we cannot remain an island from the rest of society, as much as all football fans would love to).
In a match in the Copa Libertadores between the Mexican side Chivas and the Chilean side Everton, a Mexican player snotted and spit on on a Chilean player, while saying he would pass him the swine-flu (check it out: http://www.marca.com/2009/05/01/futbol/futbol_internacional/1241159445.html - it is really disgusting)

Don't you just miss the days when players would just get into a good old fight...?