Football the Essence of Humanity

 It’s 2:39 pm on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-September. I text a good friend of mine while I’m scrambling out of my classroom if he found us some seats. He has, there were only two left at the bar. I gather up my belongings and head outside, only a five minute walk from the school pub. The Scudetto badge on my Juventus jersey shines in the sunlight as I make my way to the building. The pub is packed to brim and why wouldn’t it be? It’s match day 1 of the new Champions League Season. I greet my friend, he’s already ordered us a pitcher of beer and a plate of nachos. I made it just in time to see beginning of the match. It’s Juventus facing Sevilla. There they were, the players walking out of the tunnel. The stadium turns into a sea of black and white, the tifo begins to assemble. The clean cut grass, 22 of the best athletes on the planet, the child mascots smiling, standing side by side with their heroes, there’s not a better sight anywhere on planet earth. Then I hear it, the Champions League anthem, the greatest song in sport. All of a sudden everything is a blur. The food in front of me, the people in the pub, my own friend next to me, disappear. I am transfixed on the screen. The anthem ends and the players take their place for 90 minutes of heart stopping action, thus another cycle begins.

People always ask me, “Why do you take football so seriously?” and my answer is, because it’s everything to me. This sport is a part of me, and it’s a part of billions of others worldwide. Football, soccer for the North Americans, trumps every other sport combined and it’s not even close. This is the only sport where people die for their teams, where best friends become enemies and families are torn apart. To rational people, this sounds absolutely ridiculous. How can a simple game mean so much?

Most would say that football is like a cult or a religion. It gives people something to believe in, something greater than them, clubs are a higher power. Stadiums are built like great cathedrals. Fans  flock here every Saturday or Sunday for their weekly ritual. They sing their songs, banners are unfurled, flares are burned and the worship begins as the referee blows the opening whistle.  Fans treat players and coaches like Gods and angels.

 My school of thought is something much bigger than a mere religion or faith. My staunchest belief is that football transcends sport and religion. Football is the essence of humanity. It captures human behaviour and thought and magnifies it on a pitch of grass. Allow me to explain.

As mentioned earlier, football is a sport where emotions run at an all-time high. Human beings as a species are inherently emotional. It’s what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Within 90 minutes of a football match, you are likely to see anger, joy, angst, jubilation, isolation and community. All these emotions contradict each other and yet they are present at almost all matches, no matter what the size of the crowd. Exactly like each human being, and like the cultures we have developed over time. This is not exclusive for the fans either. For the players themselves these emotions run even further.

The famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes in his book The Birth of Tragedy about the tension of an individual versus the collective. In football terms this represents an individual player and his or her teammates and the fans behind them. Nietzsche describes this with his concepts of Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian is the principle of individualism and the Dionysian is primal unity, the many that speak as one. In a football match is there a more powerful expression of these two extremes of existence than when a goal is scored? The goal scorer celebrates his or her individual accomplishment with euphoria that eclipses any of their individual concerns and thoughts, connecting him/her with the very energy of life itself.  His/her teammates celebrate their collective joy, all having contributed to the buildup of the play that resulted in the play while the fans, both in the stadium and watching at home share their joy, or despair if they’re cheering for the other team.

In addition to this, humanity has seen its fair share of evil and football is no different.  The game has become a platform for the dark side of humanity to be manifested. Hooliganism is still a concern in stadiums across the world. They commit random acts of violence for their “team”.  Are hooligans’ acts of violence any more different than gangs in our streets or inner-city vandalism?  Hooligans use football as an excuse to commit crime just as terrorists use religion as theirs. This is what separates football from other major global sports such as basketball and ice hockey. Fans of these sports just don’t do these kinds of things.

Take for example  in the late 1980s the rivalry between Napoli and Verona. Racial tensions at between Northern & Southern Italy were at an all-time high.  Verona fans held up a huge banner with a volcano that read “Forza Vesuvio facci sognare” translated as “Go Vesuvius make us dream”. That’s right, Verona fans were praying for Mt. Vesuvius to erupt and kill every Neapolitan. Napoli fans responded with their own banner “Giulietta puttana lorda”. Translation: Juliet, from Shakespeare’s play which took place in Verona, was a dirty whore. Both signs were grotesque and uncalled for. Sometimes we forget just how rough our world is or how cruel people are. The fact that football has been used as a platform for hate and racism is itself unique, as much as it is upsetting.

For the most part though what truly defines football is the way it has captured people’s lives over the centuries. It has made us dream, and hope for better. Even if we weren’t good playing it we would always connect to it. The simplicity of the game just two posts and a ball, nothing more is beautiful. The sport has allowed us to forget our troubles and make us feel like something greater. It connects groups of people especially ethnically like few other things. My father always smiles proudly when he recollects of the Italy’s world cup victory in 1982. After the final whistle 250,000 people gathered on St. Clair Avenue West a largely Italian neighbourhood to celebrate our team, and above all else our culture. At a time when Italians were still discriminated against we showed all of Canada what it meant to be proud of who we were as a people and that we too belonged in this society. I was fortunate to take part in this experience when it was repeated in 2006. The thousands of green, white and red flags burn in my memory, it’s still one of the greatest moments of my life.

To conclude, not all share in this love and passion for the game. There are those who think football is boring, cynical, and that the players are “soft divers”. Yet they will still tune into the World Cup and one way or the other they will know who the best players are, who the best teams are. You can’t escape what’s embedded in all of us. The innate passion and emotion the game instils in us.  Human beings were born to play football, to connect to its symbols and metaphors. Despite its simplicity football has changed. Several clubs have as much revenue as the GDP of nations. Technologies such as video replay and goal line technology are being introduced more frequently. As human beings begin evolve so too will the sport, because football is the essence of humanity.