Football or soccer –the most popular game in the world! The World Cup, the Champions league, the Copa América, the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), etc. A game which, worldwide, moves many billions of dollars annually and whose primary controlling body, FIFA, has recently become the target of a massive corruption investigation, arrests, accusations, confessions, the re-election of its President who then resigns 4 days later. What a mess!!

But, when is a “game” actually a “game”? American baseball went through (still is?) a long period of muscle building drug problems and my one time hero, Lance Armstrong, fell from his pedestal to ignominious disgrace. Cricket (not croquet!) players have been banned for life for “cheating” –causing an incident to happen at a precise time so as to impact betting on the “game”. Drug usage, once thought to have been removed from the Olympic arena remains big business.

I remember when rugby was called rugger and it was played by amateurs, even at international level, who had “proper, paying jobs” to pay the bills. Even Snooker, not a sport followed by the masses, has had its problems with match fixing.

So, why do we still use the word “game”, as in “it was a good (or bad) game” or “Messi was outstanding in the game between Barca and Real”. It is not a game; it is WAR played to a code of conduct which is, partially, enforced by a referee and his assistants and then judged by the totally impartial (!) commentators, press and public. Yes, it is war where the participants and the players’ coaches, managers, representatives will work hard to ensure that battle is won.

We have Fair Play and say NO to racial abuse campaigns, but then there is spying, the hiring of lip readers, deflated footballs (American type) for easier passing…; basically “anything goes if you can get away with it”. If it is war then a match is simply a battlefield: “winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing” –fairly or otherwise, it doesn’t seem to matter.

In football (soccer!), a relatively innocuous (harmless for the slow of learning…!) tackle is turned into an Oscar winning short drama of dives and roles and limb grabbing (leg, arm, head) designed to convince the referee of the implied deviousness and aggression of the offender. You really could make a documentary, to the music of Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky for the culturally out-of-touch) showing the truly magnificent performances of players who were never even touched, but won a free kick or even a penalty through their artistry. T’would be fun…. In this age of totally professionalized sport, from beach volleyball to synchronized swimming to that most exciting of all “winter games” curling….why do we not call a spade a spade. It is WAR!

How do I know this? Very simple; the wars of bygone years were fought between communities with armies raised locally to fight another King or Baron or Lord or Chieftain or Tribal Leader. These locally raised armies have now become the fans who gather to witness their gladiators destroy the other side, the enemy. Antagonist songs are sung to the praise of one side and to the detriment of the other. The pickings of victory are money, trophies, chants of abuse and often violence.

And scandal is not just confined to team sports (“sporting”= fair, generous, honorable!!); remember the 1994 attack on American skater Nancy Kerrigan where her main competitor hired someone to break her leg?

Perhaps we should keep the word “game” for what you and I do at the weekends or in the evening. Hopefully we just “play” (= have fun, fool around, amuse yourself) the “game” (= pastime, amusement, entertainment) in a very sporting manner.

Yes, winning is fun, but then someone always has to lose! I remain amateur in every way possible.

SANTIAGO ENELDO
(Abuse and wisdom to [email protected])